Filed under: Aftermarket, Tuners, Sedans/Saloons, Japan, Honda, Tokyo Auto Salon
2008 Tokyo Auto Salon: Mugen Type-RR Experimental Spec
Click the image above for a high-res gallery.
One of the other concepts that graced Mugen's stand in Japan at the recent Tokyo Auto Salon was the Civic Type-RR, which in addition to the obvious replacement of the entire front clip with carbon fiber pieces, also includes a K20A engine that's been bored out to 2157 cc to create a more tractable powerband and an even higher redline. 260 horsepower and 173 lb.-ft. of torque is sent to the six-speed gearbox and down to the front wheels through a LSD. Naturally, the brakes and suspension have been upgraded to handle the extra grunt, while carbon fiber was used inside to beef up the structure. Mugen also added a system dubbed I-TCMS, or Intellligent Tire Condition Monitoring, which keeps tabs on the tire's air pressure and temperature. The dash mounted instrument cluster might be a big impediment to forward visibility, but we're sure it's nothing compared to the price.
[Sources: LeBlogAuto, Nihon Car]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Seoultrain 5:33PM (1/17/2008)
those headlights look like a nice mix of mazda6 and impreza
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TwinTurbo3000GT 11:00PM (1/17/2008)
mix my @$$...those look like pristene mazda 6 headlights...
but the question remains...why? for what you spend on that, there are tons of better cars, no matter what your looking for...drag, track, looks, economy, etc.
Rob 5:51PM (1/17/2008)
Seriously... c'mon. I mean for real. And Grandma's Camry V6 will probably smoke it in a straight line. No, please don't give me another 100 hp... what we need is tire temperature monitoring. But I do look forward to seeing Type-RR Experimental on ebay.
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Rob 5:55PM (1/17/2008)
Sorry, meant "But I do look forward to seeing Type-RR Experimental emblems on ebay"
Still... wow. Why stop at the front clip anyway.
PS - Don't bump into anything... $5000 bumper!
Reuben 6:01PM (1/17/2008)
Gotta agree, freaking hideous, and I love Honda/Mugen's rep for adding all sorts of bodywork, colors, coilovers, and huge wheels but at best a light addition of a few horses.
MemphisNET 6:00PM (1/17/2008)
Forget 100hp more, give me another 100 lb/f torque.
Meh, nice exercise, but this only serves one purpose : Hot Import Nights
tekdemon 12:29AM (1/18/2008)
Mugen works more on the handling of the vehicles, not so much in raw power.
You have to realize that a lot of the work they did was so that the car would handle better-that's why only the front half has carbon fiber panels-it's to help bring the car closer to 50/50 weight balance by lightening up the front that's already heavier due to the engine bay. If you make the entire car CF you'd most likely muck up the weight ratio even worse, because now the entire car is lighter and the engine makes the balance skew even worse towards the front.
Also, by not adding a turbo/supercharger/whatever and limiting horsepower mods to boring out the engine, they're keeping the engine lightweight-again to make sure handling doesn't suffer.
And there's no point saying how other cars can beat the Civic in a straight line drag race-it's a frickin' FRONT WHEEL DRIVE SPORTS CAR!!! It's not meant to be a drag racer, but it's pretty decent at cornering due to it's LSD that'll bias power to the outer wheel when turning (to compensate for understeer due to FWD), and the mods Mugen did here are just to help enhance it's cornering abilities further.
This car would likely be right at home on an Auto-X course, where Grandma's Camry (or heck, my Camry...which can't really be particularly aggressive at cornering thanks to body roll) would be a much worse choice.
Different sports use different equipment, and this sports car isn't meant for drag racing, or rally racing, or NASCAR racing, or drifting, or about a bazillion other random sports.
That said, the real problem with Mugen is that it's insanely expensive for what they do, but that's kind of the whole appeal anyway (that they're the ultimate Honda tuner).
Temple 12:36AM (1/18/2008)
Seriously, all jokes aside, the V6 Camry is actually very fast. In fact, it gets 5.8 sec 0-60 times and cand do the standing ¼-mile in 14.3 sec.
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/12404/2007-toyota-camry-v-6.html
AlmsFan 10:29AM (1/18/2008)
This car is geared for the Hot Import Nights demographic, in that respect it knocks that out of the park.
Personally I get the same queasy feeling seeing a nice vet ruined with corvette summer body kit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Corvettesummer.jpg
Vaughn 5:58PM (1/17/2008)
That is probably the most riced out factory tuner vehicle I have ever seen by far! Disgusting...
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naggs 5:58PM (1/17/2008)
a $50k civic that is no where near as fast as cars that cost thousands less and are more streetable
most extreme 4 door family sedan EVAR!!1
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David(Postal) 6:10PM (1/17/2008)
Wow now that is some real rice.
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Ducky 6:17PM (1/17/2008)
The current Civic Type-R does 0-60 in less than 6.5 seconds, and on the racetrack it decidedly knocked out the RX-7, GT-R and Mitsu Evo 6 (Time attack on Best Motoring at the Tsukuba circuit). It even beat out a 350Z and S2000 in the corners and in a straight line on Suzuka Circuit! That car costs less than $23K IIRC in Japan... this one though... I'm not so sure. Mugen has been churning out lots of crap lately, to be frank.
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Lawrence 6:53PM (1/17/2008)
A client of mine took his Si, instead of his Ferrari due to unforseen circumstances and actually smoked most of the Ferrari's; and that was a regular Si. This a steriods version of that in less weight and more power.
Reader 8:25PM (1/17/2008)
Your friend has nothing on me. I take my Ford Pinto (stock) out all the time when I don't feel like driving my Veyron, can barely tell the difference.
In all seriousness, I can begin to believe Ducky's statement, but hold off on the Ferrari-Killing Civic now.
nagmashot 12:54AM (1/18/2008)
The 1:07.9min Tsukuba laptime 225hp Civic Type R was running on 245/40 R18 Bridgstone Potenza RE55S WTH semi slicks... that has nothing to do with compare to other stock production cars..
Part 1 of the Tsukuba track compare by best motoring
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4BFk0gtuALE&feature=related
Part2 of the Tsukuba track compare
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OJ7CYOB09eY&feature=related
every hot hatchback would perfrome that way using such tyres
Ducky 8:58AM (1/18/2008)
On that particular episode, yes, it was running semi-race tires. However, I'm talking about another episode:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nHW82ozR71M
http://drive.gtchannel.com/?c=127&a=1516
It's not like the GT-R wasn't using race tires to set its 7:38 on the nurburgring... and it's only 4 seconds faster than the Z06
Daniel 6:17PM (1/17/2008)
I agree, this car does look pretty revolting with that front end. But you honestly can't say that the car is not impressive numbers wise (except for that torque number...).
And naggs, there's very few cars that are faster than this under 50k. You're probably spot-on considering streetability though
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John R 6:24PM (1/17/2008)
I'm sure its fun, I bet that thing wails like a banshee....but it looks like one too. Egads.
260hp and 173 lb-ft. What I wanna know is where the red line is on this one, 15,000?
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why not the LS2LS7? 7:12PM (1/17/2008)
Me too.
Torqueless wonder, but I'd hit it hard.
HP is HP, even with no torque if you have the right gearbox you'll be quite fine on the track.