From the minute Honda announced it was bringing back the Prelude with the Civic Hybrid's drivetrain mixed together with the Civic Type R's suspension, one question has been on enthusiasts' minds across the globe: how is this thing going to drive? Well, I can now answer that for you... sort of.

While in Tokyo for the Japan Mobility Show, Honda took a group of journalists (including me) to its research and development facility in Tochigi for a brief but insightful first drive of the sixth-generation Prelude. After just three laps of a circuit Honda set up, I'm here to tell you that the born-again Prelude can live up to the sporty pretensions of its forebears, but with just 200 horsepower on tap, the only race you're going to be competitive in will be against a Subaru BRZ or a minivan driver who isn't aware you're racing.

At the heart of the 2026 Prelude is the Civic Hybrid's naturally aspirated 2.0-liter inline-four and two electric motors. All in all, the system puts out the aforementioned 200 hp and 232 pound-feet of torque, exactly the same as the Civic Hybrid I tested last year. All of that power is routed to the front wheels through Honda's direct drive eCVT system, which isn't really a CVT at all, but that's what they call it. Really, there is no transmission at all, but it's hard to tell with the brilliant S+ Shift system — more on that later. There aren't any official performance figures yet, but my butt tells me that its 0-to-60-mph time is probably somewhere in the low-to-mid 6-second range, which is around where the current Civic Hybrid is. That's not going to set any records, but you're going to get out of your own way just fine. In any case, straight-line speed really isn't what the Prelude is about.

The Prelude, true to its roots, is a little demon when it goes around a corner. Thank the dual-axis front strut suspension and wide track borrowed from the Type R for that, though its wheelbase is shorter than the Civic Type R's, which will almost certainly make it snappier. The car also gets the sporty Civic's steering and adaptive dampers, and they've been specifically tuned for the 'Lude. The steering rack is now 3% quicker, according to Yoshiharu Saito, one of Honda's top engineers. If you look closely behind the 19-inch wheels of the Prelude, you're going to find blue Brembo brakes (13.8 inches up front, 12 inches in the rear) that are also pulled directly from the Type R. The Prelude comes standard with Continental all-season tires, but summers will be an option; sadly, the car I drove was fitted with the all-seasons.

Though I spent a collective 8 minutes in the Prelude, I could tell it is a nice place to be. I mean, all Civics are. Of course, this is a bit better and more sporty than your run-of-the-mill Civic. The Prelude is fitted with a couple of very handsome and very supportive heated bucket seats up front that did a good job of holding my large ass in when I hucked it around a corner at Honda's test track, and despite the fact that the car is rather low, I had no issue with headroom. I can't say I tried out the back seats, but they didn't exactly seem capacious. That's not my problem, though. I'm driving. I also didn't spend much time with the tech. Again, I had 8 minutes. Do you all care about this thing's steering feel or whether CarPlay is easy to connect to? That's what I thought. It's typical Honda. It's good. You'll like it.

All of these little things come together to create what genuinely seems like a lovely little car to drive. While my stint was brief, that's something I'm incredibly used to. I suppose you can say I'm more of a "good time, not a long time" guy. Unsurprisingly a massive highlight of the Prelude is its steering. Delicate would be the right way to describe it. Despite the fact it shares a box with the Civic Type R, the Prelude's rack feels far lighter, if memory serves. Even in Sport mode it felt like I could drive the car with just the lightest touch of the steering wheel. However, don't think for a second that it felt overboosted or imprecise. I was able to move from corner to corner on this incredibly tight track — meant originally for motorcycles — with a massive smile on my face.

I'm sure the pristine surface of the track had something to do with it, but it was so easy to get into a wonderful groove in this car. I think the kids call it a flow state. (I'm a kid, I call it a flow state.) That being said, the surface made it impossible for me to tell you how good the Prelude actually rides. It's probably fine. Civic Type Rs aren't miserable to ride on harsh surfaces, I don't suspect this will be either.

From the outside, the Prelude sounds like nothing. Zilch. Nada. You could mistake it for any other hybrid four-popper out there, which is too bad, but inside, Honda's engineers did a great job of cranking up the dramatics by pumping in fake noise that doesn't sound like total dogshit, and fitting the company's new S+ Shift system, with fake gearshifts to make everything a bit more fun. I'll tell you what, big dog, it worked.

S+ Shift has seven fake gears that'll run up against the engine's 6,000-rpm redline. Of course, the fact that there's no transmission means there's not actually any gears, but if an EV can have fake shifts, dammit, so can a hybrid. It provides some legitimately quick shifts that really do make everything a bit more exciting, going both up and down in the ratios. Hell, it even gives you a little mechanical kick. I've got no idea how they engineered that, but it sure is impressive. I'm sure using this system makes the Prelude a bit slower than just leaving it in regular automatic mode, but live a little. Have some fun in your sad, drab life. You don't need to be in Sport mode to use it either. Whether you're in Comfort, GT or Individual, you can flick on S+ Shift for a burst of fun.

Honda hasn't told me — or anyone, for that matter — how many Preludes it plans to sell every year. However, a rep for the brand told me they are very confident it'll sell every single one it builds. I'm sure you've all seen the comments online bemoaning the fact that this car isn't just a rehash of a car that was killed off 25 years ago. Hell, you probably wrote some of those comments, but I promise you, the sixth-generation Prelude lives up to the name on its trunklid.

It might not be the fastest car I've ever driven, but in a world where people complain about cars having too much useless power, isn't a low-ish-power sports coupe with a nice interior exactly what you're looking for? If it's good enough for the literal CEO of Honda to buy one, it's good enough for you, dear commenter. The new Prelude will reach dealers in the U.S. by the end of this year.

Welcome to Car and Driver's Testing Hub, where we zoom in on the test numbers. We've been pushing vehicles to their limits since 1956 to provide objective data to bolster our subjective impressions (you can see how we test here).

All the hullabaloo surrounding the new Honda Prelude's $43,195 base price has largely overshadowed what most enthusiasts really care about: performance. Now that we've finally had the chance to strap our testing equipment to the hybrid two-door hatchback, we have answers to some burning questions, like whether the resurrected Prelude is quicker than its powertrain donor—the humble Honda Civic Hybrid—as well as how its test results compare with other racy Civic models.

Remember, the Prelude returns for its sixth generation with some notable changes. While it looks like a coupe, its sloping roofline hides a rear hatch for the first time ever. Unlike its predecessors, the new Prelude doesn't offer a manual transmission and comes exclusively with a hybrid powertrain. The latter pairs an Atkinson-cycle 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine with a pair of electric motors that altogether make 200 hp and 232 pound-feet of torque. Most of the time, one of the electric motors is what drives the front wheels, with the gas engine running to make electricity. The Prelude also debuts an S+ mode that mimics gearchanges, though it compromises straight-line quickness (more on that below).

Now it's time to rip the band-aid off. If you're a Prelude owner and for some hypothetical reason line up against a Honda Civic Hybrid at the drag strip, it'll take you a few tenths longer to complete the quarter-mile, based on our test results. The Prelude went 1320 feet in 15.3 seconds at 90 mph; the Civic needed 14.9 seconds at 92 mph. The 'Lude was also slower to 60 mph (6.5 versus 6.2 seconds), and activating S+ not only interrupts the engine note with its fake shifts, but it also increases the wait by eight-tenths, as it needed 7.3 ticks. The hybrid Civic was more responsive than the Prelude in our 5-to-60-mph rolling-start test too (7.2 versus 7.9 seconds), although we've found this powertrain very sensitive to heat soak, which may explain some of that large difference. The two cars we tested have very similar curb weights, with the Prelude weighing 3242 pounds versus the Civic Hybrid's 3225 pounds.

For Prelude fans wanting a win, the chart above provides a few things to feel good about. It's a tenth quicker to 60 mph than our long-term Civic Si, with its 200-hp 1.5-liter turbo and six-speed manual initially taking 6.6 ticks. The Prelude, which inherits a front suspension and brakes from the track-focused Civic Type R, also recorded a shorter stop from 70 mph than the Si (152 versus 154 feet) and more cornering grip (0.97 versus 0.94 g), with both wearing their optional summer tires. While the 315-hp CTR obviously owns all the performance bragging rights, the Prelude boasts a much better combined EPA estimate (44 versus 24 mpg).

Oh, and if you were wondering how the new Prelude compares with one of its most recent predecessors, it beats our long-term 1997 Prelude SH through the quarter-mile and to 60 mph—as long as you leave S+ out of the mix.