Honda NSX ELECTRIC Concept heading up Pikes Peak

Honda are sending a new NSX-inspired electric concept up the Pikes Peak hill climb this month, as well as a pair of more conventional hybrid NSX cars.

The Pikes Peak International Hilll Climb in Colorado is a 12.42 mile mountain climb for cars rising up through 156 twists and turns to finish at 14,110 feet. And car makers love to play at the annual event in June. And this year Honda are out in force.

To be entirely accurate, it’s Acura out in force as this is a North American event, but it amounts to the same thing.

A pair of NSX Hybrid Supercars will run Pikes Peak in the Time Attack 1 and 2 classes, driven by brothers James and Nick Robinson, featuring the same three-motor Sport Hybrid Super-Handling All-Wheel Drive powertrain as the production cars but with modifications to compete.

The modifications for the Time Attack 1 include chassis lightening  and a custom high-flow racing exhaust, and the Time Attack 2 car getting the required safety equipment.

But more interesting than the hybrid Honda NSX cars is Honda’s 4-motor EV Concept, all dressed up to look like and extreme NSX but sporting a very sophisticated electric powertrain.

The EV system is an evolution of the one in Honda’s electric CR-Z for Pikes Peak last year, featuring true four-wheel torque vectoring from the Twin Motor Units on each axle acting as the brains for the electric motor powering each wheel.

It will be driven by Tetsuya Yamano who drove last year’s CR-Z EV Concept up Pikes Peak. He said:

We’ve been tuning the car for several weeks at Pikes and have advanced its performance significantly

We’re honored to be running at Pikes in this historical, anniversary year – an event respected by racing fans all over the world.

Honda aren’t saying exactly how much power this electric NSX boasts, but they do say “The powertrain produces three times the total system output of last year’s electric prototype and is mated to the NSX body“.

When you consider the CR-Z EV Concept last year was 11th overall and won the Exhibition Class with a powertrain thought to develop around 450bhp, the NSX EV Concept promises to be something truly mighty.