Honda Puts an 800-Volt Hybrid and 1,300 HP Into a Passport Trophy Truck
HRC's desert racer pairs an Acura GTP-derived 2.4-liter V6 with an in-house 800-volt hybrid. It goes on display at SEMA next week and races in 2027.
Honda's racing arm has built a Trophy Truck that wears a Passport body but shares nothing with the showroom SUV underneath. HRC US says the Passport Baja Spec makes more than 1,300 hp from a 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 paired with an 800-volt hybrid system, and that it will be the first hybrid to compete in the SCORE World Desert Championship's top Trophy Truck class.
The public debut comes at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nov. 3–6, in HRC's booth #24789 alongside 10 other HRC builds, including a new Passport TrailSport Baja Chase support truck. It shares the stand with the HRC performance parts Honda is bringing to SEMA; for the rest of the show, see our SEMA 2026 preview.
Where the 1,300 hp comes from
The V6 is based on the engine in the Acura ARX-06, the GTP prototype that has won the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring, according to Honda. It sits behind the cab, with a Mason Motorsports five-speed transaxle mounted ahead of it and portal gear sets at the front hubs to buy ground clearance.
The hybrid hardware is HRC's own. The battery pack uses previous-generation Formula 1-style pouch cells in a carbon-fiber case, and it is assembled in a new clean room at HRC US headquarters in Santa Clarita, California. That is a different route from the ARX-06 itself, which runs the common hybrid system Bosch and Williams supply to every GTP car.
Honda also lists dual-axle brake-by-wire, adaptive traction control, and what it calls AI power deployment, all of which it describes as firsts for the class. The truck's software ties powertrain, chassis, and energy management together and can be retuned during a race for the driver and the course.
"The Honda Passport Baja Spec is essentially a software-defined vehicle," said Kelvin Fu, president of HRC US.
Why it matters
Trophy Truck is the unlimited class of Baja racing, and its front-runners rely on huge naturally aspirated V8s of roughly 9 liters, which Honda says its truck out-powers. Replacing that displacement with a small turbo V6 and a high-voltage battery is a bet that electrification can survive Baja's heat, dust, and pounding at race pace.
Electrified drivetrains have already won at the top of desert racing elsewhere: Audi's RS Q e-tron, an electric-drive car with a gasoline range extender, won the 2024 Dakar Rally. SCORE's marquee class has so far been a V8 stronghold.
None of this is a preview of the road car. The current Passport uses a 3.5-liter V6 rated at 285 hp, and Honda hasn't tied the race truck's engine or hybrid system to any production model. For the showroom off-roader, see how the Passport TrailSport stacks up against the Toyota 4Runner.
What's next
Two-time Baja 1000 winner Bryce Menzies will drive the truck in partnership with his Menzies Motorsports team, on a Gen 2 all-wheel-drive chassis from Mason Motorsports. Honda says the race debut is set for the 2027 Baja 500 on June 2–6, and the larger target is an overall win at the Baja 1000, which turns 60 in 2027.
Honda already holds 22 overall Baja 1000 victories, all on motorcycles and the most of any manufacturer. Its four-wheel program has collected 17 class wins since 2015 but no overall title in the race.
