The 2023 Honda Civic Type R Has Grown Up

As Formula One rolled into Austin’s Circuit of The Americas—a $300 million Grand Prix palace—last week, I was about 30 miles down the road at a small club track called Harris Hill Raceway, awaiting my turn to drive the new 2023 Honda Civic Type R. A group of us stood near Harris Hill’s front stretch, watching lines of Type Rs zip by in hypnotizing rhythm.

“It kind of looks like an Accord, doesn’t it?” someone nearby quipped. I laughed—not because it was necessarily true, but because it underscored how subdued the new Type R looks, particularly. For a car meant to be tracked, shifted, and shown off.

But when I got in the driver’s seat, I realized I'd been looking at it the wrong way.

The 2023 Type R is the high-performance take on the current, 11th-generation Civic. It’s only the second Civic Type R model to come to the United States, and it packs 315 horsepower, 310 lb-ft of peak torque, a six-speed manual, a standard limited-slip differential, and a lighter flywheel, with oddly mature exterior styling. The new Type R’s soft, smooth lines blend into traffic rather than screaming through it—a major departure from the last model, which looked like a sharp, angular child’s toy waiting to cut your hand open if you picked it up.

To me, the outgoing Type R’s adolescent looks made it special. It leaned into the “hot hatch” identity, unafraid of what adults thought. So when the new car appeared looking like an adult, I worried it might lose its magic.

I strapped on a white, faceless helmet and walked up to my Type R for the day: a “Championship White” model that I’d get to drive for a total of six laps around Harris Hill’s swooping 1.8-mile layout. My mind raced with the thought of whether I’d like it, love it, or even have enough time to decide.

But when I got in, those worries vanished. I no longer saw the car around me, only the track in front. I sunk into the car’s deep red seats, which Honda calls “racing inspired” because they look like racing seats but aren’t. Racing seats are hard, uncomfortable, and pinch my hips, while these racing-inspired ones were thick, cushy, and hugged me instead—the perfect combination.

Last week was my first time in any Type R model, and it was a breeze to drive. When I turned the car on and nudged the shifter slightly out of neutral (which I was aiming for) to look for sport mode on the options menu, I didn’t even notice that the car stalled. It was undetectable—no lurching, no intense feedback when I took my foot off of the clutch. Just a quick, silent, non-jarring death.