So, the 2015 Honda Civic Type R is an absolute barnstormer, a 306-hp hot hatch that obliterated the Nürburgring lap record for front-drive vehicles with a 7:50.6 blast in a preproduction example. The bad news is, we won’t get it here in the U.S. But the heart of every European-market Type R will beat to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner: Honda will build the 2.0-liter direct-injected turbo VTEC four-cylinder engine right here in the U.S. of A.
That’s right—while the 2015 Civic Type R will never be available in the U.S. market, the hot hatch’s mighty motor will be built at Honda’s Anna Engine Plant in Sidney, Ohio. The finished turbocharged powerplants will then be crated up and exported to Europe, where each will be mated to a six speed manual transmission (the only gearbox available, praise Honda) and slapped between the strut towers of the rip-snorting little hatchback.
Why go through the logistical struggles of building the engine in a market where it’ll never be sold? Well, while this current-generation Civic Type R is not destined for U.S. shores, Honda has confirmed that the next-gen Type R, due out in 2018, will be sold here in America. And we have reason to believe that it will almost certainly be powered by a version of the Ohio-built 2.0-liter turbo engine.
Of course, we like to think that Honda’s weapons-grade, 153-hp-per-liter baby brute of a four-cylinder was just too powerful to be built on European soil. Must be a clause in the Geneva convention. At any rate, we can’t wait for this peach of a powerplant to show up on the U.S. market. In the current Euro-only Type R, it’s a charming little brute.
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