The FD2R Might Just Be The Best Honda Civic Type R Ever Made, And I Want One Badly

If I’m looking at motors for sale online, I frequently experience a phenomenon I like to call used car classifieds escalation. To explain it, I’ll use the example of my trip to the classifieds last night. I started off looking at a car I’ve genuinely been considering: a DC2 Honda Integra Type R. Then I think ‘hmmm, I did always prefer the styling of the DC5,’ and suddenly the budget is upped to accommodate the DC2’s successor.

After that, the realism of this originally legitimate car hunt goes completely out the window, and I’m looking at examples of the FD2 Civic Type R, a bonafide JDM hero I most definitely can’t afford, yet sorely want. But why? Let me take you back to 2007 to explain.

This was the year of the FN2 Civic Type R’s launch, which hasn’t gone awfully well. It had the same power output as its EP3 predecessor yet more weight on its spaceship-like frame, it ditched an independent suspension setup in favour of a simpler torsion beam affair, and was known for having ruthlessly harsh suspension. Its lukewarm reception is why we left it out of our recent EP3 vs FK2 Type R battle.

Probably the most annoying thing about this lacklustre hot hatchback is that us lot in the UK were at the same time being denied a sensational version of the Civic Type R available in Japan: the FD2.

This was a very different animal. Its saloon body was 50 per cent stiffer than the DC5 Integra’s, its 222bhp 2.0-litre engine more powerful than the lump the FN2 was lumbered with, and its suspension setup a proper, independent jobby.

It’ll do 0-60mph in under six seconds, but really it’s the handling that’s the impressive thing. The ‘FD2R’ (as it’s sometimes called) represents the pinnacle of Honda’s front-wheel drive chassis engineering nous of the time, something proven by the car lopping four seconds off the DC5 Integra Type R’s lap time at Suzuka.

It’s the hardcore, tarmac-terrorising thug the limp FN2 always should have been, and it’s a car I’d love on my driveway. The issue, as I’ve already alluded to, is the cost of buying one: as these were never brought to the UK by Honda, supply isn’t what you’d call plentiful, and its reputation was lofty enough to mean the ones that are around aren’t cheap.

This one is actually still over in Japan, but is yours in the UK for £15,990 via import specialists Torque GT. A fairly hefty figure, sure, but it might just be worth it.