If they don’t keep the weight down on the new CTR (new standard Civic is heavier) they might have a situation where the new model is a bit slower than the 10th gen. It has happened before with CTR’s (EP3 to FN2).I did hypothesise elsewhere that they would not be able to match / exceed the times of the 2021MY / 2021LE 10G's with the 11G CTR given the limited changes to the overall platform and powertrain and have avoided releasing the times to avoid overshadowing the release.
The tires were changed, however the stripped interior is only half the story, they stripped out enough interior to make up for the weight of the roll cage that was added in.The Type R that made the record was preproduction car (read: not stock) with stripper interior, Cup 2 tires, etc. It’s verily likely a stock LE would not be able to top that car otherwise Honda would have surely put that in its press release.
If they don’t keep the weight down on the new CTR (new standard Civic is heavier) they might have a situation where the new model is a bit slower than the 10th gen. It has happened before with CTR’s (EP3 to FN2).