An engineering thesis disguised as a coupe: a history of the Honda Prelude

Offered until 1996, this generation also marked the end of an experiment. Four-wheel steering, once the Prelude’s technological calling card, disappeared unceremoniously. It is a harbinger of what is to come.

One last shot over the goal.

When the fifth-generation Prelude arrived in 1997, its styling seemed like a compromise between eras, a return to Honda’s previous angular discipline, softened slightly to align with late ’90s tastes. He seemed modern but cautious. And beneath the veneer, something had changed.

A 1998 Honda Prelude type SH.

Credit: Honda

For the first time in years, the Prelude’s ambitions were scaled back. There was only one engine: a 195 hp (145 kW) 2.2 L four-cylinder, paired with a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic. The menu was simplified, perhaps strategically.

Four-wheel steering was gone. In its place came the Type SH, equipped with Honda’s Active Torque Transfer System, or ATTS. It consisted of electromechanical clutches designed to send additional torque to the outside front wheel during a turn to fine-tune the turn and approach rear-wheel drive balance. Today we call it torque vectoring. So it’s a heavy, expensive experiment that turned out to be too clever for its own good. Few buyers chose to participate. And so, the Prelude faded away.

In June 2001, after selling 826,082 Preludes in the United States, Honda ended production. The car reached its peak in 1986, when 79,841 examples found buyers. After that, demand fell steadily, pressured by domestic competition, particularly the Accord Coupe, Civic Coupe and Acura Integra, and by a market that was pivoting decisively toward sport utility vehicles. In the first five months of 2001, only 3,500 Preludes were sold. The car that once served as Honda’s technological calling card quietly exited. He was less a failure than a victim of changing appetites, as his innovations were absorbed into the mainstream he helped shape.

The second chance of the Prelude

And now, some 25 years later, Honda has revived the Prelude, less a sentimental throwback than a calculated move in an auto industry that no longer looks like the one the Prelude left behind.