Honda Made A CR-V With More Horsepower Than A Lamborghini, But It’s No Gimmick – SlashGear

At the heart of the car is an IndyCar motor, specifically Honda’s HI23TT twin-turbocharged 2.2-liter V6. It runs on a special renewable fuel blend made my Shell. The electric motors are fed power not by a battery, but by a set of huge capacitors supplied by Skeleton that can dump electricity into the motors when racing needs are particularly strenuous. 

In the back of the car, the suspension components are lifted right off a Honda IndyCar and the front suspension is from an Acura NSX GT3. Aesthetically, it looks like a CR-V, and it does share some components like the windshield and some bodywork with its civilian namesake, but inside its a chromoly tube frame chassis and carbon fiber as far as the eye can see. It’s about 75% racecar and 25% grocery getter.

Honda

Overall, the car has more purpose than just looking cool for a few wacky TikTok and YouTube videos. It will serve as Honda Performance Development’s testbed for electrification technology for the future. In this current configuration, it’s an uber-hybrid, but its modular frame allows Honda to experiment with different drivetrain layouts should the brand develop different race or EV tech in the future.

Honda

David Salters, the president of and technical director of Honda Performance Development, said about the CR-V: “The CR-V Hybrid Racer is our ‘rolling electrified laboratory,’ to investigate where the talented men and women of HPD and Honda could go with electrification, hybrid technology and 100% renewable fuels.”

The CR-V Racer will make its debut at the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida on the weekend of March 3-5, 2023.