Hear the roar of Honda’s HSV-010 Super GT Race Car.

Hear the roar of Honda’s HSV-010 Super GT Race Car.

      Honda via YouTube

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      We often reflect on the past to fulfill a natural desire for stories that connect our yesterdays with our present. However, reality often takes us on unexpected paths, and Honda is now revisiting one of those.

      The automaker has reactivated an HSV-010 GT, the race car it fielded in the Japanese Super GT series from 2010 to 2013 while contemplating the future of the second-generation NSX. This marks likely the first instance of these cars being driven since their withdrawal from competition, and Honda Racing shared high-definition audio of the revived 3.4-liter V8 engine revving on its YouTube channel. This is part of a video series that also features an RA272 Formula 1 car and the NSX GT predecessor of the HSV. Though the driver might simply be tapping the throttle while stationary, it's probably more thrilling than old Super GT footage.

      Super GT vehicles are typically based (albeit loosely) on production models, but the HSV-010 GT was an exception. It stemmed from Honda’s original plan to succeed the first-generation NSX, which ceased production in 2005. The plan envisioned a front-engine car powered by a V10. If that seems like a significant shift from the mid-engine V6 NSX, remember that V10 engines were still utilized in F1 during the decision-making process for these developments, making a V10 road car seem more pertinent. Toyota had similar ambitions with the project that ultimately led to the Lexus LFA.

      The Acura Advanced Sports Car Concept (ASCC) was unveiled at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, featuring a front-mounted V10 and a rear-biased all-wheel-drive system. At the same time, Honda continued racing the NSX in Super GT under a waiver that was set to expire in 2009. By this point, the V10 NSX was beginning to seem less likely, but Honda sought a new racing vehicle and received approval from organizers to design a purpose-built competitor allegedly inspired by that front-engine design.

      The HSV-010 GT does seem to have incorporated some design features from the ASCC, but opted for a V8 derived from one used in the Formula Nippon (now Super Formula) single-seater series instead of a V10. It produced around 500 horsepower and 290 pound-feet of torque in its standard configuration. Weider Honda Racing achieved a drivers' and teams' championship double with the car in its inaugural season, and the HSV-010 GT went on to clinch 10 victories throughout its four years in competition.

      In 2014, Honda replaced the HSV-010 GT with the not-quite-ready-for-production second-generation NSX. While it may have acted prematurely, the mid-engine V6 hybrid NSX road car did eventually make it to market. Nevertheless, Honda has yet to produce a V8 supercar (its sole V8 road vehicle is a rebadged Land Rover Discovery from the 1990s), making the HSV-010 GT genuinely exceptional.

      Have any exciting sound tips? Reach out to us at tips@thdrive.com.

Hear the roar of Honda’s HSV-010 Super GT Race Car. Hear the roar of Honda’s HSV-010 Super GT Race Car. Hear the roar of Honda’s HSV-010 Super GT Race Car.

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Hear the roar of Honda’s HSV-010 Super GT Race Car.

There isn't another Honda quite like it.