At a press conference held on the occasion of the Frankfurt Motor Show, Manabu Nishimae , president of Honda Motor Europe , released the first details of the eagerly awaited new Civic Type-R model. The new Civic Type R, which will be powered by a turbocharged two-liter engine with direct fuel injection, will have at least 280 horsepower .
Honda has also confirmed its ambition to make the Civic Type-R the fastest front-wheel drive car around Germany's famous Nürburgring circuit. The car still has another 2 years of development before it goes on sale in 2015 , but test drives have already begun. " We recently spent a week at the Nürburgring doing extensive testing. We have a set goal and we have already managed to achieve a time that is close to the record on this track", said Manabu Nishimae .
The press conference also featured a film showing the impressive performance and handling of the development version of the Civic Type R driven by Honda WTCC driver Gabriele Tarquini at the Nürburgring. At the motor show, the new Honda Civic Tourer model was also presented to the public for the first time during a press conference, and it was confirmed that this car, with the Honda 1.6 i-DTEC engine, will be able to achieve extremely low CO 2 emissions – only 99 g/km (equivalent to a consumption of 3.8 liter/100 km ). The Civic Tourer builds on the strengths of the five-door version of the Civic model, to which it also adds unrivaled luggage space and practicality in its class.
"In my opinion, among the strongest points of this new product is the great synergy of functionality , variability and dynamic design. Our entire European development team is delighted with this result and we are very proud of it," said Adrian Killham , Civic Tourer project manager.
Source: Honda, ATC Design
