Workers at Honda’s Swindon plant have been praised for helping the Civic Type R win three honours in the coveted BBC TopGear Magazine Car of the Year awards.
The Type R – which has a top speed of 169mph and can do the 0-62mph sprint in just 5.7 seconds – picked up the ‘hot hatch of the year’ and ‘international editors’ car of the year’ before going on to claim the overall prize for car of the year. 
The awards issue of BBC TopGear Magazine is the world’s largest monthly car magazine’s annual celebration of the very best cars of the year. This year the awards went global with the editors of all 22 of their international editions voting for their favourite.
The Civic Type R shares the same fundamentals as the new Swindon-built Civic hatchback – the 10th generation of the Honda’s top selling car – and has been engineered from the ground up to deliver the most rewarding drive in the hot-hatch segment.
Honda UK head of car Phil Webb said it was an absolutely outstanding achievement to pick up three wins at the BBC TopGear Magazine car of the year awards.
“And it is a truly global award with the international editors voting for the car as well. The kudos for picking up all three honours needs to go to the designers, the engineers and the associates at the factory that build the cars –without them none of this would have happened. This is a fantastic way to round off 2017!”
BBC TopGear Magazine said: “The Civic Type R isn’t just the best Hot Hatch of the Year, it’s the best Car of the Year.
“It’s addictive, rhythmic and devastatingly rapid; a true hero for the masses delivering accessibility and madness in one package. The thrill comes from the sheer single-mindedness of it.”
Swindon is Honda’s global centre for Civic production with a workforce around 4,000.
