Type R TCR Race Cars

[bbrunty15]

Hello all,

Absolutely not important at all but I thought I would toss this out to the community and see what you all think.

So I am a big race fan, and this past weekend many of you may know but we had the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and on Friday we had the Michelin Pilot Challenge Race. Type Rs have raced in this category for a while now. I've gotten to see them at Mid Ohio several times over the years. I noticed while looking through the spotters guide that both the FK8 and FL5 generations of the Type R were racing. That wasn't unusual to see, I totally understand why not all the teams running Hondas have moved to the FL5 platform yet. However, what I did find interesting was the fact that while they are referred to as "Type R" the previous generation is referred to as FK7 rather than FK8. Of course I know that the FK7 is a real car, it's the standard hatchback from that gen. My question to the community is, does anyone know why they made this distinction? In all fairness, I know these homologated race cars realistically are hardly related to their road going counterparts (they share the K20 of course) and a lot of the design of the TCR cars is outsourced to JAS Motorsport (I believe?). I am curious to know if anyone has any insight on this.

I have included this years spotters guide and various links. Thanks!!

Spotters Guide - https://spotterguides.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SG_24_DIS_ONLINE_V1.pdf

FK7/FK8 TCR - https://www.tcr-series.com/homologated-cars/item/honda-civic-tipe-r-tcr

HRC Article about FK7 - https://honda.racing/wtcr/machines/honda-civic-type-r-tcr

HRC Article about FL5 - https://honda.racing/post/new-civic-type-r-tcr-race-car-to-be-introduced-in-2023

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[EJHonda]

I volunteer as an SCCA flag marshal and in addition have worked many IMSA events (headed down to Sebring in March for the 12 Hour race once again this year). I've loved watching the TCR Type Rs competing. I can say it takes some time for manufacturers to work with sanctioning bodies to agree on the specs of a new platform so that they are in balance with the other cars in the field. I only recently picked up on the FK7 moniker, and wondered about the origin of it. I'm hoping that Honda gets the FL5 platform out to race series by next year.

Let me put a plug in for flagging with SCCA: if you're a race fan, there's no better seat in the house than to be a corner marshal! It's relatively easy to join the SCCA and become a flagger. Within 2 years I was invited to work my first pro event, and I've been doing a mix of SCCA, Trans Am, IMSA, and other series ever since. I'm always amazed that more folks aren't taking advantage of the opportunity to get up close to racing.