The New Honda Prelude Is Going Racing

Japan’s Super GT series is one of the coolest championships around, with wild silhouette racing versions of the country’s performance icons duking it out across its racetracks. Traditionally, the big three Japanese manufacturers have each lined up a contender for the top-flight GT500 class, spawning legends like the Castrol TOM’s Supra, Mugen NSX and Pennzoil R34 Skyline, all of which will be familiar to long-time Gran Turismo players.

That class has always reflected the Japanese performance car landscape. In 2025, for instance, Toyota fields the GR Supra, Nissan’s contender is the new Fairlady Z, and Honda runs a radical competitor based on the FL5 Civic Type R.

That Civic, though, hasn’t been the most successful, and besides, Honda has a new sports car in town: the reborn Prelude. As a result, the new coupe will take over GT500 duties from the Civic from next season, part of a lineage that also includes both generations of NSX as well as the strange orphaned HSV-010, derived from the cancelled V10-powered successor to the original NSX.

Details are scant for now, with our only info coming from these pictures of a bare carbon-bodied prototype. It’s typical GT500 fare, though, with enormous blistered arches, a truly gigantic wing and lots of other serious aero at play.

Tech details are unconfirmed, but GT500 rules only allow for 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinders, with the Prelude likely to use the same engine as the outgoing Civic. That’ll kick out somewhere in the region of 650bhp, and unlike the roadgoing Civic-based Prelude, it’ll be free from hybrid assistance and rear- rather than front-wheel drive.

It’ll almost certainly be the fastest Prelude around – GT500 cars are some of the quickest tin-top racers in existence, lapping Fuji Speedway faster than even the top-flight Hypercars used in the World Endurance Championship these days. Excited to see it line up against the Supra and Z next year?