Silverstone, Northamptonshire - Honda’s Type R Challenge has continued its so-far undefeated progress across Europe by setting a new lap record for a standard front-wheel drive car at Britain’s premier circuit.
Three-times British Touring Car Championship winner Matt Neal, who is currently racing a Civic Type R in the 2018 series, took the Challenge car round the fast and flowing 5.89km circuit in 2m31.32s, beating the benchmark set by the previous generation Civic Type R in a similar challenge in 2016.
This is the third stop on the Challenge tour, but it’s actually the fourth lap record for the current Civic Type R. In April 2017, a production development car became the fastest front-wheel drive production car ever around the Nurburgring Nordschleife with a lap time of 7m43.8s.
This year’s Type R Challenge started with World Touring Car driver Esteban Guerrieri setting a new mark of 2m01.51s at the Magny-Cours GP circuit in France, followed by Bertrand Baguette’s record-setting 2m53.72s in the same car at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium.
The driver line-up for the remaining Type R Challenge 2018 lap record attempts will include former Formula One world champion Jenson Button and World Touring Car driver Tiago Monteiro.