Could this Honda Prelude HRC Concept preview a proper Type R?

This is the Honda Prelude HRC Concept, and its presence at the Tokyo Auto Salon over the weekend has got us rather excited in TG Towers.

You see, the reborn Prelude is an interesting car. We’re delighted that it’s a proper two-door coupe in this world of bloated crossovers, and it uses a few old Civic Type R suspension parts for proper handling smarts. But it also gets a slightly tame hybrid powertrain with just 181bhp, and the design was apparently inspired by gliders so is rather reserved.

The HRC Concept is certainly not reserved. It exists because Honda Racing Corporation is working on some performance parts for the new Prelude, but really we hope that this is a glimpse at how a proper Prelude Type R could look if Honda gives the go-ahead.

The Prelude’s chief engineer Tomoyuki Yamagami certainly didn’t shut down the idea when asked about a Type R variant last summer, and if it were to get this massive wing, giant diffuser and chopped carbon it’d look pretty mean.

Do the right thing, Honda.