HONDA has produced its half-millionth Civic at the Swindon car plant with a little help from Formula 1 drivers Olivier Panis and Jacques Villeneuve.

The BAR Honda Grand Prix drivers took time off F1 duties to help build the milestone Civic, a mint-green 1.6SE five-door.

Working alongside the 4,300 Honda 'associates', as the employees are called, at the plant, they say they discovered that Honda road cars are built with the same care and attention as their Grand Prix machines, only much faster, with a new one rolling off the line at Swindon about once every 30 seconds.

After downing tools, they took the machine out for a spin on the factory test track.

Honda test drives every car it builds as part of its quality control process, something the company claims no other manufacturer does.

The F1 stars were instructed to drive a bit slower than normal, to go easy on the tyres and brakes and to keep off the kerbs.

The drivers said the factory visit was a real eye-opener.

Mr Villeneuve said: "I've never seen anything like this before. The speed at which everybody works is amazing. It's quite stressful. I thought we'd get in the way but everybody seemed OK with us."

Mr Panis said: "I was pleased to visit the car plant. It's the first time I've done anything like this and I really enjoyed working with the guys. I was surprised how quickly the cars are built."

Car production at the Honda UK Manufacturing Swindon plant began in 1992 with the Accord which quickly became Honda's best-selling car in Europe.