Are you suffering from supercar fatigue? If you’re tired of endless special editions and bloated supercar model lineups that all look similar, you aren’t the only one. It’s a similar story with concept car fatigue. So many these days are thinly revamped future production models masquerading as flights of fancy. It wasn’t always this way, and the Honda HP-X concept has received a full restoration to remind the world just what we’ve lost over time.
See, for the 1984 Turin Motor Show, Honda wanted to do something big. Something to spark desire, change the narrative, and let everyone know that it was Japan’s time to shine. We’re talking about a pure show car, a don’t-wake-me-up-we’re-dreaming statement of intent and showcase of a future. Not necessarily the future that would happen, but a vision of what might. The name? HP-X, standing for Honda Pininfarina eXperimental.
Yes, that studiously futuristic body is the work of Pininfarina, and it’s not hard to tell. The proportions are solid, a wedgy creation as was the style of the time. However, the details are fanciful, from the reinterpretation of Testarossa strakes as diagonally ribbed body sides to the satisfyingly slim headlights. Even the alloy wheels seem futuristic for the time, seeing as in 1984, people were still driving around in Mk1 Golfs and Cutlass Supreme Broughams as brand new cars.
Of course, Honda’s might has always been engineering, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that mounted in the middle of the HP-X is a two-liter 24-valve quad-cam V6, which Honda claims is derived from a Formula 2 racing engine. Not only was having two cams per bank the absolute newest, hottest thing in 1984, that little link to motorsports serves as a reminder that Soichiro Honda was a thrill seeker.
Oh, and speaking of thrills, the technology aboard the HP-X still feels advanced today. It has active aerodynamics, with the rear of its canopy turning into an airbrake at the driver’s whim. It had what Honda called an “Electronic Driver Support System” which offered navigation, telemetry, and ultrasonic road condition warnings, all of which feel fit for a brand new car 40 years later. Carbon fiber, Kevlar, and honeycomb mesh parts abounded, as the future of lightweight materials was on display. No surprise then that Honda kept the HP-X around.
However, it wasn’t always this nice. See, concept cars aren’t built to the same rigorous standards as production models, and decades of wear and tear do add up. With that in mind, Honda decided to turn back the years by giving the HP-X an extensive restoration in preparation for America’s fanciest car event — Pebble Beach.
Yes, on Sunday, August 18, the Honda HP-X will roll out onto the lawn to compete in the “Wedge-Shaped Concept Cars and Prototypes” class at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. It’ll be going up against some of the most evocative four-wheeled machines ever dreamt up by humankind, so a victory here would be a huge victory not just for Honda, but for collectible Japanese cars. For now, we continue to dream. The Honda HP-X might not be new, but it’s exactly what we needed.
(Photo credits: Honda)
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