Fancy one of the wildest front-wheel drive hot hatches on the market? You had better be happy with what’s left on the showroom floor, if there is anything.
Honda Australia has confirmed the 2021 Civic Type R is no longer available to order.
There are only limited numbers of the current-generation Type R still coming to Australia and all have already been allocated to customers.
The Type R received an update in October 2020 which brought a range of aesthetic and mechanical changes, albeit with a $3000 price hike.
Upgrades included retuned suspension and adaptive dampers, as well as Active Sound Control which either enhances or subdues the car’s sound depending on the selected drive mode.
The front end also received some stylistic tweaks, while inside the updated Type R added an Alcantara-wrapped steering wheel and an updated 7.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system.
Outputs of its 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine were unchanged at 228kW of power and 400Nm of torque.
Fortunately, the Type R will live on locally even as Honda Australia trims back its model range somewhat.
Honda has confirmed the new, 12th-generation Civic, expected before the end of 2021, will continue to be topped by the Type R.
It hasn’t confirmed launch timing of the hot hatch, which will no longer be built at Honda’s soon-to-be shuttered Swindon plant in the UK.
Instead, Type R production is expected to move to the US, though the rest of the new, hatchback-only range will likely continue to be sourced from Thailand.
While we’ve seen what the regular hatch will look like thanks to spy photos and leaked renderings, and the sedan has been revealed in virtually production-ready guise, the Type R’s appearance remains a mystery.
The regular Civic has received a dramatically new, if much more subtle look with cleaner sides and more restrained front and rear end styling.
Whether the lairy Type R will also lose some of its racier details isn’t yet known.
2022 Honda Civic sedan prototype 
When it gets here, the Type R will go up against a range of updated or redesigned vehicles.
There’s the GTI version of the new Mk8 Volkswagen Golf coming in May, with a more powerful, all-wheel drive R due in early 2022.
The Hyundai i30 N has scored a facelift and its first-ever automatic transmission, an eight-speed dual-clutch unit. It’s expected to launch in the third quarter of 2021 and will be joined by an N version of the new i30 Sedan.
The Renault Megane R.S. Trophy received some upgraded equipment earlier this year, while the Ford Focus ST saw some deletions at the same time.
