Honda engineers build a Civic Type R pickup truck, just for fun

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The Honda Civic Type R is already a fairly practical five-door hatchback, but that apparently wasn’t good enough for a group of U.K. Honda engineers who gave a Type R the full El Camino treatment, turning it into a pickup truck named “Project P.”

Up front, Project P looks like a standard Civic Type R. But the roof aft of the front doors was removed to make way for the pickup bed. The stock rear spoiler was retained but modified so it could swing out of the way to allow easier loading and unloading of the bed. Honda’s engineers clearly thought of everything.

The pickup truck uses the same engine, transmission, and suspension as a stock Civic Type R, according to Honda. That means a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine producing 306 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. Drive is to the front wheels through a six-speed manual transmission. Honda claims Project P will do 0 to 62 mph in under six seconds, and reach a top speed of over 165 mph. The Type R El Camino also retains the stock drive modes of Comfort, Sport, and +R.

Project P was built by a team of engineers at the Honda of the U.K. Manufacturing factory in Swindon, England. The factory builds all Civic hatchbacks sold in Europe and North America, including the Type R. Don’t expect Honda to put a Civic pickup into production though; Project P was just a fun side project.

“We have a special projects division at the factory in Swindon and this project was a fantastic opportunity for the team to show just what their creative minds could do,” Alyn James, Project P team leader, said in a statement. “The passion that our engineers have for Honda is shown in our latest creation and we are even considering taking it to the Nürburgring to see if we can take the record for the fastest front-wheel drive pickup truck!”

In the auto industry, it seems that everything is cooler with a pickup bed. Engineers at BMW and Nissan have built one-off pickup versions of the M3 and Leaf, respectively, and Photoshop renderings giving other models the El Camino treatment appear regularly online. Which car do you think will be next?