At the 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon in Japan, Honda revealed the Honda Civic Type R-GTR, set to take over from the NSX-GT Type S as Honda's factory race car in the top tier of Japanese sports car racing in 2024. Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe unveiled the new race car with its livery in Honda Racing Corporation's traditional white, red, and blue colors.

Honda explained at the event that it wanted to use a pure sports model with the Type R nomenclature in the GT500 class of the 2024 Super GT race series. In reality, the choice is quite narrow for Honda as the NSX (badged in the USA under the Acura brand) went out of production in November of 2022, so the Civic Type R is the natural choice.

The Civic Type R-GT is due to start testing on the track in the summer this year, but not as a true representation of the roadgoing hot hatch, as you can clearly see in these images. The R-GT is rear-wheel-drive, suitable for the GT500 class it's destined for, while the road car is front-wheel drive. Conversely, the preceding NSX-GT was converted from a mid-engined road car into a front-engined race car. It also used a turbocharged four-cylinder engine rather than the road-going six-cylinder layout. Honda hasn't given any details about the Civic Type R-GT's engine yet, but another four-pot seems likely for minimal weight gain.

While the car shown is a concept, Honda said the car shows the direction that the final race car is going. It should be reasonably close to the final product, with the main changes being in aerodynamic elements. Although it's pretty much a given that it will have huge wheels and a massive rear wing when the competitive Honda Civic Type R-GT turns its first wheel in anger.

Honda has also recently revealed its Civic Type R TCR (Touring Car Racing), both for factory and customer teams. The TCR versions of the feisty hot hatch will be out on the track in 2023.