Honda has revealed an all-electric race car version of the NSX supercar that will be competing in the legendary Pikes Peak hill climb event.
Honda says the NSX EV Concept uses a four-motor all-electric powertrain first seen in the CR-Z that won in the ‘Exhibition’ class at the same event in 2015. Each axle gets a twin-motor setup mated to the experimental Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) system.
The idea is that by using separate Twin Motor Units (TMUs), the ‘brains’ of the Sport Hybrid SH-AWD system, torque can be independently distributed to all four corners for true four-wheel torque vectoring.
One key improvement is that thrust has been made more precise at each wheel, thanks to learning from last year’s race, which means the car can rotate the outside wheels at a more accurate speed to enhance cornering ability.
These changes should help the NSX EV concept to tackle Pike Peak’s 156 corners along the 12.42-mile hill climb in Colorado, US. That and its frankly gigantic rear spoiler, scoop-esque front boiler and other race-specific modifications.
Tetsuya Yamano will be at the wheel of the car, which is said to have three times the output of last year’s prototype. Exactly how powerful the CR-Z was is unknown, but estimates come in around the 450hp mark.
That would give its NSX cousin 1,350hp, which is feasible given the dual-motor Tesla Model S develops around 762hp. Suffice to say, it will be no slouch and should easily build on the CR-Z and Yamano’s Pikes Peak time of 10 minutes and 23.829 seconds.
Tetsuya Yamano 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.”
Pikes Peak will take place from the 26th of June, 2016. It is celebrating 100 years since its first ‘Race to the Clouds’ that took place in 1916, making it America’s second oldest motorsport race after the aptly named ‘American Car Race’ that started in 1895.
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