Slipping, Sliding in a 2023 Honda Civic Sort R at Sonoma Raceway

To point out us what the brand new Honda Civic Sort R might do on the monitor, Honda invited us to Sonoma Raceway for a day of lead-follow. To guard the valuable inhabitants of automotive journalists, YouTubers, bloggers, and web site phrase artists, Honda’s manufacturing facility driver Ryan Eversley took it straightforward. Whereas Eversley defined some fundamental monitor etiquette to us influencers, heavy rain turned parts of the monitor into an above-ground pool.

Sonoma Raceway, previously Sears Level, is a playground of peaks and valleys with a drag strip down the center. A 2.5-mile street course with 160 ft of elevation change, Sonoma has waved checkered flags for 52 years. From Dan Gurney’s 1970 IndyCar to Kasey Kahne’s NASCAR Dodge Charger, Sonoma has hosted all of them and is a beacon of automotive enthusiasm among the many valley’s 14,000 acres of wine vineyards.

The Championship White Sort R we lapped wore the usual Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. Whereas these max-performance summer time tires are an incredible wet-weather tire, we had been however approach down on grip in comparison with the tires’ tenacious dry traction and ready to tip-toe our approach up to the mark.

Embrace the Drama

Moist laps train an essential lesson on clean throttle software. As you get extra snug, you notice driving within the rain is only a dramatized model of what works when it is dry. Breathe onto the throttle as a substitute of stomping, and the CTR will reward you with a sooner nook exit. Climbing up and out of Flip 2 meant taking lots of curbing. Exiting that space requires severe throttle self-discipline within the rain to stop traction loss when making use of the Civic’s sturdy 310-pound-feet of torque.

The Sort R’s magic grew to become extra evident as nook exits started to dry. Get the entry proper for the huge downhill by way of Flip 6, and the lateral g’s skilled when exiting the legendary Carousel within the CTR at full blast will make your eyebrows tighten. On the drier laps, the Sort R’s limited-slip differential shined with placing down far more energy than we thought doable. Fear of oh-no, this is likely to be too quick is changed by rattling, I assume we’ll strive that sooner subsequent time.

Not like the far-tamer 200-hp Civic Si, the 315-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter within the Sort R buzzes louder when revved. That makes it a lot simpler—even whereas sporting a helmet—to sense when it is time to shift. The shift lights atop the gauge cluster are also a transparent indication, however this automotive is loud sufficient to not want them.

Honda up to date its shifter base for the brand new CTR, and it delivers crisp adjustments. Somewhat than stirring Legos with a plastic fork, the Sort R’s throw into the subsequent gear feels snappy. Honda’s reworked computerized rev-matching works effectively on slower laps and is a useful assist when studying braking and turn-in factors. With it off, the extra footwork required to blip the revs your self feels extra pure, although not as constant.

Even when the apexes have stuffed with rain water, racetracks are powerful to go away. Whereas our time at Sonoma with the CTR was as brief because it was candy, it will not be our final likelihood to kiss the curbing with one. And we’ll hope for kinder climate at Virginia Worldwide Raceway for this yr’s Lightning Lap.