BUSINESS owners with an eye for a company car with a difference should take a look at the latest version of Honda’s Civic Type-R, unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show.
The car at the show is a concept, giving clues only to the styling of the next Civic pocket rocket, but the way they are talking proves the new Type-R will be a world away from what’s gone before.
the new Type-R will form an essential part of Honda’s campaign to make its cars more appealing to younger buyers
Previous Honda Type-R models have always been muscled-up performance versions of the stock Civic hatch. But according to Honda the new version will be designed from the start as a performance machine, only maintaining the basic look of a road car.
In fact the new car’s design team, based at Swindon where the Civic is built, is going so far as to describe the new Type-R as a “racing car for the road”, and the “most extreme Type-R yet”.
Precise technical details of the new car have not yet been revealed but we are being told that it will use a 2-litre, direct injection, four-cylinder turbo petrol engine with at least 276bhp on tap – that’s nearly 80 horses more than its predecessor.
The new powerplant is the first turbo to be put in a Type-R, and with Honda’s recent advances in engine technology, you can bet the potency won’t come at too much cost of those tax-essential emissions figures.
