The Tokyo Auto Salon is essentially Japan’s SEMA show, a conference showing off the latest and greatest in the automotive aftermarket. It’s enough of a landmark event that major automakers get in on it, and Honda may have been the surprise of the year. It wheeled out a fully camouflaged prototype called the Civic Type R HRC Concept. What does HRC stand for? Honda Racing Corporation. Details on this spicier Type R were scarce at the turn of the year, but Honda’s now gone and released a video showing a little bit more about how the sausage is made.
The existing Honda Civic Type R is already one of the quickest front-wheel-drive cars on sale. We’re talking 315 horsepower, adaptive dampers, a close-ratio six-speed manual transaxle with a helical diff, a functional wing … everything needed to run with the front of the front-wheel-drive performance car pack. However, it’s no longer the king. Last month, the Volkswagen Golf GTI Edition 50 claimed the Civic Type R’s title of the fastest front-wheel-drive car around the Nürburgring Nordschleife, so it’s safe to say that Honda’s timed development of the Civic Type R HRC well. Granted, the marque’s calling the Type R HRC a concept for now, but Honda has a long history of barely-disguised production cars being shown off as concept cars.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Honda built and tested several Civic Type R HRC prototypes in this video, and some of them don’t have nearly the same level of camouflage as the Tokyo Auto Salon show car. This means we get a better look at the changes, and some of what we can spot is significant.
While it’s all wrapped up in camouflage, even this dazzling pattern can’t hide the wild aerodynamic elements on the front fenders. The current Civic Type R won some praise for dialing back its visual boldness over the previous model, but not everyone’s a fan of visual restraint. Also, check out the additional sculpting on the front bumper. Now those are some winglets.
Complementing the heavily revised front clip, this thing features a visibly different rear wing than the standard model, with traditional end plates instead of the regular Civic Type R’s wing’s tapered design. This should increase efficiency by keeping flow further separated over the high-pressure and low-pressure sides of the wing, and it just looks proper.
While power changes aren’t confirmed, a close-up of an HRC-branded intercooler suggests that there’s something going on under the hood of this next-level Civic Type R. At minimum, a larger intercooler should help prevent heat soak on track, but anyone who’s played with turbocharged cars before knows that greater intake air cooling capability can usually handle more boost than standard.
Around back, Honda treated viewers to a close-up of a triple-tipped Akrapovič exhaust system. Given how Akrapovič is known for building lovely-sounding things out of titanium, don’t be surprised if this setup serves up measurable weight reduction while uncorking that turbocharged inline-four’s growl.
Perhaps most curiosity-piquing is this tidbit of dialogue in the promo video: “It feels racier. Response is quicker. The whole car feels more rigid. It’s way better.” Not only does this suggest real powertrain tweaks, it also seems to hint at revisions under the skin. They could be suspension modifications, additional bracing, or perhaps a combination of the two. We won’t know until Honda takes the wrap off for real.
Mind you, there is one wildcard item here: The Civic Type R HRC might not be a turnkey car as such. Going by Honda’s Tokyo Auto Salon teaser, it’s likely at least some of these tweaks will be available as standalone parts for existing Civic Type Rs, potentially with a whole package being available in the same vein as Manthey Racing’s Porsche packages. Those still count for Nürburgring times, so maybe it’s indeed the move. Either way, expect to learn a whole lot more later this year.
Top graphic image: YouTube/Honda
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