Honda Civic Enters FIA World Touring Car Championship

Industry Insight and photos provided by AutoMotoFoto.net

Honda today announced that the Honda Civic will race in the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC).

“We have made a decision” said Honda CEO, Takanobu Ito “to enter into the WTCC with the European Civic. We will develop a totally new engine for this project and we are all excited about starting this new challenge.”

For this project, Honda has formed a joint partnership with Mugen and J.A.S. Motorsport. Honda R&D is developing a bespoke racing engine, while Mugen will manufacture and maintain it. J.A.S. Motorsport will develop the race car, using the new Honda Civic 5 door produced in Honda’s manufacturing plant located in Swindon (UK).

The racing engine is a 1.6 litre 4 cylinder direct injection turbo-charged petrol engine, developed in accordance with FIA’s Super 2000 regulations.

Honda’s ambition is to join the WTCC as early as this season, with a string of “inaugural rounds”. Discussions are currently being held with the FIA, but these rounds would include Japan (held on 21 October 2012 at Honda’s Suzuka circuit), followed by China and Macau. Honda will then enter a two car team, managed by J.A.S. Motorsport, into every race in the 2013 championship season.

This activity is being run independently to the Honda Racing British Touring Car Championship winning team. Three-times BTCC Champion, Matt Neal and Gordon ‘Flash’ Shedden will be behind the wheel of the race-prepared Team Dynamics version of the new Civic and lining up on the grid at Brands Hatch on 1 April for the first race of the 2012 season.

Racing has always been a fundamental element of Honda’s DNA. In the late 1950s Honda first entered the Isle of man T.T and then Formula 1 in the 1960s. The FIA WTCC is the next chapter in Honda’s on-going commitment to world motor sport and provides a perfect platform to demonstrate its racing spirit to Honda’s numerous fans around the world.

Driven Show 2019: Calgary

Photography by Spöke (@spokephotos) Driven Show returned to Calgary, Alberta at the majestic Olympic Oval for a 2-day event! On Friday, May 3rd,...

KICKER® L7T™ Thin Square Subwoofer Line Hits Stores

KICKER® has combined the mounting flexibility of a thin, true subwoofer to the added cone area of its iconic Solo-Baric® L7® square subs. Six models...

MTI Acoustics Stage 2 Ford Super Crew King Ranch Enclosure

This latest design from Mobile Toys Inc was a lot of fun for them to build! "We just delivered this MTI Acoustics Stage 2 Ford Super Crew King Ranch...