Honda Snuck Civic Type R Parts Into the New Prelude
The new Honda Prelude is out in the open now, but it sports some sneaky performance upgrades that the automaker has been surprisingly tight-lipped about. Honda recently confirmed that the car would carry components from its high-performance Civic Type R, despite being a hybrid with a CVT.
Honda plans to use suspension hardware, Brembo brakes, and the widened front and rear tracks from the Civic Type R for the new Prelude, and it will become the company’s first non-Type R model with a dual-axis front suspension system.
The company’s engineers noted that the Prelude will drive and feel like a unique vehicle, stating that the car features distinctive tuning and geometry. While it’s powered by a dual-motor hybrid powertrain that sends power to the front wheels through a continuously variable transmission, Honda added a simulated shifting system called Honda S+ Shift, which uses paddle shifters, sounds, and modified torque delivery to create simulated gear shifts.
That fits with the car’s positioning as a more aggressive and sportier alternative to the Civic. We don’t have pricing details for the new car yet, but it’s expected to begin arriving on dealers’ lots this fall as a 2026 model. The Prelude will also go on sale in Japan and Europe around the same time.
[Images: Honda]
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Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.
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Meh. It's a parts-bin special, so I can't really blame Big Red for reusing the drive train from the Civic hybrid. Still, a part of me dreams of what kind of crazy little machine this could've been if it was set up as a series hybrid with electric AWD.
Maybe its a lifetime of head trauma but I was not in understanding that the new Prelude is a hybrid. While I am generally pro-hybrid, Honda's past experience with them isn't the best and it seems to me the expected low volume Prelude should be the one non-hybrid conventional gasser in the lineup. So instead we want to repeat the (sales) failure of CR-Z?