There’s no denying that the Honda Civic Type R is an amazing car on the street and on the track. I drove it up Pike’s Peak and was astonished at its capabilities at 12,000 feet, but it’s even more impressive at a lower elevation – even down under. Honda just broke another record with the Civic Type R by setting a lap record at The Bend Motorsport Park in Australia, which was then broken again by the Civic Type R Limited Edition.

A professional racecar driver piloted the Honda Civic Type R around The Bend

While the 2021 Honda Civic Type R is a beast of a track car with almost any driver behind the wheel, it’s much better when it’s put in the hands of a former professional driver. According to Motor1, TCR driver and former Australian GT Endurance champion, Tony D’Alberto, piloted the standard-issue Honda Civic Type R around The Bend Motorsports park first and set a lap record of 2 minutes and 13.251 seconds around the 3.076-mile international course.

After setting the record, D’Alberto then jumped into the Civic Type Limited Edition and ran the track again. This time, he set a new record of 2 minutes and 12.60 seconds, which is only a 0.99-second faster than the time set in the regular Type R. But as every true racer knows, every second counts when it comes to lap times.

Why was the Civic Type R Limited Edition quicker than the regular one?

The Civic Type R Limited Edition has a few enhancements over the standard car. For starters, Honda used less sound deadening around the cabin to save weight and then added a set of BBS forged aluminum wheels wrapped in Michelin Cup 2 tires to save even more. In total, 50 pounds of weight were shaved off the Civic Type R to make the lighter and racier Limited Edition.

But that’s not all. In addition to shedding some pounds, Honda also recalibrated the car’s steering and revised its suspension dampening to make it an even sharper performer. The beauty of that exercise isn’t just the fact that the Civic Type R LE is quite the looker in its Phoenix Yellow paint job, but rather that it can put all of those modifications to use on the track and yield real results. Even if those results only equate to a 0.99-second difference. Again, every partial second counts.

Is the Civic Type R LE worth the money?

Not in these current car-buying times. I say this because the 2021 Honda Civic Type R has a starting MSRP of $43,995, which is an outstanding value considering Honda only produced 600 copies of it. However, there are currently dealerships and online retailers selling them for around $60,000 to $70,000, which is getting into high-end sports car territory. In that case, it’s not really worth buying it unless you want a collectible to throw around a racetrack.

Even if that’s the case, I would still recommend buying a regular Civic Type R as you’ll spend far less on it for arguably the same type of performance. After all, it was only a 0.99-second difference.