Up until now, Honda’s only shown off its newest Civic Type R as a concept vehicle, teasing us since the last Geneva Auto Show. A year later, Honda returns to Geneva with a production version finally in tow.
Honda’s “race car for the road” will debut alongside the Honda-badged NSX supercar for its European debut. Under the hood, the Type R will have a new 2.0-liter four-cylinder VTEC turbo engine that will allegedly get 276 horsepower to the front wheels by way of a six-speed manual.
It will also sport “aggressive, function-led styling” to make it look as sporty as we expect it to be, as the chassis is said to packed with new tech to give the car some very rewarding driving dynamics. A very brief frame of the teaser video for the Type R gives us a peek of the “+R” button, which is supposed un-civilize the Civic, unleashing all the performance the car has been holding back with different engine power-mapping settings and tighter steering.
That’s the good news. The bummer part is that there are no plans to bring it over to the U.S. You may be saying “boo” (I was saying “boo-urns”), but if rumors are to believed, a U.S.-spec version should be coming at some point, based around the same 2.0-liter engine.
Based on the previous concept, the Civic Type R production model should look appropriately sporty and youthful. Hopefully it retains much of these cues, and even further, we hope that the rumored U.S. spec doesn’t differ too much from what we’ve seen.
Those who can’t wait may be able to catch preview snapshots over at www.redline.global, the microsite Honda has set up in anticipation of the reveal. The site encourages visitors to sign up and share photos of their Civic Type R’s, with points each registrant can earn by participating. Points unlock some promotional material, maybe even other teasers, but you won’t know unless you play.
