- Honda Australia boss dashes any hope of a Prelude Kind R.
- Honda designed the car across the hybrid powertrain.
- The associated fee to show the Prelude right into a Kind R would require ‘funding within the order of a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.’
The Honda Prelude shouldn’t be the quickest new sports activities automotive available on the market. It packs a 200-horsepower hybrid four-cylinder engine and a trick transmission. These hoping for a high-performance Kind R variant may simply have to purchase a Civic Kind R as a substitute.
In an interview with CarSales, Honda Australia’s boss quashed any hopes of a Prelude Kind R variant. President and CEO Jay Joseph stated that Honda designed the Prelude across the hybrid powertrain from the beginning. Joseph notes that the hybrid powertrain “matches” the automotive, including, “once we deliberate it as a world car, as a world mannequin, all the pieces made sense to us.”

Photograph by: Honda
Joseph additionally revealed that it might require an enormous funding to adapt the Prelude into one thing worthy of the Kind R badge. Whereas the platform is adaptable, the work it might have to turn into a Kind R would require a full ground-up improvement and hundreds of thousands of {dollars} value of funding. He notes:
‘There’s some stage of interchangeability that’s inherent to a platform method, however on the similar time, we’ve made so many diversifications of the platform for this particular car.’
Whereas we would not get a high-performance, high-powered model of Honda’s modern new coupe, homeowners can improve the car in different methods. Earlier this yr, Honda Racing Company introduced a slew of aftermarket parts for the Prelude, together with suspension upgrades, wheels, aerodynamic goodies, and extra, however it made no point out of any powertrain upgrades.
That has been locked in.
Motor1’s Take: Anybody hoping the Prelude would ultimately blossom into a real sports activities automotive goes to have to position bets elsewhere. Honda merely didn’t design the coupe to be something greater than what it’s already, and lovers will simply should reside with that.