The new Honda Civic joins a long list of TCR cars

Today (December 12th 2022), JAS Motorsport has revealed its new challenger for global touring car competition, the Honda Civic Type R TCR - based on the FL5 Type R, the first ‘third generation' TCR car, based on the eleventh generation of the venerable Japanese hatchback.

JAS Motorsport, the Italian-based race car manufacturers, has a long-standing relationship with Honda, going back to the super touring days. In 21st century touring car competition, JAS developed the Accord Euro R for the FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC), although it never competed with full manufacturer support. After many attempts to get a works programme going, full manufacturer support finally happened at the end of 2012, just as Super 2000’s TC2T regulations were coming to an end and the short-lived TC1 era was about to emerge.

JAS and Honda covered both bases, developing the new Honda Civic for WTCC in 2014, while also getting to work on the more customer racing-focussed TCR category with the Honda Civic Type R FK2 TCR, which debuted in the 2015 TCR International Series, with Gianni Morbidelli leading the development as well as the race programme.

The car could be argued to be the first true TCR car, as in 2015 a number of cup cars were allowed to take part in the inaugural season while the numbers grew.

The FK2 was replaced with the more aggressive-looking FK7 in 2018 as the new WTCR - FIA World Touring Car Cup was born, and the new Honda has proven to be a championship contender and race winner in every season since, quite often leading the majority of the season, but never quite holding on to the top spot of the ranking come the season end.

The new FL5 Civic will hopefully be able to change that. Based on the new Civic Type R, the car has a more traditional look than its predecessor. While called a Civic, the car has far more in common in shape and size to the Accord, which is now sold only in certain markets that still have an interest in mid-size saloons.

JAS Motorsport boasts the new Civic TCR has a new chassis for enhanced cornering stability and greater driver safety, upgraded braking and transmission systems, and an ergonomically-refined cockpit with an upgraded and more sophisticated multi-channel driver display.

An endurance specialised version will also be available, as using TCR cars in endurance racing continues to increase, which includes additional lighting, driver cooling and anti-lock braking in addition to a revised ‘quick-fill’ fuelling system and a further more sophisticated cockpit.

The car has begun testing at JAS Motorsport’s base at Circuit Tazio Nuvolari by WTCR driver and two-time Super TC 2000 champion Néstor Girolami, with the first cars due to be delivered to customers in the coming months.

The Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR becomes the 27th different homologated TCR car (not counting cars homologated separately with DSG gearboxes or alternative ECUs), and will become the 26th with an active homologation once the car is assessed by TCR’s technical rights holders WSC Group.

Images: David Noels Photographe / Honda Racing