Since its introduction as a 2018 model, the latest Honda Civic Type R has sort of been the standard by which other compact high-performance cars are measured. Heck, we even led off a track test of the Hyundai Elantra N by mentioning the Civic R in the first sentence. But does the mighty R still deserve to be mentioned as …
To the Track!
On track the Elantra felt composed and pushable, although maybe not quite as urgent as the Veloster. The Elantra adds about 3 inches of wheelbase to the Veloster, and that could explain why it had less of a willingness to jump into a corner–but understand that we’re talking about fractional differences here, and track and environmental conditions could have had just as much of an effect.
Overall, the Elantra N was an exceptional track companion, with fantastic steering feel and a perfect steering ratio for the capability of the chassis. It’s a car that does an excellent job of feeding info back to the driver and responding to inputs consistently and exactly the way a chassis is supposed to.
While that sounds like something every car should do, that’s not always the case. And even when it is, communicating the dynamics to the driver is frequently a muddled game of telephone that requires learning a specific language to understand. The Elantra, on the other hand, just speaks physics.
This extremely communicative nature makes things like corner entry under trail braking a real joy, with excellent feedback coming from the brake pedal, the wheel and the chassis itself. And remember, we’re heaping this praise on a car with factory alignment settings and 240tw tires. Throw some camber and better rubber into the mix, and performance will only improve.
Regarding lap times, the Elantra trailed behind the Veloster N by about 0.6 second, with the Civic Type R evenly splitting the difference between the two cars. Diving deeper into the data, the Veloster appears to be making up the time during corner exit in a couple of slower sections, being quicker to get the power down out of tight corners.
These two traces show how the Veloster N (red trace) slightly outpaces the still impressive Elantra N (blue trace). The Veloster N was faster through the high-speed kink (1), resulting in a faster exit and higher top speed at the end of the next straight. Both cars, however, had excellent entries into the…
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