RE: Civic Type R seen undisguised

[XPushX]

Isnt the worst looking car in the world, I quite like it. Certainly will stand out from the boring bmw's and audis that all look the same on the roads. Also its a step up lookswise from the FN2

[Axionknight]

Any word on an estate version?

[Speed_Demon]

Someone I know who works at an official Honda dealer has posted a pic of the dealer marketing pack online, shoes the back of the car with the lights mounted on the wing like the concept. So I still have high hopes.

[DukeDickson]

Axionknight said:

Any word on an estate version?

A tiny sliver of hope would ask for the news to be no way. If it does appear, Type R would be precious little more than S-Line, Tokyo mix.

[blearyeyedboy]

DukeDickson said:

A tiny sliver of hope would ask for the news to be no way. If it does appear, Type R would be precious little more than S-Line, Tokyo mix.

Cobblers. There's no reason an estate type R can't be hard as nails if you want it to be. I can mention BTCC racers if you like, but I don't think that's necessary: the old arguments of making a 2/3 door bodyshell because it's more rigid than its 5 door counterpart doesn't really apply much when there's no 3 door version to be had. I think it'd be a hoot... but I think it won't be made, and more's the pity.

[daveofedinburgh]

Honda are trying to shout as loud as the other 'renaissance' hot hatches like the hot Meganes, Focuses etc.

Misjudged in my opinion, they did their best work with stuff like the EK9 Civic Type R and DC2 Integra.

They may risk alienating the more purist, 'EVO' crowd, but what percentage of sales do we really represent for Honda?

This new car is vulgar and crass, but it will woo the 'ASBO' Focus crowd quite successfully I reckon.

No doubt a ton of market research has gone into the the aesthetics and perceived image of the car.

[Hitch78]

It would need to be ridiculously better than the competition to justify those looks though. Just imagine if a sober GTI Performance Pack wipes the floor with it despite all of that addenda.

[Driver101]

Hitch78 said:

It would need to be ridiculously better than the competition to justify those looks though. Just imagine if a sober GTI Performance Pack wipes the floor with it despite all of that addenda.

If the car is as fast as Honda suggest, no standard Golf will touch it.

[bigaoi]

Absolutely hilarious thread, even has the "if this was a girl ..." bit. OK ... repeating what a couple of comments have already said (but seemingly ignored by most), this is the engineering mule that's been bashing around the 'ring for a while. You can find it by searching online for all those "first drive" reviews from around November, which weren't first drives really, just a couple of laps at Tochigi (Honda's proving ground). For example, here's an article from Car.

The styling direction for the final article was revealed at the 2014 Geneva show in March. Here are some pictures from netcarshow.com. How much makes it across to production will be interesting. This one's never going to be a subtle car, and it is based on the somewhat lumpy and bumpy current Civic shape, but I think the concept's done a good job from that starting point, admittedly not in a quiet manner. Looks quite good, in a mad way (mental rear wing is strangely compelling with integrated brake lights). Buy a Golf if you want subtle.

Edited by bigaoi on Sunday 25th May 21:12

Edited by bigaoi on Sunday 25th May 21:23

[Butter Face]

I'm saving my deposit now for one

[bigaoi]

Actually, the concept isn't that mad looking, rear-wing aside, it's actually rather nice. And like I say, despite being rather brash, the rear-wing kinda works. Nice to have the option of a car with a strong character, surely the drive will match ?

[Jader1973]

My experience of Honda concepts is that they are usually very close to the actual production car.

As others have said, the black one is most likely still a mule.

[Hitch78]

bigaoi said:

Absolutely hilarious thread, even has the "if this was a girl ..." bit. OK ... repeating what a couple of comments have already said (but seemingly ignored by most), this is the engineering mule that's been bashing around the 'ring for a while. You can find it by searching online for all those "first drive" reviews from around November, which weren't first drives really, just a couple of laps at Tochigi (Honda's proving ground). For example, here's an article from Car.

The styling direction for the final article was revealed at the 2014 Geneva show in March. Here are some pictures from netcarshow.com. How much makes it across to production will be interesting. This one's never going to be a subtle car, and it is based on the somewhat lumpy and bumpy current Civic shape, but I think the concept's done a good job from that starting point, admittedly not in a quiet manner. Looks quite good, in a mad way (mental rear wing is strangely compelling with integrated brake lights). Buy a Golf if you want subtle.

PH text said:

Now, at last, the Civic Type R is here in all its camo-free glory. It appears to be the production version, we hope it's the production version, but these aren't official pictures.

That is perhaps why people are refering to the yo-VTEC-Batmobile rather than the nicer concept.

[bigaoi]

Hitch78 said:

That is perhaps why people are refering to the yo-VTEC-Batmobile rather than the nicer concept.

Fair enough, but the PH text is inaccurate. That mule's been in testing for a long time, and even pistonheads covered the Geneva 2014 car.

Regarding the Geneva prototype, Car had an article that included, "If Hasegawa-san gets his way, nothing at all will change: We need to see how much is feasible for production, but of course we want to keep everything. [...] Hasegawa-san wants every feature on the Type R to have a purpose. Everything on the Type R will be functional," They (Car) have their doubts the wheelarches will make it into production but I think something pretty close to those shown will, as said in a comment above, most of what appears on Honda show cars makes it into production. I would imagine that the wing-integrated lights might not make it, but I really hope they do, they make the rear very very distinctive.

Edited by bigaoi on Monday 26th May 21:45

[Jader1973]

I just saw a pic of the BTCC car. Looks to me like the "undisguised car" is wearing the BTCC kit with some bits missing. Even more convinced that is a mule.

[captainsl0w]

Ali_T said:

Bring back Pininfarina.....

I used to own this exact car, was mine for almost 4 years, bought it standard and a wreck before modifying it (much of which has been stripped off when ive seen it crop up for sale every now and again)

[madmalc200]

Looks like a particularly cr*p tuner has been at a 1.4 Civic

[Ali_T]

captainsl0w said:

I used to own this exact car, was mine for almost 4 years, bought it standard and a wreck before modifying it (much of which has been stripped off when ive seen it crop up for sale every now and again)

I still think my EG6 was the best hot hatch I've ever owned. Nothing, these days, involves in anything like the same way.