Win a Civic Type R? Gamers, start your engines!

Petrol heads might have the racing chops for the Civic Type R contest, but gamers have been racing the Nürburgring from our bedrooms for years.

Honda are updating their car lineup for 2015 at the moment. There’s a facelift of the standard Honda Civic, plus a new Jazz and a relaunch of the HRV, a compact crossover (to rival the ugly Tonka toy Nissan Juke).

Stick with it, I’m coming back around to gaming in a minute…

Those are all very sensible things, though. Honda have had a history of doing very exciting cars too, and they’re making a comeback in the next 18 months. There’s a relaunch of the S2000 roadster, a totally new NSX supercar (which looks… wow) and a brand new Civic Type R, which is very exciting. Everybody loves the NES-era-rocketship-styled pocket rocket, and the new one looks epic.

To prove how epic it is, Honda have thrown the new Civic Type R around the Nürburgring – the test track to end all test tracks – in a fraction over 7 minutes 50 seconds.

That might not sound that fast, but in so doing the new Civic Type R has beaten three Porsches, an AMG Mercedes, a Nissan GT-R, Ferrari 430 and a Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560-4. Holy shit!

Nearly back at gaming now, I promise…

How would you like to win a brand new Civic Type R? Well your gaming chops might just help you do it.

There we go! Told you it was worth it!

Honda are taking a state of the art simulator, loaded up with the Nürburgring circuit (named affectionately by Sir Jackie Stewart as “the Green Hell”) and a model of the new Civic Type R, for gamers to have a bash at in the hopes of winning the car itself. It will be travelling around car shows, shopping centres and various other locations, which at the time of writing are:

• 17-19th July – Westfield, London
• 24-26th July – Silverstone Classic, Northamptonshire
• 31st July-2nd August – Carfest North, Cheshire
• 6-9th August – Bristol Balloon Fiesta, Bristol
• 12-13th August – Spinningfields, Manchester
• 17-19th August – Finsbury Avenue Square, Broadgate
• 21-23rd August – Bullring, Birmingham
• 28-30th August – Carfest South, Hampshire
• 1st September – Summer Race Day, Epsom Downs Races
• 5-6th September – Briggate, Leeds
• 12-13th September – Armada Way, Plymouth
• 17-18th September – Festival Square, Edinburgh
• 26-27rd September – West Quay, Southampton
• 3-4th October – St Davids, Cardiff
• 10-11th October – Victoria Centre, Nottingham
• 17-18th October – Metro Shopping Centre, Newcastle
• 24-25th October – Braehead, Glasgow
• 30th October – 1st November – Westfield, Stratford

So if you get yourself along to one of those venues, and are the fastest in the country around the Green Hell, then you will be picking up the keys to a brand new Honda Civic Type R.

You may think the petrol heads and experienced racers might have the advantage, but I think it will be a gamer that will come out on top. And sure, the petrol heads might have more experience on track, but how many of them have ever lapped the fearsome Nürburgring?

Whereas the gamers? We’ve been doing it for years, on Gran Turismo, Forza, Need for Speed, Project Gotham Racing… you get the idea. Gamers, start your engines!

Pick up a copy of Forza Motorsport 5 from Amazon to get in some practice.