This year marks the 30th anniversary of Honda’s Type R badge and last month, the Japanese automaker celebrated the milestone with a special event at the Motegi circuit.
The gathering attracted no less than 219 Type R models, all of which participated in a parade lap around the racetrack. The lap was led by Max Verstappen in a 2022 Civic Type R and followed by Sergio Perez in a 2002 Honda NSX-R, Yuki Tsunoda in a 1998 Integra Type R, and Pierre Gasly in a 2009 Civic Type R.
Since the inception of the Type R nameplate, a dozen of Hondas have been adorned with it. The first was the 1992 NSX-R, followed up by the 1995 Integra Type R, 1997 Civic Type R (EK9), 2001 Civic Type R (EP3), 2001 Integra Type R, 2002 NSX-R, 2004 Integra Type R, 2007 Civic Type R, 2009 Civic Type R, 2015 Civic Type R, 2017 Civic Type R, and the new 2022 Civic Type R. An Accord Type R was also produced in limited numbers for the European market.
Present at the celebration was Shigeru Uehara who led the development of the original Honda NSX and the Type R variant.
“When I created the Type R with the original NSX in 1992, I didn’t expect it to last this long,” Uehara-san said in a statement. “Following the NSX, in 1995 we created the TYPE R with the Integra, a lightweight sports model, followed by the Civic, and overseas, the TYPE R also appeared in the Accord. The spirit of TYPE R has been inherited for 30 years, and it is thanks to the support of our fans that we have been able to create a TYPE R that meets the needs of the times.”
