The new Honda Civic Type R is widely expected to be revealed at the Paris Motor Show in September, now that the standard tenth-generation hatch (pictured above) has been unveiled. And, according to a report out of Australia, the performance machine has the all-wheel drive Ford Focus RS firmly in its crosshairs.
Honda Australia director Stephen Collins told motoring.com.au that the new Type R would be rather different to the current model.
“It will be quite a substantial change. We’re not in a position to go into details, but performance-wise it will be outstanding,” promised Collins.
When quizzed on whether the Japanese automaker was planning to benchmark the new Type R against the Volkswagen Golf GTI, Scott McGregor, Honda Australia customer and communications general manager, revealed the new model’s true target.
“It’s more playing with Focus RS; that’s the area it plays in,” said McGregor.
While the next Type R isn’t excepted to eschew its front-wheel drive configuration in favour of an all-wheel drive set-up like the Focus RS, it’s not yet clear whether Honda will offer an automatic transmission option in addition to the six-speed manual gearbox.
“Our enthusiast base is crying out for a manual performance car and in that particular segment we believe that’s the configuration that’s going to work for us,” McGregor revealed.
“If you look and see what’s happening with Focus RS now, if we only brought an automatic in there could [be potential issues]. We haven’t confirmed any specs or anything like that but that’s the discussion that’s going on,” he added.
