Honda says final Civic GT500 car will closely resemble concept

The Sakura marque caused a stir in January when it took the covers off the car that will form the base of the successor to the NSX-GT at the Tokyo Auto Salon.

Honda has chosen the unorthodox route of using a front-wheel drive, four-door road car as its GT500 base model, although current regulations dictate that the actual race car will be in front-engined, rear-wheel drive configuration.

The Civic is slated for its first on-track running this summer alongside the respective 2024 cars from rival manufacturers Nissan and Toyota.

Giving an update on the brand’s progress with the new Civic Type R-GT, Honda’s SUPER GT head of car development Tomohiro Onishi said that no major surprises in terms of the car’s final design should be expected.

“We haven’t taken delivery of the monocoque yet, we’re still waiting for that, but we’ve finalised the shape of the car with CAD,” said Onishi.

“It will match the silhouette [that was shown at the Auto Salon]; outside the areas that are open for aerodynamic development I think there will be no changes. The length and width were already scaled for the car shown at the Auto Salon.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how the final details, such as the cooling inlets and flick box, will turn out.

“But compared to previous years, there are fewer areas open for development, so I think it’s fair to assume it will look pretty similar to what we showed.”

The four-door design of the Civic is set to give Honda a different set of strengths and weaknesses than those of the NSX-GT, which is famed for its high levels of downforce relative to its competitors.

It has been suggested that trying to replicate the same high-downforce philosophy with the Civic may not be the most productive approach.

Onishi admitted the Civic’s shape provides a “new challenge” for Honda but doesn’t feel it will end up holding back the marque.

“It’s not a case of talking simply about it being an advantage or disadvantage, there are good points and bad ones,” he said.

“But that was also the case with the NSX, so we will do our best to make up for the bad points with our development.”