Update: Honda has released a short video of its upcoming 2023 CR-V Hybrid Racer, showcasing the concept’s F1-like sound while also confirming that the hybrid racer will make its official debut on February 28, 2023.
Although hybrid technology was once the province of boring, slow vehicles that were devoid of fun, supercar manufacturers and the Le Mans racers have proven that the technology can be used to make vehicles more exciting. And Honda is now looking to test the limits of hybrid technology’s fun-improving capabilities.
The automaker announced today that it will unveil a racing version of one of its most humdrum vehicles, the CR-V. Dubbed the CR-V Hybrid Racer Project Car, it is being worked on by Honda Performance Development, the Auto Development Center, and the North America Auto Design Division of American Honda.
Read: 2023 Honda CR-V Grows Up And Becomes More Premium, Gains New Hybrid
Billed as the “ultimate high-performance beast,” Honda says that the vehicle will deliver more than 800 hp (597 kW/811 PS). Impressively, that’s more than the Acura ARX-06 prototype racecar makes, and it won at the 24 Hours of Daytona in January. That car, which combines a 2.4-liter, twin-turbocharged V6 engine with electric motors, is limited by regulations to just 671 hp (500 kW/680 PS).
It remains unclear what drivetrain will power Honda’s upcoming CR-V Hybrid Racer Project Car, but the 2023 CR-V Hybrid is powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that is coupled to a pair of electric motors that combine to make a relatively measly 204 hp (152 kW/207 PS).
In addition to pumping up the power, the new racer concept will feature enormous aero elements, such as a rear wing big enough to take on Pikes Peak. It will also have huge fender flares, lots of carbon fiber body panels, a pretty serious-looking interior with a racecar-style steering wheel, as well as an opening rear body shell, which suggests that it could feature a mid-mounted engine.
Honda hasn’t yet said what its plans for the CR-V Hybrid Racer Project Car are. Honda Performance Development, though, is a capable racing outfit, which means that it’s not outside the realm of possibility that it will enter this vehicle into a competition of some description in the future.
