CIVIC TYPE R-GT set for second-year leap
In 2025, the second year in SUPER GT for the CIVIC TYPE R-GT sees five cars participating in the GT500 class
Honda Racing (HRC) had its long-served NSX-GT honourably discharged at the end of 2023 and launched the newly developed CIVIC TYPE R-GT into SUPER GT GT500 class from the 2024 season. As for the GT base car, the CIVIC TYPE R-GT is derived from a sedan-type production model with the innate characteristics of smaller drag with moderate downforce when compared with NSX-GT, of which origin was a midship 2-seater sport car.
The revised regulation to restrain excessive downforce for safety purposes by raising ride height with the thinner skid block did not help either. The conversion of the base car is never an easy task in the first place, and worse still, unfavourable weather during the pre-season test period forced the team into taking more time to finish the fine tuning work. The weather did not improve in the race weekends either, causing insufficient practice running which made the setup work very difficult to implement to the desired level. Despite those adverse circumstances, #8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita) achieved the maiden victory for CIVIC TYPE R-GT in the 4th round of the series, and #100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino) stayed in the title contention until to the final round showing the ceaseless progress all through the season.
In 2025, the second year for the make, a total of five CIVIC TYPE R-GT cars are to participate in the GT500 class of which driver line ups are as follows:
#8 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Tomoki Nojiri/Nobuharu Matsushita)
#16 ARTA MUGEN CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Hiroki Otsu/Ren Sato)
#17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Koudai Tsukakoshi/Syun Koide)
#64 Modulo CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Takuya Izawa/Riki Okusa)
#100 STANLEY CIVIC TYPE R-GT (Naoki Yamamoto/Tadasuke Makino)
Kakunoshin Ohta who had driven #17 car in 2024 is to challenge the top category in the “IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship,” from this season. His replacement is Syun Koide, a rookie driver who had climbed up all the way from Honda’s driver training program and become the 2024 Super Formula Lights champion, will be partnered with Tsukakoshi to drive #17 Astemo CIVIC TYPE R-GT in the 2025 season.
The team structure of #100 car that had finished 2nd overall in the previous season was slightly changed so as to come under the care of HRC. The company had been operating primarily for the works activities of the motorcycle racing while its effort for the auto racing was limited just for developing purposes. The earnest request from the team inspired the motivation of HRC for seeking the future possibility of works activities also in the auto racing field. With such a prospect in mind, HRC has made a step into the new territory by taking care of the maintenance of #100 car together with some experienced members from outside.
Getting positive impressions in the test
A series of winter tests were carried out in three months from January to March at Sepang International Circuit (Malaysia), Okayama International Circuit and Fuji Speedway. #8, #100 and #16 cars marked 2/3/4th fastest times in Session-3 at Fuji and proved the efficacy of the winter test analysis.
The 2025 regulations effectively forbid any update to the car, however, HRC has gone through with the setting work based upon the analytic data carefully accumulated from the actual races run in the previous season. The engines based on the late-2024 specification have also been developed for a further tweak of performance to be ready for the new season.
“All five cars seem to have been converged in a unified set-up methodology, I think. The fuel efficiency is more and more becoming the crucial factor these days, and I got some positive feelings in that area too. If we could run steady race with no serious mistake, we’d get more points and be able to win the championship title,” said Masahiro Saiki (SGT Project Leader).
The 2025 SUPER GT series opens at Okayama International Circuit on April 12-13, and a total of eight rounds will be held at six domestic circuits and at Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia. We thank all fans in advance for their continuous support to HRC and CIVIC TYPE R-GT.