Grand Prix Stars Help Complete Swindon's 500,000th Honda Civic 

Villeneuve & Panis join factory workers for landmark occasion

 

Jaques Villeneuve

BAR Honda Grand Prix stars Jaques Villeneuve and Olivier Panis paid their second visit to Honda's manufacturing plant in Swindon to celebrate the 500,000th Civic to be produced at the factory - and ended up becoming mechanics themselves for the day!

 
More used to hi-tech flame retardant racing overalls covered in sponsors logos, the 1997 World Champion, Villeneuve, and the 1996 Monaco winner, Panis, donned factory atire to help put the finishing touches to the milestone Civic as it rolled off the production line. 

 

Driving demo

 

Civic: 500,000 produced in Swindon

The two stars then treated the Honda workers present to a demonstration of their driving skills when they both put the Civic they'd helped produce through its paces out onto the plant's test track.

 

Fortunately for Jaques and Olivier, they both returned the car in prestine condition, as opposed to the last occasion a formula one driver "showed off" in Swindon when Jean Alesi crahed his Jordan Honda at the factory last year (see link below).