It's been five months since we first brought you word that Honda was developing a version of its new euro-spec Civic hatchback for competition in the highly competitive British Touring Car Championship. A month later, Matt Neal took home the title for the Japanese automaker behind the wheel of the outgoing Civic touring car. And just a couple of weeks ago, Honda released a quintet of renderings of the version it is preparing in parallel for the World Touring Car Championship.
By now, the Honda team has not only finished building the new Civic NGTC – shorthand for Next-Generation Touring Car – but it has completed initial systems testing, carried out its first on-track shakedown and released these images to tell the tale. With everything running smoothly so far, the team is gearing up for further testing before the 2012 championship kicks off at Brands Hatch on April 1. That's when Neal and Gordon "Flash" Shedden will campaign the new Civic NGTC against a vicious field of rivals driving Ford, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, Skoda, Seat, Audi, BMW, Toyota and Proton racers. Heck, there's even the new MG MG6 GT...but not Chevrolet.
We'll be watching keenly to see if Neal and Shedden can defend Honda's title, but for now, you can check out the high-res images in the gallery above and the press release after the jump to see how their new ride is shaping up.
Courtesy of AutoBlog
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