Japanese press site 47News claims that Honda will be announcing the discontinuation of the Honda Civic Type R FD2R on the 19th of April 2010, which is basically this Monday. The report was published on the 15th, a good two weeks after April Fool’s day so it’s definitely not a joke, but then again we’re not discounting that it could be some pretty wild speculation.
According to the report, the reason for discontinuing the product is a sluggish market for high performance gas-guzzling cars. Honda is taking the whole green thing very seriously and perhaps a little too far – the end of the FD2R will mean the European Civic Type R (which sits on a different platform and is built in the UK) will be the last of the Type Rs.
And that’s just assuming that Honda will be leaving the Euro Type R alone while it pulls the plug on the FD2R. But I think the FN Type R will soldier on – this would explain why there was news in August last year that the FN Type R would be exported to Japan. Anyway if this is true, the sedan will follow the Integra and the NSX’s demise along with their F1 project. And Honda will be left with the 122 horsepower CR-Z as its ’sportiest’ car.