Watch Honda Civic Type R Bang and Bash its Way to Nürburgring Record

The engine revs spike when the drive wheels get off the ground. The undercarriage scrapes rudely over many, many curbs, and the driver whipsaws the wheel back in line as the Nürburgring keeps trying to spit him out into the rolling green forest of the Rheineland-Palatinate. But at the end, seven minutes and 44 seconds after he started, the unnamed and anonymous Honda Civic Type R driver had set a new front-wheel-drive record for the storied German race track.

A couple of caveats for all you guys who insist that grapefruit must be eaten in halves: the car was fitted with Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 Connect tires, which are “available” at dealers but do not come stock on the Type R. The tire was “jointly developed with Michelin using know-how amassed through the development of the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S, which is the standard tire on the turbocharged hot hatch.”

It doesn’t look like it has a roll cage, and we can’t tell if they removed any of the seats or the a/c, and the information released by Honda doesn’t say. Let’s assume it’s all stock but the tires. Regardless, a pretty cool achievement.

The record they broke was their own, too, set by an earlier Civic Type R in 2017. At that time, the measured distance was actually 761 feet shorter, which accounts for the 2017 car’s quicker time of 7:43.8.