Mugen announced, in conjunction with Honda, that they’re going to drop the most capable Honda Civic Type R yet.
Update: Jan 14, 2018 Here it is! Mugen unveiled this concept at the 2018 Tokyo Auto Show. Supposedly, all the new aero upgrades were designed with CAD and should provide 3x more downforce! This will be confirmed in wind tunnel testing. Presumably, this car is all function and is meant to be a track-focused beast. The front end is significantly modified to suck in more air for cooling purposes. The jury is still out on the overall looks with many people not exactly thrilled. I’m more interested to see how it actually performs.
#Mugen dropped this concept, their MUGEN #RC20GT based on the Civic Type R at #TAS2018. Supposedly, this aero kit increases downforce 3x over the stock aero. Perhaps the front grille, only a Mugen fan would love, feeds more air into the engine bay to increase cooling. pic.twitter.com/T30IN2uv0I
— Paulo Acoba (@feri0252) January 12, 2018
While the all-new Honda Civic Type R has made a few comprises in the name of satisfying the wants and needs of modern consumers, Mugen looks to introduce a concept that throws that conveniences out the window. According to Honda on their official Tokyo Auto Salon announcement they dropped earlier this weekend (Dec 24, 2017) the unofficial tuning arm of Honda, Mugen Motorsports, is unveiling an even hotter Honda Civic Type R with their RC 20 GT Concept. Although we don’t have any photos, we do have a video of the Mugen RR Advanced Concept, a taste of what Mugen is capable of doing with a blank Honda Civic Type R slate.
According to Mugen in a rough Japanese to English translation,
MUGEN RC 20 GT CIVIC TYPE R Concept which aimed to improve aerodynamic performance, power performance, and cooling performance to enhance the running performance of the new CIVIC TYPE R to the utmost limit, refined the running performance and design. (/sic) Concept model pursuing running and function and infinite is formulated as the idea behind CIVIC TYPE R.
The way I translate that description is that Mugen will be unveiling a line of aero products, power adders, and performance parts that will address the cooling needs of a Honda Civic Type R running multiple hot laps in competition form on a track.
The last time Mugen used the RC moniker was back in 2008 when Mugen produced a race version of the FD2 Honda Civic Type R for a Civic cup one-make racing series. Although there were no engine performance upgrades on that race version, Mugen fully stripped the chassis, added a roll cage, placed additional spot welds for a stiffer chassis, and depending on which of the three packages you specified (basic, standard, and complete) added race specific interior upgrades and carbon fiber bits inside and out.
This time around, Mugen does mention some performance upgrades so I expect their engineers to work their magic on the Type R’s K20C1 to extract a couple more horses out of it. This is the company that managed to squeeze an additional 20 HP out of the naturally aspirated K20A Type R motor.
The 2018 Tokyo Auto Salon kicks off in a couple of weeks on Jan 12 and runs three days through the 14th.
