Honda’s Civic is celebrating its 40th birthday. The original, and tiny, Civic, with its ultra-frugal CVCC engine, hit the US market just as the first fuel crisis landed and buyers lapped it up for its fuel-sipping abilities.
Nine generations on and Honda is marking the occasion by launching a superfrugal engine – its 1.6-litre diesel – and entering a Civic racing car in the World Touring Car Championship.
Honda has also confirmed engineering technology from the racing car will transfer directly to the development of the Civic Type-R, which should arrive just in time for the Civic’s midlife-crisis in 2013.