There’s a good chance you’ve never seen the 1984 Honda HP-X concept car before. You’ve probably never even heard of it. That’s OK. We understand. It was unveiled at the 1984 Turin Auto Show, but hasn’t made a major public appearance in 40 years. That streak will end on Sunday, August 18, when it makes its North American debut during Monterey Car Week 2024 at the 73rd Annual Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. With its wedge-shaped Pininfarina design, it’s sure to draw a lot of attention, but there’s more to it than just the way it looks. It’s a significant piece of Honda – and Acura – history.
We’re so used to concept cars that it’s easy to assume they’ve always been around. They were a new thing for Honda in the 1980s. In fact, the HP-X (Honda Pininfarina eXperimental) was its very first concept car. Pininfarina’s stylists certainly knew how one should look. They gave it a radical, fighter jet-style removable single-piece Perspex canopy. That wasn’t just the HP-X’s party piece, but it also flowed into a rear fairing that served as a driver-activated air brake.
Under that was a cockpit equipped with the forward-thinking “Electronic Drive Support System,” which had features such as real-time telemetry, GPS, and even road condition warnings from “special sonar” – things that seem relatively commonplace in 2024. The surrounding body underneath was crafted out of lightweight materials such as carbon fiber and Kevlar, which are still relevant 40 years later.
Those very-’80s diagonal strakes shot past a mid-mounted 2.0-liter DOHC 24-valve V6, which was based on a Honda F2 racing engine. That brings us to the biggest part of the HP-X’s legacy. Remember that part about it being a major part of Acura history? I’ll explain the connection in three letters: NSX. According to Honda, “The first-generation NSX embodied many of the ideas and innovations first explored in the HP-X, firmly cementing the concept’s place in automotive history.”
If you end up going to the 2024 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, look for the fully restored HP-X in the appropriately named Wedge-Shaped Concept Cars and Prototypes Class. Given it’s history, it may be a while until you can see it up-close again.
Source: www.classiccars.com