Like a salmon fighting its way upstream, Honda’s FIA World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) racer began its long series of test and tunes, shakedowns and associated poking and prodding. Honda will enter three 2012 WTCC races with a single car piloted by Tiago Monteiro. These races will be serious shakedowns for the 2013 season where Honda plans to run the full season with multiple entries. Gabriele Tarquini, Honda’s 2012 development driver said, “Although I’d never driven the new Civic before, funnily, when I sat in the seat for the first time I immediately felt I was in a Honda. The bodywork is precise and the engine feels great. But this is just the first track test, so there is so much more for us to work on. The car looks beautiful too and will, I’m sure, wow all the WTCC fans around the world when it makes its debut in Suzuka.” The WTCC Civic is motivated by a 1.6-liter turbocharged HR-412E engine that features direct injection.