Honda Is Taking Hydrogen To New Heights
Fresh from Acura announcing a hotted-up Integra Type S with more than 360 horsepower for the 2025 edition of The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, parent company Honda has now announced its contender. But while the Integra is entered in the Time Attack 1 class, Honda’s baby will only be in the Exhibition class. That’s because Honda is doing something nobody has ever done before: compete at the Race to the Clouds with a hydrogen-powered vehicle, specifically a CR-V e:FCEV.
Honda Has Changed Nothing In The Powertrain
To prove the viability of the system in competition, and to hopefully set a competitive time, Honda has enlisted the services of Pikes Peak class-winner and two-time Formula Drift champion Dai Yoshihara to drive the CR-V, which has the exact same powertrain as the production car you or I could buy at a dealer tomorrow. The fuel cell is produced in Michigan and is connected to a front-mounted single motor, a 17.7 kWh battery pack, and two high-pressure hydrogen tanks. Although competitors only get one timed run up the Colorado mountain, the CR-V will do some shakedown and test runs, so it needs a mobile hydrogen storage system provided by Zero Emission Industries. Interestingly, the fastest car in the Exhibition class last year was also electrified, though in a more traditional sense. Dani Sordo from Spain drove a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N TA Spec to glory with a time of 9:30.852. The CR-V may not achieve the same, but it has some special tools to try.
Suspension And Safety Gear For The Big Mountain
In 1994, Honda won the first-ever EV Class at Pikes Peak with a converted Civic wagon, setting a time of 15:44.7. Five years later, it reentered with a race-prepped EV Plus, again taking the win (15:19.9), and in 2014, Honda returned with an electric Honda Fit for yet another win. It also set a new race record for electric vehicles at 12:55.6. The following year, a quad-motor Honda CR-Z-based concept won the Exhibition Class with a time of 10:23.8, and in 2016, a four-motor concept with the body of an NSX achieved a stunning 9:06.1
In order to try to achieve similar success, Yoshihara-san’s CR-V gets its suspension lowered by an inch and fitted with a racing seat and a safety cage, with the rest of the cabin stripped out to save weight. Lightweight 18-inch wheels with Yokohama Advan A052 rubber measuring 265/45R18 at each corner are slowed by racing brake pads of unspecified origin.
We don’t expect the CR-V to come anywhere close to a record this year, but you can be certain that Honda will use what it learns at Pikes Peak to further hydrogen technology both on and off the racetrack. We’ll see the radical CR-V e:FCEV take to the 156-turn, 12.42-mile mountain course on June 22.
