2015 Honda Civic Type R Spied Testing

Honda's hot new Civic Type R hatch has been spied testing again, this time in its cold-weather gear.

These latest shots reveal the new hot hatch in the same state of undress that we saw in the first promotional images released in 2013.

Are we looking at the new Type R's final design, or will we see a more dramatically altered body that is more in line with the wide new concept revealed in March last year?

The tester shown here can be seen with the same new bumpers worn by previous prototypes, with bolt-on guards dominating the profile.

In contrast, the recent show-car concept wears all-new guards, integrating its massive flares into the bodywork.

Last year's concept also reveals all-new headlights and a bold new integrated tail-light and spoiler design at the rear.

Earlier shots also revealed the new 'CTR' rolling on larger gold wheels as Honda benchmarks its new front-wheel-drive hot hatch against the all-wheel-drive Mercedes-Benz A 45 AMG.

Honda says the new Type R’s turbo engine will deliver “unrivalled” power, torque and engine response when compared against previous Type R models - including the legendary NSX.

Official details of the new Type R are still to come, although Honda has confirmed that power in the new hatch will come from a 2.0 litre turbo engine, producing more than 206kW.

Those figures will make the new hatch more powerful than Volkswagen's new Golf GTI and Ford's Focus ST, not to mention Renault's Megane RS.

It will match Opel's Astra OPC however, which also features a 206kW 2.0 litre turbo engine. This model will soon return to Australia, this time wearing a Holden Astra VXR badge.

The company has also reaffirmed that the Type R will be offered exclusively with a six-speed manual shifter.

Officially, this is in recognition of a preference for the format among enthusiasts, but it may also have been a step to avoid the costs of developing a suitable automatic option.

The Civic Type R will also feature a special +R button on the steering wheel, delivering specific settings for engine response, steering and adaptive dampers.

There's also a new ‘Steer Axis’ system that adds two unique supporting kingpins to the front suspension, introduced in a bid to reduce the huge torque-steer factor that all high-powered front-wheel-drive cars must battle.

Watch for more details to surface in the coming months.

MORE: New Civic Type R Technical Details

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