The Honda Civic has gone through many generations across a 50-year span and has enjoyed a little bit success recently in TCR racing, but as a small capacity entry during the early 1970s it proved a reliable choice.
While Shell V-Power Racing Team co-driver Tony D’Alberto gave Honda its most recent success in 2022 using an Type-R raced in TCR configuration, it was ‘The Captain’ Peter Janson flying the flag at the very start.
A cost effective class contender, the Civic was reputed to turned from road to race configuration for as little as $1000 back in 1974.
Reliability was key to the Honda’s success as the small body shape and lack of engine power made it a slog to race at Bathurst in which there were four appearances from 1973 to 1976.
Class A for models up to 1300cc featured the likes of the Mini, Mazda 1300, Datsun 1200, Ford Escort, Toyota Corolla, Alfa Junior and Fiat 128 Coupe.
The Civic sized up well against the perennially successful Mini and the engine enjoyed the modifications and freedoms allowed in the then-new Group C regulations.
Just failing to win the Class A honours across its four-year span, Civics ran second in 1974 and 1976, while it also nearly took a clean-sweep of the results in the Australian Manufacturers’ Championship in its final year.
Hondas barely featured after this 1976 finale until CRXs started appearing in production car racing towards the end of the 1980s before the Integra won titles in the 1990s and 2000s.
A factory effort from 2019-2024 in TCR was spearheaded by D’Alberto and Wall Racing proving successful.