The New Honda Civic Type R BTCC Car Looks Predictably Mean

The current Honda Civic Type R is hardly a car that’s wanting in the visual aggression department, is it? But in case you’re curious as to how the ‘FK8’-generation car would look like after some pesky Ford Focus RS spilt its pint, now you have your answer.

The car you see here is Honda’s new British Touring Car Championship challenger, replacing the previous-gen ‘FK2’ Type R racer that was retired at the end of the 2017 season. And it looks particularly scary.

The Team Dynamics-run car will be tested from this week onwards at Parcmotor Castelloli in Spain, before making its racing debut at Brands Hatch on 7 April. In the team will be triple BTCC champion Matt Neal, plus two time Carrera Cup GB champion and BTCC newbie Dan Cammish.

No technical details have been given by Honda, but these aren’t hard to work out given that it will need to comply with Next Generation Touring Car regulations. That means a 2.0-litre engine producing over 350bhp, a six-speed sequential gearbox from Xtrac, a retention of the base car’s front-wheel drive layout, and front and rear subframes made by RML.

It’s worth pointing out though that this isn’t the only racing version of the current Civic Type R. A TCR-spec version was revealed last year, which if anything looks even meaner…