Honda Prelude drive by Steve Rogers
As comebacks go this one is special. Special enough for a stranger to chat with me for 10 minutes in a supermarket car park.
He saw it, was bowled over by its looks but did not know what the car was until he saw the Prelude badge on the tailgate. That curious interest was the norm the whole week the Honda was in my charge.
So what is the story here? People of a certain age will never have heard of Prelude. Honda launched its sports coupe in 1978, it was quite a car back then, and had a successful following until it was mothballed in 2001. Now after a quarter of a century it is back… but it’s not all what it seems
That Honda has built the car goes against the current trend of non-stop Chinese SUVs so a bit left field but let’s give the company a standing ovation for being brave enough to do it.
What we have here is a car that flatters to deceive, but in a good way. The super car looks suggest it can take on a Porsche 911, but in reality it would be left trailing in the German’s exhaust fumes with performance no better than a quick family hatchback. Don’t let that put you off, this is still a great story.
This is a complex yet sophisticated car with power coming from two electric motors and a 2-litre petrol engine mustering a fairly modest 180bhp. The question petrol heads are asking is why the Prelude doesn’t have the Civic’s stonking Type R engine that would be able to mix it with a 911?
Basically, it does not fit Honda’s game plan for clean air and efficiency, even the wonderful Type R has been retired as the straightjacket of low emissions tightens by the day.
Even so Honda has not lost complete sight of what this car is all about and has dialled in some of the Type R’s DNA. It has tailored the chassis in that direction and all but mirrored the steering and suspension set up with some additional tweaks including uprated adaptive dampers.
The end result is a car with fantastic agility, perfectly balanced, just the car you could enjoy driving all day through the twistiest of roads. The sensible driver’s dream machine.
But it’s not fast enough? I suppose not for those demanding an adrenalin surge when they hit the fast pedal but what Prelude lacks in blistering acceleration is tempered with a decent amount of torque for a punchy overtaking response, and is eight seconds to sixty so bad?
And Honda has done its level best to inject a bit of a thrill with S+shift which, when selected, mimics eight virtual gear changes with appropriate synthesised rev sounds piped into the cabin. It does not improve performance but it makes you think it does as well as just being a bit of fun.
Prelude has three drive modes including comfort but don’t expect a lot of that. The suspension, or as my wife said ‘what suspension’, is on the firm side but it didn’t bother me, I was just enjoying the drive.
The cabin is nicely finished in high end materials and mixes physical switches with a central touchscreen and digital driver’s display that houses a lot of information which is easy to find.
Saving weight was an important factor in the designers brief so there are no unnecessary motors. If you want to adjust the seat, do it yourself, and the same applies to the tailgate.
Prelude is a four seat coupe… depending on your height. I am average and squeezed into the back seat but it is a struggle. Anyone above that can forget it, not necessarily because of restricted leg room, there is very little headroom. The coupe roof has a heck of a slope and even though the huge glass tailgate frees up an extra inch of headroom it is incredibly tight.
That said the boot space with the seat backs dropped borders on cavernous. A couple of sets of golf clubs, a couple of surfboards, even an adult bike can be dropped into the space, not all at the same time of course. Didn’t expect this coupe to be so roomy.
Even with the weight saving there is still a decent spec, heated seats, camera and sensors all round, wireless charging, adaptive beam control, keyless entry and start etc. And you would not expect anything other than a full suite of safety aids from Honda.
The sixth generation Prelude will be defined by its driving excellence and fuel efficiency rather than rip roaring performance but what about this to keep the speed freaks happy: an electric Prelude?
Memorable moments: Demon handling. 65mpg over 476 miles.
Fast facts
Prelude Advance
£41,595
2-litre petrol; 181bhp
0-62mph 8.2secs; 117mph
100g/km. 1st VED £365
54.3mpg combined
Insurance group 43
Boot: 269-760 litres
