Geneva show: 206kW turbo for Honda Civic Type R

HONDA has taken the covers from its highly anticipated Civic Type R hot hatch at this week’s Geneva motor show, remaining faithful in the metal to the wild-winged sketch issued ahead of the show and confirming powertrain details – but keeping mum on all-important performance statistics.

The Japanese car-maker, which is hell bent on engineering the new Type R to be the fastest front-wheel-drive hatch around the Nurburgring circuit in Germany, has confirmed that the red-hot Civic will feature a turbocharged VTEC engine from its ‘Earth Dreams Technology’ range – a Euro 6-compliant force-fed 2.0-litre four-cylinder which is “expected to deliver class-leading output of 280PS (206kW)”.

This is the engine that GoAuto drove in a prototype last year, which Honda revealed at the time packed “more than” 206kW and 400Nm of torque, although it stopped short of confirming the inclusion of turbocharger until now.

As we saw with official images that leaked ahead of the show, the Type R – which is due to be launched in Australia next year – has arrived at the Swiss expo with radical boy-racer styling dominated by a massive double-decker rear spoiler with built-in LED tail-lights.

The wild wing is still to be confirmed for production, along with other defining details such as quad exhaust outlets set within a huge rear diffuser, aerodynamic front spoiler, enlarged upper and lower front grilles, bonnet ducts, a new headlight design (with integrated LED daytime running lights and sharp horizontal foglights) and broad front and rear fenders.

Set within the latter are huge 20-inch wheels with ultra-low-profile tyres and visible red Brembo brake callipers that are meant to “add to the aggressive appearance which reflects the inspiring driving experience that the Type R promises to deliver”.

Chief designer Masaru Hasegawa said the Type R represents “Honda’s racing spirit” and that “it is built with a passion for motorsport”.

Styling and modelling of the near-production concept was carried out in Europe, with the team based at Honda’s R&D centre at Swindon in the UK.

Honda says the design team “maintained close contact with production colleagues, as they worked towards achieving the styling direction of the concept model”.