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Honda pegs the agony meter with a dribbled-out launch of the car R&T craves.

Here’s what R&T knows about the 2023 Honda Civic Type R: Not enough. That’s not nothing, but it’s also not much.

Honda is teasing the snot out of the new Type R. The information they’ve released amounts to one bare press release that doesn’t include specifications. There is, as yet, no stated output for the 2.0-liter turbocharged engine, no claimed curb weight, and no other juicy tech morsel like brake size or differential design. So, some of which that follows is speculation based on a visual inspection.

In a hangar at the Hawthorne Airport outside Los Angeles, Honda was shepherding “journalists” through with each getting 45 minutes of alone-time under a video-friendly lighting set up. Road & Track’s slot came, it’s rumored, just after The New Yorker’s and right before the Antelope Valley Penny Saver’s. Everyone was invited.

Sitting under the diffuse light, the “Historic Championship White” Type R was undeniably charismatic. With its nose flared over 265-section width Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires on open-spoke 19-inch wheels, it has stance. The big intercooler hanging under its front bumper looks serious too. So, it has presence.

Many trademark Type R tropes return. That includes the red badges, three exhaust outlets, red front seats and a huge rear spoiler. That in mind, that spoiler is now less massive even if it has the same effective downforce, meaning it’s now 43 percent less embarrassingly adolescent. It does all the Honda fanboy service, but in a better-looking and more coherent way.

Much of that improvement in appearance is the fact that it’s based on the latest generation Civic five-door hatch. This one isn’t trying as hard as the last one. It seems confident rather than relentless. Inside there’s now red carpet throughout the car. That means the occupants are always arriving at a celebrity event. Or it may just mean that if blood is spilled, the stains can be easily hidden.

The instrumentation is a digital fiesta of data logging and obsessive/compulsive overkill. None of which will matter until it gets out on a track and how it performs merits all the watching. At the heart of all this is… apparently a version of the same 2.0-liter, turbocharged four used in the previous Type R. The best thing about it, apparent in this short, static display is that Honda hasn’t hidden it under a stupid cover. Instead there are some carbon fiber accents that dress up the engine bay without making it look like a brick of plastic.

This engine is almost all familiar K20C1 stuff. The turbo hangs off the front of the engine abutting the catalytic converter that it feeds. What are internal changes? Honda ain’t saying. What’s the output? Dribbles of rumors are that 330 horses are coming, but there’s no verification of that. But at least it’s still hooked to a real-live six-speed manual transmission and Honda likely couldn’t build a lousy manual if it actively tried.

Honda has been building Civics for 50 years and Civic Type Rs for 30. So, let’s get past all the teases and agonies and get this thing on the road so it can get to a track. Sales should start in the fall with factory pricing orbiting around $40,000 – and dealers asking for significantly more.