During a recent press drive for the Euro-market Honda Civic Type R (which resulted in this month’s WR cover story), our European Editor, Matt Davis, caught some heavy hints that a variant of the Honda Civic Type R is indeed headed Stateside in 2010.
Though the assistant chief engineer from Tochigi was loath to talk specifics, the plan is to offer a package in keeping with the Japanese-market Honda Civic Type R (read: four-door sedan), and include a horsepower boost and a limited-slip differential.
The prototype car shown, modeled on Honda’s JDM/ASEAN market Civic sedan, incorporates a 2.0-liter iVTEC engine giving nearly 220 horsepower,
along with the usual suspension and appearance modifications. Given the close proximity of the standard Japanese Civic sedan to its North American counterpart, it would likely be easier to federalize such a model than attempt to import the Euro-market Honda Civic Type R’s angular hatchback, whose bodystyle wasn’t developed with either the U.S. or Canada in mind.
This strikes us as a wise move, because as wonderful as the current Honda Civic Si is here in the States, it’s outgunned by high-horsepower entries like the Mazdaspeed3 and Subaru WRX,
both of which will be likely targets for this more expensive CTR.
