One of the most revealing drives of 2007 for me has to be the JDM Honda Civic Type R. The white 4-door sedan I took for an afternoon drive on the roads of Izu and Hakone in Japan proved that new sports cars are not all losing their focus. Every aspect of the JDM Civic Type R has been tuned and developed to offer one thing only — driver involvement. The first time you hear the 225 PS (or about 222 HP) 4-banger change timbre as you hit the iVTEC zone is all that’s needed to fall pray to its intoxicating lure. You can’t help use every gear until you nudge the 8,000-rpm redline and push the impressively stiff chassis and taught suspension set-up to the very limit. Honda should be very proud as they have without a doubt created the most impressive front-wheel-drive performance car the world has ever seen. That was the case up until the middle of September, however, when the racing division of Honda, Mugen, released a special limited-edition version of the Civic Type-R. Behold the Mugen double R.
Only 300 Mugen RR’s are being built and are strictly limited to the Japanese market. And as Mr. Kawase of Mugen told us, the car was sold-out very shortly after it went on sale. So its exclusivity is on par with its impressive list of modifications. It looks very similar to the 2005 Civic Dominator Concept built for the Tokyo Auto Salon, which was powered by a supercharged version of the K20A putting out 300 PS (296 HP). The Dominator was a little bit too extreme for the road though, so Mugen knew they had to be more realistic for the RR. With the standard Type R engine being so close to perfection in the way it is set-up and built, there was little room for massive power gains. Nonetheless it was possible to increase power to 240 PS, a 15 PS jump that equates to 120 PS/Liter. This was achieved through some careful balancing of the intake and exhaust sides of the engine.
To start off with, the Mugen K20A breathes through a larger carbon air-box, which is fed by a ram-air intake system. This scoops air directly from the passenger side of the bumper, providing positive pressure once the car gets up to speed. To take advantage of this enhanced breathing the engineers developed a pair of camshafts with more profiled lobes, which would allow more air to enter the highly compressed (11.7:1) combustion chambers. To help valve performance all springs were upgraded. Things were just as thoroughly revised on the exahaust side too, including a free-flowing 4-2-1 exhaust manifold built from high quality stainless steel. This was joined by the Mugen-developed sports catalytic converter and then on to the center section, which has a sub-silencer and an expansion chamber for better flow. The exhaust system ends with straight-through twin silencers, etched with the Mugen logo on their shiny polished surface. A specially-tuned ECU handles all engine parameters. Peak power is achieved at the same 8,000-rpm point as in the standard car while 218 Nm of torque (up 3 Nm from standard) are achieved 900-rpm higher at 7,000-rpm. Quick shifter aside, no modifications are made to the gearbox nor to the torque sensing helical LSD.
A lot of attention was given to the suspension with newly devised adjustable dampers. These offer a total of 5-adjustments ranging from aggressive street use to occasional track days. These are combined with stiffer springs, which also lower the car by 10 mm at all four corners. Brakes have also benefited from some fine-tuning in the form of slightly larger diameter slotted rotors with a perforated center bell for additional cooling. These together with the high-friction Mugen pads offer massive stopping power while the braided stainless steel lines give a well-weighted progressive pedal feel. Helping shave off 10 kg off the weight of the Double R are these gorgeous 7-spoke Mugen 18-inch forged aluminum wheels, wrapped in 225 section widtch Bridgestone RE070 tires, the same extremely sticky rubber that was used on the NSX-R.
Aesthetically the Mugen RR is instantly recognizable, due in large part to its eye-catching Milano Red color, the same shade used on the 2005 Civic Dominator Concept that Mugen built for the Tokyo Auto Salon. Driving it on the streets of Tokyo, and people just can’t help but stare. Mugen spent a lot of time devising an all-new body kit for the car, since a simple redesign of key parts of the body was just not going to cut it. Saving weight and linking the car to Honda’s efforts in racing pushed Mugen to use a lot of carbon composite. After all, Honda enthusiasts waiting for the production version of the 2005 Dominator Concept weren’t going to like it if the car didn’t have some carbon detailing! And so Dome was called in to lend a helping hand. These are the same people that create the carbon body parts for the Super GT NSX as well as Formula Nippon cars.
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