Behold The Civic Type R Prototype

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(Credit: Honda)

If you were excited about the prospects of getting a Civic Hatchback with a turbocharged engine and manual transmission, you should be freaking out at the Civic Type R prototype. Honda chose to reveal the car in Paris, and later will cart it to the SEMA Show in the US.

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So everyone’s clear, this isn’t the production version of the Civic Type R. Honda says that will be unveiled sometime in 2017, I’d say likely in Detroit where it will make a huge splash, but we’ll see. We also still haven’t seen the new Civic Si, which could be making a big entrance in Los Angeles.

(Credit: Honda)

Getting back to the prototype, it’s low and wide, with plenty of flairs to exude a decidedly aggressive persona. Some of the exterior trim pieces are covered with an aluminum finish with a fine-grain brushed effect. There’s also red accents, a hood intake, a carbon-fiber front splitter, a huge rear wing and 20-inch piano black wheels. Vortex generators are mounted to the roof, something you just don’t see on a Honda. Yeah, the production Civic Type R will be no sleeper.

If you didn’t catch it from the pictures, there are indeed three tailpipes. The center one is noticeably smaller than the others. Honda says all three are functional, hinting at an interesting powertrain setup. In other words, we’re not entirely sure what’s under the hood, but it should be good.