Want To See The Honda Civic Type R Up Close? The Prototype Will Debut At Tokyo Auto Salon In January

Honda's "prototype" models are typically pretty close to the production versions

Honda Civic Type R
It looks like we’re just a few weeks away from more information on the new Honda Civic Type R. (Images: Honda)

The first chance to see the new Honda Civic Type R up close is just a few weeks away.

It’s come in stages, but the eleventh-generation Honda Civic’s rollout is nearly complete as the Type R Prototype is almost ready to debut. It’s coming to Tokyo Auto Salon from January 14-16, 2022, but we will still have to wait until later on in the year to see the final production model.

That said, Honda and Acura’s “prototype” models tend to stick fairly close to the production versions, with a few minor tweaks along the way. The car we’ll see in Tokyo in a few weeks, then, should give a strong (if not 100% final) hint at what to expect for the next iteration of the automaker’s hot hatch.

The way Honda announced the date in their official statement, the new Honda Civic Type R Prototype will still carry this camouflage at January’s event. However, the company says the folks who check out the car during TAS will be treated to an “action-packed test driving video”, wherein they can go behind the scenes with the team’s engineers to get a better sense of how the next-gen model was developed.

At the moment, we don’t have any official specs, and can only make educated guesses based on the outgoing 10th-gen’s performance. Honda should stick with a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine for this new model, as well as a 6-speed manual transmission. Whether they’ll include an automatic (dual-clutch) this time around and any more power — mind you, the Civic Si’s output actually went down 5 horsepower, according to Honda’s official specs — remains to be seen.

While we wait, check out the last-gen’s swan song in the Civic Type R Limited Edition, which Alex had the opportunity to drive a few months back: