This is an easy car to feel comfortable with. The Type R is particularly good at making its driver feel at ease, and doing so quickly.
First impressions are that this is a more synthetic experience than previously, in the same way that the Toyota GR86 is compared with its GT86 predecessor. Not in the way it handles, but in, say, the slickness of its steering, which weights-up and responds in such a well-refined manner that torque steer is largely wiped out, and the torque feedback that does reach the rim is full of messages you do want, about how much traction is available and when it’s going to run out. I suspect only electric rather than hydraulic steering can be tuned to that extent. Similarly, the engine plays some of its sound through the speakers, also synthetically.
But beneath both of those new facets there is still a fantastically capable car that has added real breadth of usability to how it rolls down the road, especially on poor surfaces. There’s little of the hardness that marked the previous car out, particularly in Comfort, but even in Sport or, on better roads, +R.
The Type R has to it a compliance the old car could only dream of. Yet it doesn’t inhibit the immediacy of responses or, therefore, its appeal as a driver’s car, because, while it’s a more mature experience, it’s still a thrilling and engaging one. The old abilities are still here, they’re just wrapped in a more approachable demeanour.
That’s not to say it’s like a Volkswagen Golf R, which is involving but ultimately numb and non-adjustable. When conditions are poor it’s not always easy to get a feel for what a car’s balance is like, because it understeers too readily.
But despite this the Type R both tells you exactly what its front end is up to, and will loosen the rear if you trail the brakes or lift the throttle, in the way that the best ‘old’ hot hatchbacks – by which I mean Ford’s or Renault’s RS models – did. The Type R moves around communicatively and easily.
Brake feel is strong. The gearshift is excellent. All of the things that made the outgoing Civic Type R still the best big hot hatch (the Toyota GR Yaris being the best little one) are all retained here, enhanced even, just with the less accommodating bits turned up too.
