Honda’s Type R could be sidelined by hardcore HRC variant

For decades now, Honda’s Type R badge has represented some of the best-engineered performance road cars available – but that may all be about to change.

According to US publication The Drive, the Type R badge could be relegated to second position in the Honda hierarchy.

Honda Racing Corporation – better known as HRC or Honda Racing – is the brand’s motorsports arm, formed in the early 1990s to lead its motorcycle campaign in the MotoGP.

But in 2022, HRC widened its scope, delving into the world of car racing. From 2026, HRC will be a power unit manufacturer for Formula One’s new era.

Now, Honda Racing President Koji Watanabe says Honda should create a top-tier variant of its road cars using parts developed by HRC.

“Today I cannot tell the exact plan yet, but yes, we should create such kind of performance model together with HRC racing technologies,” Mr Watanabe told The Drive.

“The American side [HRC US] already started developing performance parts.”

Curiously, the Type R nameplate was born directly from the word ‘racing’, while Type S stands for ‘sport’ – with the latter applied to sports models with a bias towards road driving rather than outright performance.

“You have the Type S or Type R for the road and [on the other end] you have a race car that you can buy for the track – so this would be something in between – right at the verge of where your significant other won’t want to ride with you,” HRC US Senior Vice President Jon Ikeda told The Drive.

“If you’re going to put the HRC brand name on it, that’s what you’re saying [that it’s the ultimate expression of that model], and it has to be street legal.”

{{AD}}

‍

Honda isn’t the first company to water down the meaning of its high-performance models.

Toyota Racing Development (TRD) was originally the carmaker’s motorsports arm – created for the 1957 Round Australia Trial – eventually looking after factory racing teams in IMSA GT and the World Rally Championship for decades, as well as creating performance parts for road vehicles.

Eventually, TRD badges adorned off-road models like the Toyota 4Runner SUV and Tundra pick-up, and the company’s racing arm was taken over by Gazoo Racing.

It’s a similar story in Germany. BMW’s high-performance M cars were originally born from its BMW Motorsport division. But after decades of M badges being fitted to dozens of its models, the company rebranded its racing arm… to BMW M Motorsports.

Honda has yet to announce whether HRC will take over Type R as its top-tier performance badge, but regardless, it seems as if there may be some exciting projects in development behind the curtain.

What do you think? Should Honda replace the Type R name with HRC?