The new Honda Civic Type R concept has been revealed at the Geneva motor show. The concept, as significant in its importance as it is dramatic in appearance, closely previews a production model that is just a year away from showrooms.

The car’s extreme appearance bears out Honda’s claim that the Type R is not so much a hot version of a standard Civic as a road-legal version of a racing car.

It is more than 30mm lower than a standard Civic and distinguished by bulging wheel arches, a massive front spoiler and perhaps the most distinctive rear wing ever to see service on the back of the hatchback. Only the roof, front doors and unadorned rear tailgate are shared with a regular Civic hatch.

The Type R concept has been put together over the past six months by a team of just three people in Honda’s Swindon design centre, led by senior project designer Masaru Hasegawa.

“This is the most extreme Type R yet,” he said, “and the same will be said of the production version. Its styling is as much inspired by our new World Touring Car competitor as it is based on a basic Civic.”

Hasegawa pointed out that the car’s menacing shape has as much to do with aerodynamic optimisation as any styling consideration. “We are in constant touch with our engineers at the Nürburgring and in Japan,” he said. “We have incorporated their need for a shape that provides exceptional downforce with as little drag as possible as well as the cooling requirements of both the engine and brakes.”

At the front, there is a vast mesh dam to let cool air into the engine bay and, on the bonnet, ducts to let warm air out. Instead of merely presenting to the oncoming airflow in the usual two-dimensional way, the front spoiler wraps around the front of the car and flicks up so that, at the sides, it stands proud of the bodywork, creating a channel for air to flow around the boundary of the car and over the front brakes.

The skirt continues down the sides of the car, eventually turning into a tunnel to pump air to the rear discs. Although the visual theme is continued into the rear diffuser, the actual exit for this air is provided by large slats cut into those steroidal rear wings.

But it is the rear of the car that does most to cement the view that this is no normal hot hatch, nor even anything approaching a normal Type R. A massive bi-plane rear spoiler incorporates the tail-lights into side fences, while below the tailgate there are deeply grooved channels of a massive double-element diffuser, curving around four stout tailpipes, all of which are functional.

The Type R will be powered by a brand-new 2.0-litre turbocharged motor. Honda says it is already good for “over 276bhp” although privately engineers admit that it has hit 300bhp, with 41.47kgm of torque at just 2000rpm. Honda believes that competition for the Type R will come not from the Volkswagen Golf GTI and Ford Focus ST, but from more extreme models such as the Golf R and Focus RS. The firm has already promised it will be the fastest hot hatchback ever around the Nürburgring, becoming the first to lap it in under eight minutes in the process.