2021 Honda Civic Type R Suspension Walkaround - See The Engineering That Gives It Epic Handling

The 2020 Honda Civic Type R debuted several new improvements that have been carried over to this coming model year, including the 2021 Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition. But there has always been clever -- not to mention unique -- suspension engineering hidden within the wheel wells of this performance-tuned Honda Civic. The Type R is much more than a Civic with flared fenders, big tires, Brembo brakes and an insane wing. No, some real thought has gone into how to make this car really perform while also putting 306 horses of turbocharged fury through the front wheels alone. Normally, such a combination would create a ton of torque steer that the driver would have to tolerate and drive around, but here, the result is a fast front-drive car that is predictable and engaging to drive.

Not only that, the hidden suspension that makes the Civic Type R handle so well looks fascinatingly weird. In this video I’ll pull the wheels off and explain how it works. But I’m also going to go a step farther than that because this time I have a second set of Type R suspension parts that I lay out on a bench for a closer examination. Not only that, I’ll compare the front suspension of a normal Honda Civic to what they've specially engineered for the gonzo Civic Type R. Much of what you’ll see helps to understand why some of the changes made to the 2021 Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition -- such as its lightweight wheels that further reduce unsprung mass -- have real value.

Why am I doing this? Two reasons.

One, I’m a lifelong Honda Civic fan. Back in the day I used to race a 1988 Honda Civic CRX (yes, technically the CRX had the Civic name on it) and a 1989 Honda Civic Si. I’ve never owned or raced a Civic Type R, mainly because that model wasn’t offered for sale until car the I’m examining here debuted in 2017.

Second, I geek out over suspension stuff. I'm a former suspension development engineer that somehow stumbled into auto journalism, and for several years I created a popular photo feature called a Suspension Walkaround for Inside Line, a now-defunct offshoot of Edmunds.com (no relation). Today I have resumed writing these features under the name Suspension Deep Dive for Autoblog. Between the two outlets, over 100 of them have been published. Along the way I managed to grow a good-sized fan base, and one question I often heard was, “When are you going to make video versions?”

I never seemed to have the time, the equipment, or the confidence to get in front of the camera, but I got over that by hosting at least 80 professionally-produced videos over three years on the Edmunds YouTube channel. If you like this, please tell your friends, click subscribe, share links, give it a like and check out the other videos on my channel, which is simply called Dan Edmunds. You can also type in the channel’s alias: SuspensionTuna. And I take requests. I can't promise that I can get my hands on any car or truck, but the odds are good. And the more views I get, the more horsepower I'll have when requesting cars to examine.

Видео 2021 Honda Civic Type R Suspension Walkaround - See The Engineering That Gives It Epic Handling канала Dan Edmunds