By Richard Meaden
Whether you’re stood trackside or sat at home in front of the TV, it’s impossible not to love the action-packed rough and tumble of the British Touring Car Championship.
For 2014 the unlikely presence of a pair of Civic Tourers amongst a grid of more familiar shapes is sure to make Honda’s striking estate a firm favourite amongst BTCC fans.
Championship pedigree
The distinctive Civic Tourer shape might be all-new for the BTCC but Yuasa Honda Racing’s driver line-up is unchanged and still perhaps the most talented in the whole of the BTCC. Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden, both former BTCC champions and two of the series’ hardest chargers and most likable characters, have high hopes of another successful season. ‘Underestimate us at your peril,’ warns a buoyant Neal.
Despite sharing its underpinnings with the super-successful Civic hatchback, making the Tourer into a race car capable of continuing Honda’s enviable winning streak is a challenge, for although its slippery shape should help it down the straights it’s altered weight distribution and centre-of-gravity create a few dynamic hurdles for the engineers to overcome. The early signs suggest that they’ve done just that. At the first race weekend of the season, recently held at the frantic Brands Hatch Indy circuit, Shedden and Neal scored a hat-trick of podiums between them and Honda leapt to the top of the Teams’ and Manufacturers’ Championship standings. Neal is certain that things will only get better… ‘Every time we go out in this car we are learning something new and making progress. What’s more, the longer, more sweeping circuits should suit the Tourer a lot better.’
Dream drive
Dream’s test drive takes place before the season opener, in the midst of an intense period of winter testing. It’s a real privilege to drive the Civic Tourer racer and those laps around the Rockingham Motor Speedway are simply unforgettable. Not to mention more than a little bit intimidating…
There’s something rather surreal about this Civic Tourer. Beneath the sponsors’ war paint lies the familiar sleek-yet-practical estate bodywork, but under the bonnet is an angry-sounding turbocharged 1.6-litre engine good for comfortably in excess of 300bhp.
Inside you’ll find a sturdy lattice of tubing that forms an immensely strong safety cell that criss-crosses much of the interior void. Consequently you thread your way in, folding your body into an odd and uncomfortable shape before falling into the welcome embrace of the low-slung driver’s seat, and pulled tight by a racing harness that clamps your shoulders and pelvis firmly in place.
Activate the ignition and fuel pumps, press the starter button and the Civic Tourer bursts into life with a raucous flare of revs before settling into a hard, resonating idle that sends all kinds of zizzes and vibrations through the car. Push down on the weighty clutch pedal, pull back on the gear lever and first gear engages with a positive kerchunk.
Then with trembling left leg you smoothly release the clutch while attempting to keep the revs constant, doing your best to balance throttle and clutch until you feel the Civic pull away.
Once out on the circuit – wet, slippery and cold – you marvel at how responsive the Tourer feels to your smallest steering input. Neal says he likes his car to be ‘on the nose’, which in layman’s terms translates to a car that requires the slightest twitch of the wrists to change direction.
With litres of adrenaline pumping through your veins it’s hard to make calm, measured steering inputs, but anything more than a controlled squeeze of steering lock and the Tourer feels nervous and edgy in the damp conditions.
It’s a fine balancing act to show the Civic the commitment it craves, yet stop short of sawing at the wheel. Clearly confidence, familiarity and skill are keys you need to unlock the Tourer’s performance.
Honda Civic Tourer turns supercar
Considering the amount of power (and torque) being channelled through the front wheels, it’s amazing how much traction the Civic finds in the slippery conditions. It digs deep out of the tight hairpins, fighting for grip and pulling at your arms as the front wheels engage in a tug of war mediated by a limited-slip differential that sends drive to the wheel best placed to deploy it. Each upshift is signaled by a gunshot-like report, downshifts and heavy braking illuminated by licks of flame from the side-exit exhaust.
It’s a wild, yet strangely tranquil ride: the engine noise, acceleration and cornering forces suggesting you’re in a hot-headed racer; the supple, sophisticated and precisely controlled damping soaking-up the unsettling impacts of kerbs and cambers to maintain a spooky composure. It might look like a Honda Civic Tourer, but its supercar-chasing performance makes it unlike one you or I have ever experienced before!
After a handful of breathless, thrilling laps it’s clear that this is a meticulously developed machine and a winner-in-waiting. Come the end of the season, if the Tourer fulfills Yuasa Honda Racing’s aspirations it will have facilitated Neal’s fourth BTCC Drivers’ title, or Shedden’s second, not to mention Honda’s fifth consecutive Manufacturer and Team titles. Judging by our brief but vivid experience of the BTCC Tourer it’ll take a special car to beat it.
