When the Honda Prelude first arrived in 1978,Honda had been selling cars in the US for eight years, mostly in the form of the pioneering Civic. A new model was needed to introduce bold breakthroughs to the market in a range-topping halo model, adding technological DNA that would trickle down to Honda’s mass-market gene pool. The Prelude would be that model.
How Honda Turned A Sports Coupe Into A Rolling Proving Ground For Mass-Market Tech
The first-generation car ran from 1978 to 1982, marketed as a sports coupe for grown-ups. According to Honda, it was the first mainstream car with an electric sunroof as standard. This generation Prelude gave Honda vital experience in platform engineering and adaptation, as it applied the brakes, suspension, and engine of the Honda Accord of the day to a new chassis.
The second-generation Prelude was phased in across 1982 and 1983, bringing a sleeker, sportier 80s look with pop-up headlights and a lower-profile face. More power came from a larger engine, matched by this generation’s defining new technology: anti-lock brakes (ALB). This was a forerunner to more modern ABS technologies, again helping the Prelude lay down real-world experience for Honda that would help with future engineering breakthroughs.
These came in spades by the time the third-generation Prelude arrived in 1987. That year, the Prelude put Honda on the map with a new system called Four-Wheel Steering (4WS) that would change the way it handled. At launch, this groundbreaking innovation was marketed as the “Steering Angle Sensing Honda Four-Wheel Steering System (Honda 4WS).”
Now able to steer from all four corners of the car, the Prelude was generating considerable buzz in the press about Honda’s handling innovations in an era when sports car handling technology was about to explode. That is how the Prelude became the first mass-produced car with four-wheel steering, though it was a technology ultimately too far ahead of its time.
It might be one of the Prelude’s most famous moments, but the rollout of Prelude innovations didn’t stop with 4WS, either. Later, the fourth-generation Prelude would arrive in the early 90s to bring Variable Valve Timing & Lift Electronic Control (VTEC) technology from the Acura NSX to Honda’s popular four-cylinder engines.
Now the Prelude was more capable than ever, replacing the previous generation’s mechanical linkages with an advanced electronic 4WS system that adjusted rear wheel angles based on vehicle speed and steering input. The fifth and final generation of the original Honda Prelude arrived in 1996 for the 1997 model year, building on all earlier engineering pillars and bringing one final innovation to Honda’s collection: the Active Torque Transfer System (ATTS).
Using a trick front differential, this generation Prelude gained the ability to increase the driving force to the outside wheel when cornering. With ATTS on board, Preludes of this era effectively gained handling superpowers that negated the need for four-wheel steering, moving instead to a less hardware-intensive solution.
This early application of a torque-vectoring differential would go on to form a vital part of the Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) System launched by Acura in 2004 for the 2005 Acura RL.
But before all of that could happen, Honda needed to figure out how to make four wheels steer from a single mechanical input.
Sources: Honda
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