The Civic Type-R Concept Debuts at Geneva

The Civic Type-R Concept Debuts at Geneva
When Honda unveils a new sports concept there is always a sense of anticipation and the new Civic Type R is no exception. To please all its fans, Honda engineers have designed a 'superhatch' to deliver blistering performance from the same power output as the previous incarnation (200 bhp). The aggressive, lower and wider-looking body encases a new 2.0 liter engine and the model, built in Britain, will go on sale in early 2007 priced around £18,000.

What is a Type R?The Type R name was introduced by Honda Motorcycles, where the letter R was added to conventional bike names to indicate a performance derivative. For example, the CB – a standard 4-cylinder across-the-frame bike – became the CB-R, a sporting model.

One of the earliest Type R cars was the Honda NSX-R, a stripped-down, lightweight version of the NSX supercar. This was developed in response to claims the NSX did not have enough power to compete with rival cars from Porsche and Ferrari. The key factor in this argument – and a point proved by the NSX-R – was the importance of the power to weight ratio.