Newtechfresh | Consumer Electronics Guide: HONDA CIVIC

While Honda has chosen to race the Civic Tourerin the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), the Japanese carmaker continues to approach the World Touring Car Championship in a more traditional way, choosing the Civic hatchback for the job.

Following the teaser rendering released late last year, Honda has now revealed the real 2014 Civic WTCC works car, albeit with camouflage gear. The first two images of the new Civic racer were taken earlier this year during its first test session in Aragon, Northern Spain.

The design of the new Civic WTCC reflects the latest technical regulations for the FIA WTCCand stands out because of the wheel arch extensions, larger diameter wheels, sleeker aero package and extended rear spoiler.

Under the banner of the “Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team”, Honda will enter two works cars in 2014, driven by Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro and run by J.A.S. Motorsport. Private outfits Zengő Motorsport and Proteam Racing will also compete for honors with two further Civics, driven by Hungary’s Norbert Michelisz and Moroccan Mehdi Bennani respectively.

Honda’s objectives for the 2014 WTCC season are clear: the carmaker wants to win both the manufacturer’s and the driver’s titles.

“We achieved four victories and captured the manufacturer’s title last season in the FIA World Touring Car Championship, the WTCC, which was our first year of full-participation,” said HondaCEO Takanobu Ito. “In this season, we will strive to win the double title for driver’s and manufacturer’s with a total of four machines including a works team and two private teams,” the executive added.

PHOTO GALLERY

The great thing about releasing a new model in August before the alternating Frankfurt and Paris Motor Shows in September is that you gain more attention from the press and consequently, readers and consumers. The negative aspect, of course, is that most of the times, everyone loses interest about said product by the time the show comes.

In the case of Honda, the Japanese automaker decided that for its brand-new Civic Tourer, it would be wiser to reveal the compact station wagon to the online world now, several weeks ahead of the Frankfurt auto show.

Developed, designed and built in Europe for the estate-hungry local market, the Civic Tourer is the production version of the Civic Wagon Concept model displayed at the Geneva Salon in March this year. As we noted at the time, the road-going car has dropped some of the concept's fancier styling elements, including the big wheels, LED lights and the sweet looking rear diffuser with the central-mounted tailpipes, but otherwise, it remains the same.

"At first glance it is clear that the Civic Tourer does not look like other Wagons," said Adrian Killham, Large Project Leader of Civic Tourer. "Recently-launched cars have tended to follow a similar style. The Civic Tourer has a different balance and appeal."

Based on the European five-door Civic hatchback, the Tourer keeps the hidden rear handles and wheelbase of the latter adding a 235 mm (9.25 inches) longer rear overhang, an extended rear quarter window to cover the body work of the D-pillar, while the rear door sash has been raised by 17mm (0.67 inches). Naturally, the rear end of the car is brand new featuring a large tailgate with a 137mm (5.4 inches) lower loading lip compared to the 5-door model.

The Civic Tourer offers an impressive class leading trunk capacity of 624 liters with the rear seats in place (up to the height of the window) and 1,668 liters with the rear seats folded (up to the roof lining). These figures are better than both the 605/1620 liters of the VW Golf Variant(Jetta SportWagen in North America) and the 587/1,470 liters of the new Seat Leon ST.

Honda says that the cargo area will accommodate 2 full-size mountain bikes or 3 large-sized Samsonite cases with the standard tonneau cover pulled over to conceal the cases. Adding to the Civic Tourer's versatility is the so-called Magic Seats system that is said to "enable a range of seating configurations".

In the technology department, Honda developed a brand new Adaptive Damper System (ADS) for the Tourer to enhance stability and comfort under varying load and driving conditions.

When it goes on sale across Europe in early 2014, the new member of the Civic family that is built at Honda’s UK manufacturing facility will offer buyers an initial choice of two powertrains, the new 118HP (120PS) 1.6-liter i-DTEC turbo diesel and the 1.8 i-VTEC gasoline unit in manual or automatic transmission versions.