RACE fans who drive an estate for their business should find the latest launch from Honda just a little more attractive than most.

Honda  is offering a Tourer (estate) version of the Civic hatch for the first time, and expects 1700 of the projected 4000 sales to be to business buyers.

But the secret weapon in trying to claw back some of Ford and Vauxhall’s domination of the 38,000 per annum family-sized estate market is not the Honda Civic Tourer’s claimed class-leading boot capacity of 624 litres, but the fact it’s going racing in Britain’s biggest motorsport series.

Honda’s Civic has dominated the British Touring Car Championship, which attracts thousands of spectators to circuits and millions more viewers on the TV, for years, winning the last three titles.

But now Honda’s ‘works’ team, Honda Yuasa Racing, is dumping its Civic hatches for the new Tourer. Drivers Matt Neal and Gordon Shedden, champions in 2011 and 2012, will line up in Honda Civic Tourers when the BTCC kicks off at Brands Hatch in Kent on 30^th March.