Last week the jaws of motoring enthusiasts were left on the floor after a Honda Civic Type R set a new best time for a lap around the iconic Nurburgring circuit, besting the previous time by an impressive half-second. Now, this record Nurburgring lap has been called into question following allegations of modifications to the Honda Civic that allowed it to cheat the stipulated rules.
There was already some controversy surrounding the new best time of seven minutes and 44.881 seconds after the Japanese automaker confirmed the Honda Civic Type R used was actually an ultralightweight Europe-only edition called the ‘S grade’, which is missing features such as air conditioning and infotainment to save weight. It was also driven on non-stock track tires that Honda doesn’t give the option of, adding further asterisks to the new front-wheel-drive lap record.
However, Nürburgring driving instructor and YouTuber Misha Charoudin has alleged the car used to set the time had been modified even further to allow additional turbo boost while in certain gears, as well as the possibility of it being equipped with different gear ratios to the production model. This theory was supported by commenter Luca Crestini, who offered a comprehensive analysis of the record pinned by Charoudin.
“To support the theory of gears being shorter than the production model, take the frequency you can hear (produced by engine or speakers) at the same speed both in [French magazine L’Argus] l’argus video and in the lap record video,” explained Crestini. “In the lap record, in 6th gear at 237km/h the car creates a fundamental frequency of around 205hz, which means the engine is turning at around 6150rpm.
“In l’argus video, in 6th gear at 237km/h the car creates a fundamental frequency of around 190hz, which means the engine is turning at around 5700rpm (confirmed by the display reading 5600rpm). As long as the clutch is fully engaged, there is no external factor (other than rim/tire dimension, diff ratio and gear ratios) that could change the engine speed – wheel speed ratio (so it’s absolutely not the weight that’s making the difference).”
When asked for comment about the allegations by Drive, Honda Australia responded, “We have been advised that aside from the removal of the features mentioned (previously), there are no additional specification differences between the current Type R available for Europe and the S Grade.”
No comment has yet been offered by Honda Japan or Honda Europe, but Charoudin’s video makes for fascinating viewing.
