Honda Unveils Civic Type R HRC Rally XP Racecar

Honda took the wraps off its new Civic Type R HRC Rally XP rally racer for North America this week.

Japanese automaker Honda revealed a brand new rally racing offshoot based on its FL5-gen Civic Type R hot hatch.

Prepared by Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), the Civic Type R HRC Rally XP will be revealed publicly this weekend at the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas as part of the festivities of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix.

Aptly, with his name and racing number emblazoned on the rear window, 23-year-old New Zealander and Racing Bulls F1 Team driver Liam Lawson is set to pilot this rally-bred hot hatch in several demo runs this weekend in Texas.

Visually, the Civic Type R HRC Rally XP largely mirrors the stock road-going version, albeit with some minor differences.

Dressed in HRC’s signature white, red and blue livery, the Civic Type R HRC Rally XP gains beefier skid plates for its undercarriage, customary mud flaps, and it also rolls on Speedline rally-spec alloy wheels wrapped in Hoosier rally tyres.

Closer inspection shows that the Civic Type R HRC Rally XP has an exterior that largely mirror its stock road-going twin. The only major change we can note are the larger new brake ducts cut into the front bumper.

Honda hasn’t released details, but American-based sources report that the Civic Type R HRC Rally XP will compete in the American Rally Association (ARA) National Championship series.

Note the larger brake ducts cut into the front bumper of this unique rally car build based off the FL5-gen Civic Type R hot hatch.

In fact, this rally machine will be raced by the employee-run Honda of America Racing Team (HART) in said championship. Presently, the team rallies with a 2017 Civic hatch and 2023 Acura Integra in the stock Limited Two-Wheel-Drive (L2WD).

Given said category’s technical regs, expect the Civic Type R HRC Rally XP to retain the stock road car’s 2.0-litre 4-cyl VTEC turbo petrol mill, albeit with sleeved cylinders to conform with the           

For reference, the road-going FL5-gen Civic Type R, which sees officially imported units command RM399,900 a pop, produces 319 hp and 420 Nm. With the restrictions, expect this North American rally racer to produce slightly lower figures instead.

On board, the Civic Type R HRC Rally XP typically gains a roll cage, bucket seats and harnesses. It even gets a tall  manual handbrake lever added.

That aside, expect to see this rally racer harness an uprated transmission, specially tuned rally suspension, beefed up limited slip differential, not forgetting the mandatory adoption of a roll cage, bucket seats plus harnesses.

Expect Honda to release more details once the Civic Type R HRC Rally XP fully debuts this weekend.