Honda's Civic Type R will again get the opportunity to prove its mettle on the track during the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC). The factory-backed Halfords Yuasa Racing team unveiled the updated hatchback it will enter in the 2020 season of the series that starts in March.

The regular-production Civic Type R is not for motorists seeking to keep a low profile, yet the BTCC-spec model makes it look almost subtle. It wears a front spoiler, seriously flared fenders, and an even bigger wing on the hatch. Although we haven't seen the interior yet, peeking through the windshield reveals a full roll cage, a racing seat, and little else. It weighs approximately 2,820 pounds, which is the minimum allowed by regulations.

An amazing Honda S2000 Time Attack car will be sold by BH Auction in a sales event scheduled for this summer.

If you are a fan of that toned-down Sport Line version of the updated Honda Civic Type R and you happen to live in the US, the news are bad.

Pricing is out for the 2020 Honda Civic Type R, and it has crept up a bit from last year. The new base price is $37,950, which is an increase of $695. Considering the amount of additional features and updates made to the Type R, that's a fairly reasonable up-charge.

Among the feature additions is the Honda Sensing suite of safety and driver aids. It includes automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist. The styling has been tweaked to downplay some of the fake vent openings as well as opening up the main grille for improved cooling. There are several mechanical updates including new two-piece front brake rotors that weigh a total of five pounds less, and Honda claims they provide better feel. The shocks have been retuned and stiffer bushings fitted. There's even a data logging tool that will be available as a phone app later this year.

The ‘Type R' name has only ever been used on a handful of vehicles from Honda and during a recent interview with Autoblog, the car manufacturer said it's very protective of the name and won't use it for any old model.

The 2020 Honda Civic Type R gets a number of updates over the previous model, plus a wild special edition, but one that Honda just announced is actually for your phone. The company is launching a phone app called LogR that will record vehicle data when you're at a track.

The app connects with the car's on-board computer to display and record various, well, data. The most basic function is as an auxiliary instrument panel displayed on the infotainment screen. It can show oil, water and intake temperatures, oil and boost pressure, and lateral and longitudinal g forces.

A year and a half ago, we got our first glimpse at a Civic Type R sporting a wing that didn't touch the sky. And now that more subtle Civic is going into production as the 2020 Honda Civic Type R Sport Line. It features a number of changes that make it more mellow looking, but American buyers hoping to order one are out of luck, as it's a European model only.

The obvious change is a low-profile wing that is almost more of a spoiler. It does still have pointy parts like the rest of the Type R's extroverted body, so it fits in nicely. Another significant change is the switch to 19-inch wheels, rather than 20-inch units. These look less extreme, and they will probably return a slightly nicer ride. The front splitter, side skirts and rear diffuser also get a grey highlight rather than the regular Type R's red line. Inside, the red bucket seats are swapped for simple black ones with red and grey stitching.

The Type R is the ultimate Civic from a performance standpoint, and now Honda has created an ultimate version of the ultimate Civic: the 2021 Honda Civic Type R Limited Edition. It's an uninspired name for an eye-popping limited-edition car, only 600 of which will come to America.

The immediately obvious change to the car is the Phoenix Yellow paint scheme that's exclusive to the Limited Edition. It's matched with a black roof, mirror caps and hood scoop, plus some dark chrome badging. Also noticeable are a set of forged 20-inch BBS wheels, the brand having been selected since it has produced wheels for the NSX and S2000.

During a roundtable during a recent event hosted by Honda, we joined in on a roundtable interview with Honda Technical Consultant Ko Yamamoto and Honda Civic Type R Project Leader Hideki Kakinuma. Questions were asked about the Type R brand broadly, as well as the potential for some new projects. The answers were both good news and disappointing news for Honda fans.

The good news is that Honda takes the Type R name and brand very seriously. Yamamoto and Kakinuma explained that the name and its associated red "H" badge are only for vehicles with a racing connection, such as the Honda Civic Type R that has a couple of racing variants. As such, you won't be seeing a CR-V, Odyssey or Insight with the Type R name. Furthermore, the Type R name is only for Honda-badged vehicles, despite the existence of the Acura Integra Type R a couple decades ago.

CHICAGO — Honda surprised us with a Civic Type R update at the Tokyo Auto Salon a short time ago, but today's Chicago Auto Show was the first chance we had to get up close and personal with the refreshed hot hatch. Many of the changes are minor, but we were able to learn a lot more about what the updated Type R is bringing to the table. We walked around the car with Honda spokesperson Davis Adams to gain some insight into the design changes.

"Every car gets a mid-cycle halfway in, and also, if anything has been one of our design complaints, it's been the mesh, the fake grille. It's just changed," Adams tells us.

For this year's Tokyo Auto Salon, Honda didn't just bring upgraded versions of its latest models, but also some examples of its past creations, too. One of the headlining vehicles was a classy white-over-red S2000. But a much more extreme model was the 1997 Honda Civic Type R EK9 on display. It's official name is the Honda Civic Cyber Night Japan Cruiser 2020. Basically, it's what Honda imagines the old hatchback would look like if it had been designed in a cyberpunk universe. The basic shape has been given some updating with more creased and angular grille openings and side mirrors. They're contrasted by the circular holes in the grille mesh. The front splitter and side skirts give it a more aggressive stance. But the most striking changes are the lights. Most of the headlight and taillight area is blocked off in the same color as the body, leaving a thin, LED-lit line. It's a modern look that still evokes the shape of the original car. At the back, the lights are augmented by a wide black bar that spans the hatch. In the middle is an illuminated 1997 Civic logo. Honda makes no mention of mechanical changes. The original Type R had a fairly stout powertrain to begin with, making 182 horsepower and with a redline of 8,400 rpm. It also picked up larger brakes, stiffer suspension, limited-slip differential, stickier tires and lost weight to make it faster.

The S2000 20th Anniversary Prototype is undoubtedly the star of Honda Access' 2020 Tokyo Auto Salon stand, but this EK9 Civic Type R custom concept comes a close second.

With the NSX and Civic Type R currently in its range, there's no denying that Honda makes some exciting performance cars. However, there was a time, not too long ago, when the Japanese car manufacturer had a fleet of truly incredible driver's car. The Acura RSX Type-S, like this example for sale on Bring A Trailer, was one of the finest and perhaps least appreciated.

Subsequent to updating the regular Civic lineup, Honda has now done the same to the Civic Type R.