Key Takeaways
- Honda is interested in building an F1-inspired hypercar, but no concrete plans exist yet.
- An F1-inspired Honda hypercar may be as extreme as the track-only Red Bull RB17.
- The NSX name has been earmarked for an electric supercar, but plans may change as customer demands do.
The Acura NSX is dead, but Honda’s desire for high-performance two-seaters is not. Speaking with The Drive at the Indianapolis 500, Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe said that Honda is very interested in building a halo hypercar to celebrate the Japanese automaker’s long-running affair with the premier class of motorsport, Formula 1. Specifically, the executive was quizzed about the potential for a Honda hypercar in the same vein as the Red Bull RB17 hypercar being revealed next month at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and his answer was most enthusiastic: “Yes, yes, but no plans yet. But in the future, we want to make such [a] kind of vehicle combined with F1 technology.”
Honda
Japanese automaker Honda rose from the ashes of WWII and set about its business as a manufacturer of motorcycles initially, only launching its first car, the T360 kei truck, in 1963. Founder Soichiro Honda targeted the American market as the most important nut to crack, leading to generations of iconic nameplates like the Civic and Accord being among America’s best-selling passenger cars. Today, Hondas are renowned for their safety, practicality, and reliability, with a sprinkling of performance from models like the Civic Type R.
- Founded
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24 September 1948
- Founder
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Soichiro Honda
- Headquarters
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Hamamatsu, Japan
- Owned By
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Publicly Traded
- Current CEO
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Toshihiro Mibe
Unlikely To Be A New NSX
These are still very early days, and Watanabe’s comments leave us with little to go on, but it’s unlikely that an F1-inspired Honda hypercar would carry the NSX name. Acura Vice President Jon Ikeda has suggested that the NSX replacement is in development, saying that he “would bet on it […] going to be electric.” An all-electric hypercar would not embody the spirit of F1, and an F1-inspired hypercar of the same ilk as the Red Bull RB17 would not sell in the numbers that an NSX is usually produced in.
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All of that being said, the NSX name stands for New Sports eXperimental, and a hypercar with F1 technology would certainly qualify as a new and sporty experimental product for Honda. It’s also worth noting that Ikeda’s comments were made in 2022, and since then, the industry’s outlook on electric vehicles has changed so much that even the next Rimac hypercar may shun electrification.
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Potential Aston Martin Collaboration?
Honda has been supplying Red Bull Racing with powertrains for several years, but their partnership is officially coming to an end in 2025. Thereafter, Red Bull will produce its own engines with assistance from Ford, and Honda will replace Mercedes-AMG as the powertrain partner for the Aston Martin Formula 1 team. Aston Martin already has the Valkyrie hypercar as an F1-inspired halo car, but this was first presented in AM-RB 001 concept form in 2016.
When Aston and Honda start working together, the Valkyrie will be effectively a decade old, and perhaps Gaydon’s customers will want another limited-run special. Alternatively, perhaps Honda wants to build a hypercar all on its own steam. All of this is speculation, and we’ll likely have to wait several years before anything comes of these dreams, but a Honda hypercar is certainly an enticing prospect.
Source: The Drive
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