There are honestly thousands if not millions of Honda Civic Type R fans around the world, but did you ever think that one day, there will be a ‘Rally Version’ to blitz around the unpaved roads? The folks from Ralph Hosier Engineering got there first and built what’s now known as the Honda Civic Type OveRland!
Judging by the looks, the off-road Civic Type R is certainly not 100% ready yet (due to production complications due to obvious reasons) but the car looks banging with its raised chassis and those rally tyres which are heavily influenced by some of the world’s greatest rally and adventure vehicles.
Ralph Hosier Engineering is able to pull off this feat by mounting a bespoke trailing arm and modified transverse links at the rear to give that extra three inches of ground clearance. As for the rubbers, a set of 255/55/18 BF Goodrich tyres wrapped around rally-derived, lightweight wheels complete the whole look together with that classic Championship White colour choice.
According to Ralph Hosier himself, “These two wildly different interpretations of the Civic Type R (the other one made by Team Dynamics Motorsport, we’ll get to that later) showcase the standard car’s attributes, but also reflect the advanced, sporty and playful nature of the entire Civic range. We have also had a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate what can be done with a road car.”
The other Honda Civic Type R modified by Team Dynamics Motorsport that was unveiled at the 2019 SMMT Test Day in Bedfordshire is basically a showcase on another simple yet huge potential of the car’s capabilities using only ‘off-the-shelf’ performance parts.
Maintaining its streel-legal credibility, Team Dynamics essentially bumped up every aspect of the car from its ECU (Superchips), induction system (ITG), intercooler (PWR), sports cat (Dream) and exhaust (Scorpion). This resulted in a 25% performance increase to a very healthy 400hp and 500Nm of maximum torque.
Being at the hem of the Halfords Yuasa Racing team aka “Honda British Touring Car Championship works team”, the agility of the Type R has also been improved by installing Goodridge stainless performance braided brake hoses, Eibach Pro performance springs, adjustable anti-roll bars and rear camber arms, and Dunlop DZ03G track day tyres wrapped around Team Dynamics’ 19” Pro-Race lightweight competition-derived wheels.
James Rodgers, team manager at Team Dynamics, said, “We’re familiar with the race-winning FK8, however we wanted to showcase what can be extracted from the car with just a few light modifications. The standard car, which we call a race car for the road, is so competent that it really doesn’t take much to take it to the next level.”
