Honda of Japan - Motegi Racetrack - Super Street Magazine

The best way to describe the Civic R is to liken it to a first skydiving experience or first-time bungee-jump. It's one part unadulterated fear, one part pure adrenaline, and one part euphoria. Let me put it another way: Look at its brother, the Integra Type R, as the more refined, dignified sibling. I never thought I'd refer to the Integra R as refined in any context. But compared to the Civic R, the R Integra comes across like a Sunday school student. And the Civic Si? Not even in the same family. When the Si was released, someone at the press conference asked a Honda executive why they didn't call the Si a Civic R? The answer was that the cars were totally different. Now I fully understand that statement. The Si spent too much time in finishing school. I doubt the Type R lasted a week in any school. It makes no apologies for what it is. It's more driving fun than anything we have here in the States. I'm seriously thinking of relocating.

The Parking LotNot all the action was happening inside the race venue.

A walk out into the parking lot served to reaffirm my belief that we here in America have second-tier sports cars. To prove my point, I shot a small sample of what was in the parking lot at the Motegi racetrack, as well as at the Collection Hall and the Fun Fan Lab.

Behind "Behind The Scenes"
What would a trip be without a view from behind "Behind the Scenes"?

Real Racing
Our time at Honda R&D was only the beginning our driving fun. From R&D, we head out to Honda's Twin Ring Motegi race facility. When Kurt told me several weeks prior to leaving that we were going to drive Honda Side-By-Side race cars, I had visions of glorified karts in my head. Wrong. The side-by-sides are legitimate open-wheel formula race cars with sequential six-speed transmissions. Sign the waiver, grab a helmet, and we are once again out on a track pushing yet another Honda product to its limits. OK, some of us are pushing, while others are just trying to keep up. Does it matter that I've just been passed by every other journalist and Honda representative on our tour? No way. Does it matter that I just spun out. No. What matters is that after two complete spins I manage to keep it on the track. I consider that progress.

We climb out of the cars to make room for some of Honda's better drivers. Juan Montoya, Dario Franchitti, Paul Tracy, and Tony Kanaan take our seats and show us the real limits of the cars. I'm proud to say that Tony Kanaan took my car off course and into a water barrier. He said he was just trying to wash the mud off. When I used that excuse, no one believed me.