Honda's Passport Baja Spec Is a 1,300-HP Hybrid Trophy Truck Built for the 60th Baja 1000

The Passport in your neighbor's driveway is a family crossover. The Passport on Honda Racing Corporation's (@hondaracing_us) SEMA stand shares its name, a grille shape and almost nothing else. The Passport Baja Spec is a mid-engine, all-wheel-drive Trophy Truck with a 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6, an 800-volt hybrid system and a combined output Honda (@honda) puts at more than 1,300 hp.

Honda says it is the first hybrid built to race the Trophy Truck class of the SCORE World Desert Championship, the top category in Baja desert racing. It made its public debut at HRC booth 24789 in Central Hall, where we found it on Thursday, Nov. 5, wearing No. 7 with Red Bull and AMSOIL graphics and Method wheels.

Why a V6 is a big deal here

Trophy Truck is the unlimited class of desert racing, and its front-runners have long leaned on big-displacement V8s. HRC says its truck's combined output tops the naturally aspirated 9-liter V8s in today's top trucks, a claim THE SHOP and Carscoops both report. Honda is trying to win with a smaller engine, turbos and electric help.

The engine is an all-aluminum 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 based on the unit in the Acura ARX-06 GTP prototype, mounted behind the cab. Per HRC, that racing engine has won both the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Taking a sports prototype engine into the silt of Baja is the boldest single decision in the program.

An 800-volt hybrid, built in house

HRC's US arm built the bespoke 800-volt hybrid system itself. The battery pack uses previous-generation Formula 1-style pouch cells in a carbon fiber case, and it is welded, assembled and validated in a new clean room at HRC US headquarters in Santa Clarita, California. Honda has not published the battery's capacity or how much power the electric side adds, so the 1,300-hp figure is the only number on the table.

The electronics are where Honda thinks it can change the class. HRC lists brake-by-wire on each axle, adaptive traction control and what it calls "AI power deployment," all run by proprietary software that ties together the powertrain, chassis and energy management and can be adjusted during a race. HRC says those are firsts for Trophy Truck. "The Honda Passport Baja Spec is essentially a software-defined vehicle," HRC US president Kelvin Fu told THE SHOP.

Fu framed the whole truck as a statement of intent, calling it a sign of HRC's "determination to push the boundaries of Baja desert racing." The software angle is the part that sounds most like Honda. Plenty of teams can build a strong truck. Few can design their own battery pack and control software in house.

No ring and pinion

The drivetrain is the part desert racers will study hardest. A five-speed transmission from Mason Motorsports (@masonmotorsportsinc), which THE SHOP calls a Masomatic twin-angled drive unit, sits ahead of the engine. Out back there is no conventional ring and pinion. Instead, two rear driveshafts feed angled high-pinion spiral bevel gearsets at each rear wheel. THE SHOP reports the design is meant to add strength and ground clearance and allows camber and toe adjustment.

Up front, a Mason differential sends torque through portal gear sets at each front hub, another trick for clearance. The chassis is a modified version of Mason's Gen 2 all-wheel-drive design with an HRC-specific rear section that houses the engine and hybrid hardware. Mason builds in Lake Elsinore, California, and according to THE SHOP it has won five straight SCORE chassis manufacturer of the year awards.

Fuel, shocks and air

A 145-gallon carbon Kevlar fuel cell sits at the center of the cab, so the balance stays steady as fuel burns off over hundreds of miles. Carscoops estimates a full load weighs about 899 pounds more than an empty cell. HRC mounted the fixed masses, including the batteries and fluid tanks, toward the rear.

Suspension is long travel with two FOX shocks at each corner, on Toyo tires. The carbon body was shaped with computational fluid dynamics: deep channels behind the front wheels manage airflow and cut drag, the exhaust exits high among fins behind the cockpit, and the cab tunnels air to a cooler mounted low and far back. That last move helps both weight distribution and center of gravity.

Menzies, the Baja 500 and the 60th Baja 1000

Two-time Baja 1000 winner Bryce Menzies (@brycemenzies7) will drive it, with Menzies Motorsports as HRC's partner. The race debut is the 2027 SCORE Baja 500, June 2 to 6. The real target comes later that year: an overall win at the 2027 Baja 1000, the race's 60th anniversary. The first one ran in 1967.

HRC showed the truck with its support rig, a new Passport TrailSport Baja Chase, and a booth full of race cars. The chase truck matters more than it looks. In Baja, a race truck is only as good as the crew that can reach it with parts.

Where Honda's Baja story started

A few feet away sat the other end of the timeline. Honda's 1969 N600, No. 278, was the first car American Honda ever raced. Motorcycle racers Dave Ekins and Bill Robertson Jr. entered it in the November 1970 NORRA Mexican 1000, the race now called the Baja 1000, and it did not finish after its CV axles kept failing. Our Honda booth story, Honda's SEMA Booth Ran From a Broken 1969 Baja N600 to a 1,300-HP Hybrid Trophy Truck, covers that car in detail. Putting a 600cc city car next to an 800-volt hybrid Trophy Truck was HRC's way of saying it has unfinished business in Baja.

Honda has never been a stranger to the race on two wheels. Its motorcycles have taken dozens of overall Baja 1000 wins over the decades; Enduro21 has reported Honda's 33rd pro motorcycle victory there. Four wheels are the missing piece, and the Passport Baja Spec is the first time Honda has built a factory truck to go after the overall.

What we still don't know

A lot, honestly. Honda has not published the truck's weight, battery capacity, electric motor output or how the hybrid handles hours of full-throttle desert heat. Those are the questions the desert will answer in June. What SEMA showed is that Honda is not entering Trophy Truck with a borrowed engine and a badge. It built its own powertrain, its own battery and its own software, and pointed all of it at the 60th Baja 1000.