The latest issue of BestCar hits the newsstands today (March 26 in Japan), and within the pages there's some info on the soon to be released Japanese-market StepWGN, which will feature Honda's first road application of the 1.5L VTEC Turbo engine.

The StepWGN is a minivan of sorts, a tall and boxy one, so it appears that Honda has optimized this variant of the 1.5 VTEC Turbo for fuel efficiency and a very flat torque curve.

The specs given by BestCar are as follows:

• Displacement: 1496cc
• Valvetrain: DOHC VTEC
• Horsepower: 150ps@5500rpm
• Torque: 20.7 kg-m@1500-5000rpm (150lb-ft@1500-5000rpm)
• Engine Code: A15B

The BestCar text appears to reference another variant of this new 1.5L VTEC Turbo, said to generate 201ps/191lb-ft. Note that Honda has already revealed that the upcoming 10th generation Civic will feature a "downsized turbo" and the expectation is that it will use a variant of this A15 1.5L VTEC Turbo. We're guessing that the next generation Civic could be announced as early as next week, during Honda's press conference at 1:55PM April 1st at the New York Auto Show.