Barwell Motorsport's Group N-spec Honda Civic Type R proved incredibly fast in the hands of Mark Lemmer and Hampshire's James Kaye at Thruxton.

The car, which features a standard road-spec engine, qualified an amazing sixth overall (and first in Class 3) out of 37 entries for the Britcar Endurance event.

Lemmer and Kaye humbled much more powerful machinery such as a horde of BMW M3s, Ferrari F355/365s, Marcos and Porsche 993s.

The next car in their class, a Honda Integra Type R, was 2.4 seconds slower than their Civic!

Lemmer made a good start in the race and immediately moved up to fourth overall, a position he, amazingly, was then able to consolidate as he opened up a sizeable gap to the Class 2 BMW M3s and Ferraris behind.

Unfortunately, a skirmish in the opening laps with an M3 featuring a very long rigid metal rear tow hook punctured a hole in the front bumper and forced the bumper panel back into the Civic's radiator.

With a hole in the radiator, the engine began overheating, forcing the car into an early retirement.

It was a great shame, considering they were on for a certain Class 3 win and a possible overall top three podium finish.