Civic Sedan

Make
Honda
Segment
Sedan

While us lusty Americans were forced to watch from the sidelines of YouTube, lucky Brits had the opportunity to buy and drive an example of physical proof that Honda still cares about enthusiasts, embodied in the Honda Civic Type R. Now that the ninth generation Civic is on its way out, that means that the famed Type R will be phased out of production along with it. To help make the goodbye a bit less awkward, Honda went ahead and built the Type R Black Edition to commemorate the Nurburgring-stomping hot hatch.

The 100 unit strong Black Edition will be built for the UK market, helping round off the total production run at 2,500 units. Unlike Mercedes' line of Black Edition cars, the Civic Type R Black Edition's performance comes from an untouched engine, meaning the 2.0-liter four-cylinder VTEC engine makes the same 306 horsepower and 295 lb-ft of torque. This pushes the Type R Black Edition from standstill to 62 mph in 5.7 seconds and helped lap the Nurburgring faster than any front-wheel drive car previously had until the Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport came out and beat it. It would be foolish to expect the Type R Black Edition to look any more subdued than its more normal relative despite the fact that the Type R is already as polarizing as they come.

Meeting these expectations are red accents strewn about the cabin to match the red rear wing end plates (the name Black Edition seems pretty misleading right about now). These units will be priced at 32,300 GBP ($39,334 at today's exchange rates), the same as a Honda Civic Type R GT. While we're not 100 percent sure what to expect from the next generation of Type R, we know a few facts about it, the most important of which is that it will be coming to America. As far as we know (which is as far as Mitsuru Kariya, the Civic's head engineer has told us), the next Type R will remain front-wheel drive and come with only a marginal bump in horsepower. Regardless, we hope it's the game changer its predecessor was.