All-new Honda Civic Type R in spy images

SPREAD before you is perhaps the biggest change to hit the Honda Civic in nearly 43 years of its existence, with Australia looming large as a target for the Type R prototype snapped here.

Due to be unveiled within 12 months, the 10th-generation Honda Civic Hatch will be a clean-sheet redesign, growing in size, wheelbase, track width, cabin space, and performance.

Its aim is to take on more effectively Europe’s most respectable C-segment mainstreamers – namely the Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus, Renault Megane, Opel/Holden Astra, and Peugeot 308.

Undergoing hot-weather testing in Spain, this Mk10 Civic Type R prototype is also brandishing the usual hot-hatch accoutrements – big wheels, low-profile tyres, Brembo brakes, and visible air intakes for the intercooler – but no crazy oversized hatch-spoiler, indicating newfound maturity for 2017.

Whether the Civic Sedan (to be unveiled next week in the United States, much earlier than the Mk10 Civic Hatch), and Civic Coupe two-door (unlikely for Oz) also gain the more upmarket rear end is not yet known. The small-car segment Stateside is extremely price-sensitive, the three-box Honda slogging it out against the Toyota Corolla, Volkswagen Jetta, Hyundai Elantra, Kia Cerato/Forte, and Chevrolet-nee-Holden Cruze. What has been confirmed is that, unlike Civics since 2005, all bodystyles will be built on Honda’s box-fresh, common small-vehicle architecture.

Despite offbeat styling and some very keen pricing, the existing Civic has not been a success for Honda, falling under the shadow of larger yet sharper and more innovative rivals such as the Golf. Honda boss Stephen Collins has declared to Wheels that the next one will be completely different and “absolutely worth the wait”.