Which means our winner, by a unanimous decision, is the Honda Civic Type R. The composure and effortless precision of the Civic are sensational, and much else is five-star quality too, from the brakes to the gearshift to the seats. Its depth of ability makes it a remarkable car by any measure.
‘You sense that every single individual involved in its development was on exactly the same page, from the people who make one of the world’s best gearshifts to whoever engineered the click of the heating controls,’ says Ingram. ‘If Honda could somehow engineer-in some of the old naturally aspirated character and sound, it’d be damn near perfect.’
‘It feels like a bigger car now,’ says Taylor, ‘but I love the clarity of it, the feedback through all the controls, the precision of everything. It’s become a cliché, but it really is the hot hatch equivalent of a GT3. Objectively, it’s probably the best front-wheel-drive car I’ve driven.’
The Civic Type R is simply sublime, the most polished, poised and accomplished hot hatchback of all time, and it ensures that the time-served and much-loved internal-combustion hot hatch genre goes out on the highest of highs.
