Quick twin test: VW Golf GTI Clubsport vs Honda Civic Type R

VW’s 40th birthday pressie to fast Golfs is a massively more focused GTI that looks identical to the 306bhp ’Ring-record-setting Clubsport S. This non-S has 261bhp in first and second gear, but overboosts to 287bhp in third and above for 10sec. Makes real downforce above 75mph too.

Before VW’s Clubsport broadside, Honda’s 7min 50sec dash across YouTube’s favourite German circuit was the front-drive benchmark. Small wonder: the R’s 306bhp, deployed through a mechanical diff, is pasted on the road by the most brutal aero ever applied to a hatch.

Photography: Simon Thompson

This is the Clubsport’s ace card. Yes, it’s stiffer than a boggo GTI and its exhaust barks more coarsely, but it has a Jekyll side. Relax into a cruise and it’s freakishly composed and polite. Easy about town too. It's, well, as good at just being a Golf as any other Golf. This one's a DSG, but you can save £1,500 and have a manual to match the three pedal-only Honda.

The Civic's habitablity is always more demanding than the Golf, and really varies with the weather. If it’s wet, the airstream flicks grime at windows and mirrors until the car turns opaque. Whatever the weather, track-bred ride is too firm to handle UK roads, so it gives away traction earlier and suffers bigger deflections. Got a bigger boot than the Golf, though.

The VW? Oh no. You’d better be a GTI nut, in fact. A basic three-door is £2,445 over a Golf GTI Performance Pack, and a scant £250 less than the 296bhp, 4x4 Golf R. Adding this car’s DSG and fab bucket seats? £34k, ta.

Considering you bag another 45bhp, (less clever) adaptive dampers and bucket chairs as standard, bang-on £30,000 for the Civic Type-R is mega value. You pay extra for non-red paint and trinkets like nav and leccy folding mirrors, but all the bits that make it exciting to drive are standard, as they should be.

This is way closer than you’d think. The GTI Cubsport's throttle response is sharper than the Type-R’s so your net power deficit is lower, yet traction is better, it’s far more playful at the limit and the damping compromise is nigh-on perfect for Britain. Sounds way fruitier too. The Editon 40 is a great step-on from a normal GTI.

The Honda is a very different car. The Honda doesn’t care for lift-off oversteer, audio titillation or delicate handling nuances. Five minutes in the Honda reveals it's all about grip, speed and feels weapons-grade as a result. So it’s a lot more wearing, more one-dimensional, but wow, what a dimension. Boost rush and gearshift are addictive, so you'll want much more than five minutes to conquer it.

Both of these are manically excting hot hatchbacks, but the Honda is very much in the track-day mould, and you'll feel that on every run to the shops. The Golf is a little less frenetic flat-out but counters with superior everyday ability (these are family hatches, after all), a more indulgent chassis balance and a cabin that feels every penny of the extra cost. As an all-rounder, the GTI Clubsport Edition 40 takes the win by a fractional margin, just like the Clubsport S did in the Nurburgring record stakes.