Honda Civic Type R not coming to Australia

Read it and weep. The hottest Honda hatchback of all time won't come to Australia after all.

Honda's hottest hatch of all time -- the new turbocharged Civic Type R -- is not coming to Australia after all.

The new Civic Type R went on sale in Europe and the UK earlier this year and was due in Australia some time in 2016.

But Honda Australia has since ruled out the flagship model because it would have arrived about the same time as the next generation Civic sedan.

Europe and the UK get a completely different type of Civic to the US and the Asia-Pacific.

We will have the next generation Civic sedan by the time it would have arrived

Australia currently sources both types of Civics -- the hatches from the UK and the sedans from Thailand -- but in future it wants to streamline its line-up.

"As much as we would love to have it, unfortunately we won't get this Civic Type R," said Honda Australia director Stephen Collins.

"It arrives too late in the model cycle for us … we will have the next generation Civic sedan by the time it would have arrived."

Although diehard Honda enthusiasts would be eager to drive the car that has the European press in a blather -- it almost defeated the more expensive VW Golf R in Top Gear's annual hot hatch shootout, and ranked higher than nine other contenders -- Australians will now need to wait at least another three years.

2016 Honda Civic Type R

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2016 Honda Civic Type R

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2016 Honda Civic Type R

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2016 Honda Civic Type R

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Honda is developing a Type R version of the next generation Civic.

Honda Australia director Stephen Collins says we will get that model, but what engine will power it, what it looks like, and where it will be sourced from, are all yet to be confirmed.

The current Honda Civic Type R is the most powerful of all time, with a turbocharged 2.0-litre VTEC engine with a staggering 228kW of power and 400Nm of torque.

With a claimed 0 to 100km/h time of 5.7 seconds, it is faster than a VW Golf GTI, Renault Megane RS and Ford Focus ST.

It has also lapped Germany's famous Nurburgring race track faster than any other front-drive road-going hot hatch (7:50.63, to save you searching the web).