Should a Honda Jazz Type R be an actual thing?

By topgear, 19 February 2020

This is a Honda Jazz Type R. Is it real? Is it heck. Should it be real? Erm, yes. Yes it should.

See, vast swathes of the TG MY office are Jazz fans. We put aside any preoccupation with being cool and marvel at its shamelessly boxy swagger and the monstrously clever interior housed within. It’s a genius thing.

But it’s slow. So, so slow. Injecting some VTEC turbo magic up front – perhaps not the full 316bhp of the Civic Type R, though anything 200bhp upwards would do us – would turn it into one of the most wonderfully, joyously unexpected hot hatches ever.

Unexpected is the key word, though. This Type R is the product of ace renderers X-Tomi Design, and unless something rather excellent is running in the water at Honda HQ when they clap eyes on it, we suspect that’s how it’ll stay. Shame.

Image: X-Tomi Design