Two-time F1 world champion, Max Verstappen, took the Honda CR-V Hybrid Racer aka “The Beast” out for a spin.
Ahead of the 2023 Miami F1 GP, “Mad Max” was introduced to the manic 800hp Honda CR-V Hybrid Racer by Indycar driver, James Hinchcliffe, before he had some fun behind the steering wheel around the Homestead-Miami Speedway.
From the video above, we can clearly see that the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver had a great time piloting the Honda beast around the track and even included some donuts along the way. We also expected him to say that he enjoyed the car as well as other things like stating how grippy the car was.
This is all thanks to the brilliant minds over at Honda as well as Honda Performance Development (HPD) who led the project and injected The Beast with a 2.2-litre twin-turbocharged, electrified Honda V6 Indycar power unit and transmission under the 2023 Honda CR-V Hybrid bodywork.
They’ve even gone to the extent of taking the front end of a Honda NSX and stuffing it into this so-called ‘rolling laboratory’. Other notable features include the car running exclusively on Shell’s 100% renewable race fuel, carbon-composite lower half construction, butterfly half-cut doors, and of course, that huge rear wing.
For all you car geeks out there, you might be interested in some of the more detailed specs of this 800hp Honda CR-V Hybrid Racer listed, below:
McLaren Applied Technologies Tag 400i Engine Control Unit
Driver-activated Empel electric motor-generator unit
Skeleton supercapacitor energy storage system
XTRAC six-speed transmission; Mega-Line Assisted paddle-shift
Front suspension from HPD-developed Acura NSX GT-3 Evo22
Rear suspension adapted from Dallara IR-18 Indy car
Brembo 380mm front brakes from Acura NSX GT-3 Evo22
Brembo 355mm custom rear brakes adapted to Dallara IR-18 suspension
Firestone Firehawk Indy 500 Ultra-High Performance Summer Tires
2Elle Engineering 20×10.5 Front and 20×11 Rear two-piece alloy wheels
