Honda unveils HR412E, the heart of its Civic WTCC racing car

Honda today unveiled the new racing engine HR412E to power its Civic WTCC race car in the FIA World Touring Car Championship.

Developed at Honda’s R&D centre in Tochigi, Japan, the HR412E is a completely bespoke 1.6 litre 4 cylinder direct injection turbo-charged petrol engine, fully conforming to FIA regulations for the WTCC.

Commenting on the announcement, Daisuke Horiuchi, the WTCC Development Project Leader at Honda R&D said:

“In the continuous technological development of an internal combustion engine, the thermal efficiency is the essential key for improvement. And a race engine is not an exception. This HR412E was born from such thought process: aiming for higher efficiency.“

“The HR412E heralds a new generation of high performance racing engines from Honda. All engineers at the R&D centre in Tochigi have worked hard to develop a race engine that will deliver great driveability to our racing drivers, with no compromise on peak power performance.”

“We believe the innovations that have led to this revolutionary engine will also lead to benefits beyond the race track, helping us to further increase the efficiency of our road car engines.“

The engine has been delivered to the Honda Racing Team JAS workshop in Milan, Italy, where the Civic WTCC is being developed, and successfully passed all initial tests.

The news follows the recent naming of Honda’s works team drivers in the the FIA World Touring Car Championship - Italian Gabriele Tarquini and Portuguese Tiago Monteiro.

Honda will enter the WTCC as early as this season with one car. Behind the wheel of the Civic WTCC will be ex-Formula One driver Tiago Monteiro, who will compete in three races, starting at Suzuka in October 2012. Honda R&D and Mugen will provide trackside support to the team.

Both drivers will compete in the full FIA World Touring Car Championship in 2013.