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Honda's woes as problems hit the new NGTC Civic

By MJP Media | 2 March 2012

The legendary reliability of the Honda Racing Civics was for the first time under question this week as a number of issues seemed to beset the car.

A fire burns in the engine bay at Oulton Park
A fire burns in the engine bay at Oulton Park

Honda have been doing more testing than most teams in a bid to ensure that the totally new car built to the BTCC's Next Generation Touring Car regulations would be ready well ahead of the first round which is just 4 weeks away. This week however has seen testing sessions at both Oulton Park and Rockingham suspended due to mechanical and electrical issues.

The team at Rockingham
The team at Rockingham

At Oulton Park on Wednesday, in an exclusive discussion with us, team manager Steve Neal admitted that they were having a few problems with the steering stiffening up too much when under load with new tyres. The team then halted testing just before lunch after a small fire developed in the engine bay.

Technical issues baffle the team at Rockingham
Technical issues baffle the team at Rockingham

Today at Rockingham saw the car in the pits for most of the morning with the team pouring over it trying to find answers to a number of items. To really ruin the week, the car went out in the afternoon but ground to a halt when the engine let go: an unheard of event for the team. Matt Neal was philosophical afterwards and took comfort from the fact that the car is "fundamentally fast".

It will be interesting to see how next week's testing develops!

Rockingham testing pictures: Paul Davies / MJP Media

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