14/12/2025

Contributing Editor Keshy Dhillon / keshy@piston.my Editorial

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SUNDAY | DEC 14, 2025

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Engineered for fun New Honda Prelude has a couple of tricks to make you feel like you’re having a good time BY KESHY DHILLON

The design of the Prelude is unlike any other Honda we have seen.There is word that the Prelude will be more expensive than the Type R when launched in Malaysia. The Prelude cleverly uses augmented sound and fake transmission shifts to maximise driving pleasure. A lot of the suspension components of the Prelude are carried over from the Type R.

WE all have a car that reminds us of our childhood. Perhaps of our parents, our first drive or something life changing. For me it is the Honda Prelude, it was life changing because it was the first sports car that I ever drove and this took place way back in 1993. I was just 11 and I know what you are thinking but times were much simpler then and fathers could teach their kids how to drive from a much younger age. Social media and camera phones have made it diffi cult these days. The car was a third-generation model belonging to a cousin. The pop-up head lights were befitting of its time and is something we will never be able to see today due to pedestrian safety compliance. The car I drove back then even came with four-wheel steering, which was revo lutionary for its time. And that sums up the Prelude quite well – revolutionary. I recently got to drive the latest sixth generation model around Honda’s Tochigi proving ground in Japan. And though

Civic hybrid. HOW DOES IT DRIVE?

that Honda had worked on the car first and then later decided on the name. So there really was no plan to revive the Prelude. It seems like Honda’s manage ment liked what they saw, green lighted it, drove it and then decided to exhume the Prelude name. WHAT’S NEW? Everything. You cannot expect a car that had disappeared for about 14 years to suddenly reappear with elements from the last car. The new Prelude shares more in com mon with the Honda Civic e:HEV RS (hybrid). The platform, engine, electric motor and dashboard are shared with the Civic. But that is about it. The suspension components are from the Civic Type R and there are parts of the car that are entirely new and unique to the Prelude. And that is where it derives its charac ter from, the new components that give it such a lithe character in the corners, despite it sharing its powertrain with the

three laps are hardly an indication of a car’s capabilities, it is good enough to show what the car has to offer. And the Honda Prelude is once again, revolution ary. FIRST, A BACKGROUNDER Honda pulled the plug on the Prelude in the year 2001. The fifth generation car divided opinions largely due it losing the iconic pop-up headlights but retaining the overall body shape. And then the Prelude went silent. Relegated to the pages of history, until 2023 when whispers of the name began spreading over the internet. And then the concept showed up at the 2023 edition of the Japan Mobility Show. SO WHY WASN’T THERE MORE FANFARE AROUND THE CAR THEN? During a private media interview with Honda’s top management in Tokyo recently, Toshihiro Mibe, President and CEO of Honda Motor Company, revealed

I only had about three laps with it, which is far from ideal but that was good enough for me to tell you three things – it sounds better from the inside than it does from the outside, “gearshifts” are spine tingling despite there not being a gearbox (more on that later), and it handles as if it were on rails. Powering the car is the same 2.0-litre, four-cylinder, naturally-aspirated engine putting out 200hp and 315Nm of torque. Power is sent directly to the front wheels via an electric motor rather than through a transmission box. So, there are times when the motor drives the car, such as at lower speed and such. I did not experience the motor driving the wheels, but I know how that works after spending hours with the Civic hybrid. Now onto the suspension, which largely contributes to the character of the car. The front is managed by dual-axis