The current road-going Honda Civic Type R looks like teenage anger bottled up into a car body, leaving people split on how they feel about its looks. But it didn’t take a new generation for the Type R to put on some adult clothes. It just took making it into a race car.
This Type R will compete in the British Touring Car Championship this season, and, according to a press release from the series, it’s testing in this all-black look until livery unveilings at the end of March. But without a racing scheme, it’s easy to see just how much better the race car looks compared to the street car. This Type R looks like it has that same, unending anger—it’s just learned how to put on a poker face and get its revenge more creatively than it did in the teen years.
The BTCC race car looks calmer, with its wide-bodied fender flares seeming to slump the car into a more relaxed stance along the ground. The nost of the car really does skim lower to the pavement, too.
(We could consider the fender flares to resemble weight gain after high-school graduation, but, hey, that just ruins the vibe we’re going for here.)
Type R tuners, you might have just found your next modification. Widen up its fenders, ditch the ultra-glaring storm trooper contrast and you could graduate your Type R from angry teen in the principal’s office to successful adult who never let anyone cross them the wrong way—you know, from Honda Civic Type gRrrrrr to Honda Civic Type Rrrrrrrr (rolls tongue).
Or you could just get an Accord.