Driven: Mugen Civic Type R

We take Honda's extreme hot hatch for a spin on UK roads

When we first tested the Mugen Civic Type R prototype in Japan around this time last year - the first journalists in the world to do so - we declared it to be surprisingly approachable as well as insanely grippy and manically amusing.

We were also told that final development for the car would be done in the UK by Mugen Euro - so we even had some hope that the undoubtedly rock-hard suspension set-up might be tweaked to allow a little pliancy for the bobbly British B-road.

So it was with some anticipation that I set out onto the Great British road network in the £38,599 (yes, it really is that expensive) Mugen Civic Type R. The good news is that, in many ways (its engine, gearbox and Velcro-tyred grip levels to name but a few), the Mugen Civic is utterly spellbinding. The bad news is that the ride has not had even a modicum of adjustability or comfort dialled into it - it would genuinely not surprise me if the set-up was as stiff as the suspension in Matt Neal's BTCC Civic.

On urban roads the Mugen Civic nods its nose as you drive, in the manner of a race-spec Porsche 911 (or, less charitably, a poorly suspended Max Power reject), and the weak-of-back will find the suspension sufficiently stiff to actually be painful in town. At higher speeds on dual carriageways and motorways the ride becomes bearable, but it always remains busy and fidgety.

Question is: does this jarring ride spoil the Mugen Civic? The answer depends on how far you live from decent driving roads, because if you live within 45 minutes drive of a half-decent country road, the smile the Mugen Civic is capable of putting on your face is easily worth the osteopath bills.

Firstly, the engine and gearbox are predictably brilliant. The tweaked exhausts lend the Civic a raw, gargling howl, while the 239bhp and 157lb ft of torque (spread more evenly across the rev range) finally give a Civic the power and torque to feel fast everywhere, rather than at just ten-tenths. Likewise the oily yet mechanically precise gearshift makes hunting for the upper reaches of the rev range a pleasure rather than a chore.

The chassis also proves its mettle when you start to hurry on. The turn-in, agility and sheer mechanical grip of the Mugen Civic are truly astounding things - I know it's an awful cliche, but this thing really does feel like it has driven straight off a race circuit. There is precious little roll, an almost instant response from the steering, and the limited-slip diffferential gives you all the confidence you need to start ringing the engine's neck nice and early as you come out of slower corners.

On the right road, then, and if you're in the right mood, the Mugen Civic is a truly epic machine. We didn't get the chance to try it out on track, but I've no doubt it would be enchanting on the circuit too - and that's not something I would confidently say about many front-wheel drive cars.

But here's the really weird thing about the Mugen Civic: if I was making a car that was so obviously uncompromising in its dynamic set-up, I would have taken the same approach with the interior. Why are there rear seats? Why no roll cage, six-point harnesses or lightweight perspex side windows? The thing is, if you're prepared to spend almost £40k on such an extreme hot hatch, you're almost certainly prepared to suffer a few creature discomforts in the name of performance.

It's a cracking driving machine the Civic, but you can't help feeling Honda and Mugen ought to have gone just that little bit further.