The new Honda Civic Type R is a masterpiece of track-ready hot-hatch insanity, but when it comes to simple burnouts, it’s not the best. Even with 2016 Indianapolis 500 winner and ex-Formula One driver Alexander Rossi behind the wheel, the new Civic Type R just didn’t want to smoke the meats.
The Hoonigans brought Rossi and the new Civic Type R over to their Donut Garage to put it head-to-head for some fun but brief shenanigans against a Honda S2000. (Jump to about 6 minutes in for the ultimate Honda hoon-match.)
Rossi’s Civic Type R can lay down lots of elevenses, but has trouble spinning in place despite having both VTEC and a turbo. It takes soaping down the pavement and a herd of Hoonigans to hold Honda’s newest wonder-car in one place. Even then, the car seems to be confused as to why you wouldn’t want to translate all those revs in to forward movement.
While the new Civic Type R lost to the S2000 in the world’s shortest standing-start drag race and also couldn’t roast its tires like the beloved S2000, it was shockingly good at one thing: speeding in reverse.
That speed in reverse gear and Alex’s post-attempt comments about the car going into limp mode seem to suggest that the car would be better at reverse donuts than burnouts. If you decide to test this theory out (or if you can do a better Civic Type R burnout than Alexander Rossi), drop us a line with the video: tips@jalopnik.com.