Honda Deems Civic Type R as ‘Worthy’ GT500 SUPER GT Car
Super GT rule changes mean a rear wheel drive Civic Type R can compete in production based road racing.
The FL5 Civic Type R is already accomplishing something the FK8 could only dream of. It’ll compete in Japan’s most prestigious level of production car racing. Well, we should really put “production” in air quotes. That’s because the SUPER GT rules will allow the Civic Type R to compete as a rear wheel drive car. The Debut was announced at the Tokyo Auto Salon, and this racing prototype was shown.
Wearing Honda’s blue/red/white Honda Racing Corporation livery, this prototype is for mock up purposes only, but a running example will be on track by summer time. According to Motorsport.com, Honda’s hand was forced into this decision in a way. The NSX was previously their production car that was in the GT500 class of Super GT. Given that the NXS is getting the axe at the end of this year, they needed another car to enter. With no other sports car in their lineup, the Civic Type R was the clear choice.
Honda claims the use of the Civic is intentional. They were “keen to use a base model with the Type R nomenclature as a way to boost its branding for its entire portfolio of road cars.” And in theory, it could work to their advantage. Competitors in GT500 are the Nissan Z, and Toyota Supra. To have a Civic go up against “higher” tier cars and win would be an achievement in its own right. Even if the Civic is entirely far removed from the road-going car.
To be fair, the NSX was quite a far cry from the street version too. Honda went the other way with the NSX in Super GT racing in 2020, sticking the engine up front. Because they have run a front engine/rear drive layout for a while, they claim moving from the sleek NSX to the Civic Type R won’t have any negative effect on aerodynamics or downforce. There’s no word yet on what the power unit will be, but we can bet it’ll carry over from the turbo 4-cylinder unit used in the NSX-GT. At least that’s one part kind of close to the production version.
Photos: Motorsport.com
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