Honda Prelude faces Toyota’s GT86 – car pictures of the week
A lack of new coupes means we look to the past for a left-field rival to Honda’s new Prelude
So barren is the small, affordable coupe market at the moment that we struggled to find a car to pit the new Honda Prelude against. A comparison is vital too, given it’s a complex, nuanced car, meaning the context of a rival can really help with understanding it.
Then we had a think. What other Japanese coupe arrived on a wave of hype but was criticised for not being fast or serious enough? That would be Toyota’s GT86. So we brought one together with Honda’s handsome new contender, and these are our favourite shots.
Their struggles may be shared but you don’t need me to tell you these are very different cars. One is a front-wheel-drive hybrid with a CVT transmission, the other a rear-wheel-drive, naturally aspirated manual. But to drive, for all their differences, how they are similar sneaks up on you. And no, the Toyota doesn’t shame the Honda. In the modern era of extremes and superlatives, the subtlety of the Prelude may not be fashionable, but it is appealing, as it remains in the GT86. You can read the full test, from which a small excerpt is pasted below, in the latest issue of evo, available from the evo shop.
‘It’s clearer in my head now what the Honda Prelude and Toyota GT86 share: that squeezing the pips is sort of missing the point. So subtle is the way the Honda looks and drives that it never suggests anything else should be the case.
‘The Toyota is actually less comfortable in its own skin: as the richer, grittier, more involving drive, it eggs you on harder, which is actually counterintuitive, as the grass is not greener beyond that flowing, eighth-tenths, country-road Goldilocks zone.’ – Ethan Jupp, evo web editor.
