This is the new Honda Civic Type R

Despite the cooking versions of the all-new Civic range being all hybrid, and even though Honda has pledged to sell only hybrids in Europe by the end of next year, there is plenty of speculation that the Type R, as a limited-volume enthusiast special, will get an exemption from the big bosses in Japan and stay petrol powered.

That would most likely mean a version of the previous 320PS (235kW) 2.0-litre four-pot engine along with front-wheel-drive, a six-speed manual ‘box and an electronic differential – a recipe that’s been hard to beat, both as enthusiast driving machine and as record-holder at the Nürburgring Nordschleife (fastest front-drive car with 7m 43.8s in 2017).

To be fair, that’s probably what Type R fans will be holding out for, though it does beg the question how the car will be taken forward in other ways over its much-praised predecessor – specially since these first images of a camouflaged prototype suggest a far less outlandish shape than we are used to.

Yes there’s a rear wing, coloured brake calipers and trio of central exhaust outlets, and the fastback body benefits from a decently low and wide stance on its black (20-inch?) rims. But even allowing for the visual tricks that a colourful disguise can play, it does appear the new Type R is much more closely aligned to the rest of the new Civic range, staggeringly the 11^th generation of the popular hatch.

Is that because the new one is more American than British? Previous Civics, including the Type R, have been assembled in Swindon, now sadly closed down, and it is thought this new model will hail from a Honda plant in North America.

It might wear a more sober suit than we are used to, but the 2022 Civic does promise benefits in Type R guise, chief of which is the new shell being 19 per cent torsionally stiffer than before, which just has to benefit handling. It is also a bigger car, 30mm longer of wheelbase and with wider tracks.

So what do you think? The first e-HEV petrol-electric Type R, as a sort of junior NSX, or should it stay with that charismatic, smooth and high-revving turbo VTEC engine in the nose? Petrol for us thanks, but that begs a question: how much more powerful can it get without resorting to the one thing the Type R has never had: all-wheel-drive?

We are sure to know more soon, for as Honda says, this new Type R is now ready to embark on testing at the Nordschleife. Don’t reckon they would be telling us that if they weren’t confident…