Honda has announced that it intends to enter the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in 2012 with a pair of the freshly released Civic five-door models.
The Japanese manufacturer's R&D division is currently working on a new a turbocharged 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine to comply with the FIA's latest Super 2000 regulations and plans to compete in a handful of events before launching a full-scale attack in 2013.
"We have made a decision" said Honda CEO, Takanobu Ito "to enter into the WTCC with the European Civic. We will develop a totally new engine for this project and we are all excited about starting this new challenge."
Honda's racing partners, Mugen and J.A.S. Motorsport, have already signed up to the new team with Mugen working on the manufacture and maintaining of the new engine while Italian based J.A.S. will look after the car itself in addition to managing the team.
The move into WTCC will be run independently from the Matt Neal and Gordon Sheddan led Honda Racing / Team Dynamics British Touring Car Championship team.