Less than two months before its U.S. launch, the 2017 Honda Civic Type R has claimed the title of world's fastest production front-wheel-drive (FWD) production car, setting a new benchmark lap time at Germany's legendary Nürburgring. On April 3, 2017, a Civic Type R lapped the 12.9-mile Nordschleife (north loop) in a record 7 minutes 43.80 seconds. This new benchmark time represents an improvement of nearly 7 seconds compared to the previous-generation (European market) Type R, and over 3 seconds faster than the previous FWD record