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

This generation, introduced by 1996, also marked the end of an experiment. Four-wheel steering, once the Prelude’s technical calling card, has unceremoniously disappeared. It is an omen of things to come.

last blow to the bow

When the fifth-generation Prelude arrived in 1997, its styling felt like a compromise between eras, a return to Honda’s earlier angular discipline, softened slightly to align with late 1990s tastes. It looked modern but cautious. And beneath the sheet metal, something had changed.

For the first time in years, Prelude’s ambitions were narrowed. There was a single 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.

The four wheel steering was gone. It was replaced by the Type SH, equipped with Honda’s Active Torque Transfer System, or ATTS. It included electromechanical clutches, designed to send additional torque to the outside front wheel during a turn to accelerate turn-in and reach a balance of rear-wheel drive. Today, we call this torque vectoring. Again, this is an expensive, heavy experiment that proved too clever for its own benefit. Some buyers opted for this. And just like that, the prologue fades out.

In June 2001, after selling 826,082 Preludes in the United States, Honda ended production. The car peaked in 1986, when 79,841 examples found buyers. After that, demand declined steadily, particularly due to competition from within the Accord Coupe, Civic Coupe, and Acura Integra and a market tilting decisively toward sport-utility vehicles. Through the first five months of 2001, only 3,500 Preludes were sold. The car that once served as Honda’s technological calling card is quietly gone. It was less a failure than an accident caused by changing tastes, as its innovations were assimilated into the mainstream it helped shape.

second chance for introduction

And now, nearly 25 years later, Honda has revived the Prelude, less a sentimental callback than a deliberate move in an auto industry that no longer resembles the Prelude it left behind.