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Honda Racing Company (HRC) has introduced the brand new Prelude coupe will compete in Japan’s premier sports activities automotive racing collection, Tremendous GT, getting into the championship’s prime division in 2026.
Unveiled in prototype type at Japan’s Sugo raceway on September 30, the brand new Prelude-GT race automotive will compete in Tremendous GT’s GT500 class, wherein it would take over from the Civic Kind R-GT that was raced in 2024 and 2025, earlier than which the NSX-GT was campaigned from 2017 to 2023.
The GT500 class is populated completely by factory-supported groups, together with the three Japanese automotive powerhouses of Toyota, Honda and Nissan.
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Which means the Prelude-GT is about to compete in opposition to the likes of the Toyota GR Supra and Nissan Z GT500.
HRC says its first testing day at Sugo was profitable, because the automotive ran easily whereas engineers labored to finish preliminary checks. After a productive morning session, inclement climate compelled the cancellation of afternoon operating.
Since 2014, all GT500 vehicles have been powered by a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine that produces roughly 485kW of energy. The vehicles are all silhouette racing vehicles, which suggests groups utilise a purpose-built carbon-fibre monocoque chassis wrapped in a physique that resembles the manufacturing vehicles after which they’re named.
Naturally, this implies the Prelude-GT might be fairly far faraway from the car that can ultimately seem in native showrooms, which is about to be powered by a four-cylinder hybrid powertrain and make use of steering and suspension elements from the Civic Kind R.
Honda’s determination to exchange the Civic Kind R with the Prelude in GT500 racing is fascinating, as a number of of the upcoming coupe’s rivals at present compete within the extra open GT300 class as a substitute.
The GT300 class includes a broad vary of each impartial and factory-backed groups, with entrants free to make use of engines of any dimension and configuration (between 4 and 10 cylinders), in addition to pure aspiration and single or twin turbochargers.
This class can be contested by GT3 racers from European producers, and there’s typically a better number of autos than in GT500. Notable entrants embody the factory-backed Subaru BRZ GT300 and Mercedes-AMG GT3, in addition to the independently run Lexus LC500 GT and Toyota GR86 GT300.
The Prelude-GT will take over from the reasonably profitable Civic Kind R-GT, which has recorded one win and 9 podiums in its two-year tenure, with two races remaining earlier than it’s retired.
The 2026 season will start on April 12 with a 300km race at Japan’s Okayama Worldwide Circuit.
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