Feature: Development of the NGTC Honda Civic

Development of the Honda Racing Team’s 2012 challenger, the new Honda Civic built to the British Touring Car Championship’s Next Generation Touring Car regulations is already well under way. We talk to the key members of Honda’s technical staff about the development of their first all-new car since 2007.

The Honda Racing Team was the first front running team in the BTCC to announce plans to switch to the series Next Generation Touring Car (NGTC) platform for 2012, with Triple Eight Race Engineering soon following suit and there was also the announcement last week that Eurotech Racing, which in previous years ran Team Dynamics’ first self-built car, the Honda Integra Type-R, becoming a customer team again of Honda next season.

At Brands Hatch, we spoke to Honda Racing Team Technical Director Barry Plowman & Team Manager Peter Crolla about the new car, starting with how the initial development is progressing.

“Construction of the first bodyshell is well under way, has been for some weeks now,” said Barry Plowman. “A lot of the design work is also progressing well but there’s still a long way to go. The rules are obviously evolving and changing as the programme progresses. There’s a lot of input from the teams Technical Working Group which I sit on to try and guide the concept along and keep it going in the right direction.”

“The first bodyshell arrived with us just before Snetterton, so we began work on it straight away,” said Peter Crolla. “There were a lot of ideas generated before it arrived and once you actually see the car and take grasp of what you’ve got to do, it’s really moved on at speed. We’re at the stage now where the concept is turning into a reality.”

The new Civic will be the third new car developed by Team Dynamics for the BTCC, following on from the highly successful Integra Type-R which was built to the BTC regulations introduced in 2001. This car won 100% of the championships it competed in for Team Dynamics. The team’s second car was the current FIA S2000 based Civic FN2, which has now taken 32 wins in five years and has won Honda the 2010 & 2011 manufacturers’ and teams’ championships.

“Five years is quite a long term programme for a car and it obviously evolves year by year,” said Plowman. “We had a power increase by having a turbo engine this year but the chassis is the best it’s ever been…handling wise we’re probably even equal to the Chevrolet which has had a lot of development, not only in this Championship but obviously in the World Championship. We do feel that all things being equal on the engine front that we’d actually be able to compete with Chevrolet in the World Championship.”

Crolla admits that the Civic has had a long life in the Championship. “In five years it’s come a long way and it’s probably developed as far as it’s going to under S2000 regulations, so it’s nice now to look forward to a new project and a totally different way of thinking.”

The new NGTC regulations means the cars will carry a lot of pre-specified components, restricting the team’s abilities to expend large amounts of resource to build a gap to the smaller teams, but Honda still believe they have enough freedom to put together a unique package. “We’re going to have a lot more in common with other teams but that obviously then puts the onus on our own thinking and our own engineering skills,” said Crolla.

“Although there are a lot of specified components in that car there’s also a lot of flexibility in the design of the car. Although TOCA are of the understanding of the concept is designed to suit a lot of different cars and a lot of different manufacturers, they’re not unwise to the fact that there is going to need to be some adjustment to suit different cars and different engine installations. So yes, it’s controlled, but not to the point where there’s no free thinking allowed by the teams.”

Honda have again made the early decision to commit to the Championship for next year, which will be the third season the championship’s once principal independent Team Dynamics squad will be entered as a factory backed outfit in the BTCC, whilst the team’s rivals will fight for budget over the off season to be on the grid for the first round at Brands Hatch on April 1st 2012.

“I think there are huge benefits in having that commitment early from Honda so you know you’ve got stability from the very start of the project,” said Crolla. “They’re very committed to British Touring Cars and to working with the team, so to have that security from the start is great, it just allows you to focus on the cars. And also the stability in the driver line-up as well, we know exactly what we’re going to be dealing with and it’s an element you can then take out of the equation.”

The NGTC car wasn’t the only option for the team for 2012. TOCA still promises parity between all permitted types of cars built to both S2000 regulations and NGTC, and for those running NGTC engines in S2000 cars for 2011 & 2012. With Team Dynamics mooting an evaluation of the Civic for a possible WTCC programme from 2013, building an S2000 car was a strong consideration, but in the end it made more sense to go NGTC for 2012. “The step with the new car from what we’ve got now wouldn’t have been that great,” said Plowman. “It would have been a lot closer to the current car than actually doing an NGTC car. Obviously Honda are committed to the British Championship, the car’s built in Swindon in Britain and they want to push a British built car, albeit a Japanese manufacturer.”

“For sure it would be interesting to see how this new car would evolve into an S2000 car, and there’s nothing to say that in the future something might happen with that,” added Crolla, “but at the minute our focus is on the British Championship for 2012.”

The Civic will be the smallest of the NGTC cars that have been confirmed to date, with TOCA’s nominated builder GPR Motorsport so far having produced larger saloon cars for customer teams. Rob Austin Racing is running with a pair of Audi A4s, Welch Automotive are running the rare saloon version of the Proton Gen-2 whilst Dynojet Racing & Speedworks Motorsport are running the D-segment Toyota Avensis, whose Honda rival is the Japanese built Honda Accord.

Crolla explains Honda UK’s and Team Dynamics logic in choosing to continue with the new Civic as opposed to the Accord. “I think it’s important because Honda UK have put their weight behind a British Championship. They want to make sure that the product is of British origin, and that obviously leads you to the Civic. The only other cars that are built at Swindon are the CR-V and the Jazz, so the choice is obviously clear on that.”

“The budget comes from the UK marketing department so they need to back a UK product,” adds Plowman.

The new Honda Civic was unveiled at the Frankfurt Show just a month ago, with Honda claiming it is vastly improved from the outgoing eighth-generation Civic FN2. The wheelbase is shorter, but Honda also claim the new Civic is the most aerodynamic car in its class, with a drag coefficient of just 0.27.

“It does help to have a good clean shape to start off with but obviously we’re going to add a lot of components which will have an affect on that” joked Plowman. “If you start off with a lower drag figure and add all of the aero parts required as part of the regulations, the drag figure with the same amount of downforce as we get on the current car should be less.”

Despite the success of Team Dynamics’ Hondas in the BTCC, particularly the 2005-2006 winning Integra which is still used in the championship today by the small independent outfit Team Wood Racing, the number of cars used by the independent teams has dwindled. Team Dynamics’ last pair of Civics were sold to a team in the Asian Touring Car Series, where Honda is by far the dominant marque. Dynamic’s Civics were victorious in their first season in Asia, beating tough competition from JAS Motorsport’s Accords winning both the teams’ and drivers’ championships.

In the BTCC, the Honda Racing Team will support Eurotech Racing in 2012, who currently run a pair of ex-Triple Eight Vauxhall Vectras for Andrew Jordan and Jeff Smith, whilst the team’s current Civics will likely be sold to Asia, Scandinavia, or another team competing in the BTCC.

“At the moment we’re planning to build five cars,” said Plowman. “Two of them are customer cars (Eurotech). There will definitely be four Honda Civics on the grid at the first round next year.”

“Our plan at the moment is that the first car will become a test car,” said Crolla, “And the second, third, fourth and fifth chassis will become the prime race cars. That test car will then be broken down to form part of our spares package for the 2012 season.”

The team have a long winter ahead to ensure the new Civic is race win ready from the start of the season in April with a detailed test and development plan ahead. Team Manager Peter Crolla confirms the first step is to shakedown the new car before Christmas, before Plowman explains the development process.

“We have a firm plan to use the K&C (Kinematics & Compliance) rig at MIRA. As well as using this data for our own test programme, we also plan to share this with TOCA to give them all the development measurements so we know the product is working as it was designed ” said Plowman.

“We then hope to get into the wind tunnel at MIRA early in January to validate the CFD work we have undertaken. Certainly by the end of January we’d like to do complete a series of tests here in the UK before completing our test programme in Spain during February.”

“The problem with testing in the winter in the UK is you don’t get the rear tyre temperature you need, all of a sudden the temperature comes up in the summer and you get a load of rear grip you didn’t want.”

The Honda Racing Team was one of the first front-running teams along with Arena Motorsport to confirm the switch to the NGTC 2.0 litre turbocharged engine for this year, though the majority of the field followed suit with the key exceptions of Chevrolet and their supplied teams and the two teams still running the ageing BMW 320si. Although Honda were very concerned in the pre-season tests over the additional weight over the front-axle and higher temperature the new engine was running at, it has turned out to be one of the best packages on the grid, requiring TOCA to implement new measures early on to balance the performance of the Honda against the normally aspirated Chevrolets of RML as promised in the 2011 regulations.

“The engine package developed with Neil Brown Engineering has worked incredibly well from the start” said Plowman. “Everybody thought they would struggle with not having turbo experience, but they have produced a great solution.”

“They’ve done an excellent job and we’re certainly very happy with the relationship with Neil Brown,” added Crolla. “That will obviously pass over into the customer cars as well, so it’s good for those guys and yes, we’re very happy with how the package has developed this year.”

“I think 2012 is going to be an interesting year for the championship and for the NGTC concept,” continued Crolla, “To date I think the teams that have run those cars have done a very good job, but I think the project is waiting for someone to really develop them to their maximum potential.”

“The NGTC programme needs the experience and resources of teams like us, RML & Triple Eight to get hold of the concept and keep it moving forward,” said Plowman, “And I think people will be alarmed at the pace of these cars next year if the three major teams in the championship build them. People will be quite stunned as to how quick they’ll be.”