Not long after Honda confirmed the new Prelude is coming to the US, Japanese journalists got to get their hands on a prototype of the sports coupe. Their first impressions make the car sound very promising. It’s not just a Civic Hybrid with a two-door body.
For starters, the Prelude gets a bunch of equipment from the Civic Type R. A video from YouTube channel Ride Now reports that the Prelude gets the Civic Type R’s unique dual-axis steering front suspension, which is designed to mitigate torque steer, and the hot hatch’s adaptive dampers. Unlike any Civic, though, the Prelude has a GT drive mode sandwiched between the expected Comfort and Sport modes, which sounds like it’ll provide a nice balance between the two.
Honda confirmed today that the Prelude will have a new S+ Shift mode, and now we have a better idea of how it’ll work. Most of the time, Honda’s two-motor hybrid cars drive the wheels directly with one of their electric motors, and the engine works as a generator for the battery. With S+ Shift enabled, Honda revs the engine up and down and cuts torque from the drive motor to simulate the feeling of a combustion engine running through an eight-speed transmission. There are even paddle shifters on the back of the steering wheel so that the driver can virtually shift gears.
It’s sort of like what Hyundai is doing with the Ioniq 5 N’s fake-transmission N Grin Shift function, except instead of having totally simulated engine sounds, Honda is using the actual engine here. It’s an interesting way of trying to make a hybrid vehicle more engaging, while also taking advantage of the efficiency benefits of a two-motor setup like the one Honda uses here.
The video from Enthusiast Car Guide gives us another good look and listen at the system in action, and the driver is clearly very impressed. We really like what Hyundai has done with the Ioniq 5 N, and if Honda calibrates S+ Shift similarly well, we’ll like this too.
Journalists who tested the new Prelude report that the coupe has a shorter wheelbase than the Civic, but wider tracks front and rear. All of this adds up to a car that feels meaningfully different. The Prelude’s interior is shared with the Civic, but that’s no bad thing, as the current Civic feels far nicer than anything else in the class.
Consider us very intrigued. The Prelude arrives in the US late next year, and we’re very excited to have a go.