The Civic nameplate is 50 years old today. The gift comes next week.

HARD to conceive now, but half a century ago Honda was considering abandoning cars to concentrate on motorbikes – it was only because they had a hatch ready to go that management determined to give the scene one last try.

There wasn’t a lot of hope. Their previous small cars, after all, had only done well in Japan. The rest of the world didn’t care.

Only this was 1972. The year of the world’s first energy crisis, which very much focused buyers’ minds on compact, cheap to run cars, not least in the United States. Americans really fell in love with Honda’s new entry and didn’t mind that it came with a funny name.

The Civic has never looked back since.

All sorts of Civics have come out since, but it’s the type celebrated today that has special meaning. Well, almost celebrated.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the launch of the original Civic. Such a big occasion deserves a big gift … but, in this instance, it’s announcement of one.

Honda has used today to announce that it’ll reveal the 2023 Civic Type R next Thursday, July 21.

The whole thing will be live-streamed at 2pm.

Meantime, a teaser image previewing the car's front end was released alongside the announcement – revealing the signature red Honda badge of Type R models will live on – as well a brief video of a camouflaged car banging around a circuit.

This comes via Honda USA. It says the new Type R will be “the most powerful Honda-branded production vehicle ever offered in the US” – suggesting the new car will be more powerful than its predecessor.

The previous Civic Type R developed 228kW/400Nm from a 2.0-litre turbocharged 'K20C' four-cylinder petrol engine here.

A six-speed manual transmission will be retained for the new model, alongside other performance features likely to include a limited-slip front differential, Michelin tyres and Brembo brakes. But with smaller 19-inch wheels, versus the outgoing car's 20s, according to overseas’ reports.