Honda Is Taking the Prelude Racing in Japanese Super GT—and the Car Looks Epic

If 200 hp and a hybrid drivetrain with no actual transmission leave you feeling a bit meh on the forthcoming 2026 Honda Prelude, which goes on sale later this fall, allow the just-unveiled Prelude GT500 to be your antidote.

Honda Racing Prelude GT500 Prototype rear three quarter Honda Racing

Wowza, now that’s one fine-looking machine. The Prelude GT500 is a purpose-built race car for Japan’s Super GT race series, a category of racing that pits roided-out versions of production cars such as the Toyota Supra and the Nissan Z against one another at racing circuits around the country.

Honda Racing Prelude GT500 Prototype rear three quarter track dynamic Honda Racing

Honda runs a modified version of the Civic Type R in the series currently, and has since the start of the 2024 season. However, that car has failed to deliver a sufficient body of results. According to a report from Motorsport.com, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) expects that the Prelude GT’s two-door design will enable the marque to achieve “higher goals” than what it was able to reach with the four-door Civic Type R GT.

“We believe the current Civic Type R-GT can be further improved for next year,” HRC’s Super GT project leader Masahiro Saeki told Motorsport.com. “However, within the current regulations where all teams compete at an extremely high level, we see potential to achieve a higher level than the Civic Type R-GT by applying the knowledge gained over these past two years to the development of a Prelude-based Super GT machine.”

Honda Racing Prelude GT500 Prototype testing Honda Racing

There’s also an aerodynamic development freeze in place on the Super GT series currently, which will be lifted for the 2026 season—something that Honda undoubtedly wants to set itself up to take full advantage of.

Hence, this wild thing. That massive swan-neck wing and those chunky fender flares make these Super GT cars look a bit wilder than something that you’d find in other sports-car classes around the world, such as the GT3 class for IMSA. Technical regulations mandate that these GT500 cars utilize turbocharged, direct-injected four-cylinder engines displacing two liters. (That Supra with the V-8 that we wrote about a while ago? That one races in Australian Supercars, not here.)

The 2026 Prelude GT500 will make its competition debut next April at Okayama International Circuit for the first round of the Super GT series.

Obviously, the natural thought here is to wonder what from this car might trickle down to spicier versions of the Prelude that may or may not come in the future. While we don’t think you’ll be able to spec a “floating ironing board rear wing” anytime soon, we invite you to join us in hoping that racing will indeed improve the breed, as Honda always likes to say.

Honda Racing Prelude GT500 Prototype front three quarter track dynamic Honda Racing