Honda just rolled out the most powerful and badass version of its Passport to date.
Let’s get something out of the way from the jump (if it wasn’t already obvious from the look alone). Your Honda Passport probably won’t have anywhere close to 1,300 horsepower anytime soon. Nonetheless, this Passport Baja Spec does, and the automaker just rolled out its new race truck that’s poised to take on the 2027 SCORE 500 in June. Before that, however, it’s headed to Las Vegas for SEMA next week.
Again, if it wasn’t already clear, the Baja truck shares a Honda badge and the Passport name with the everyday SUV…and that’s about it. Instead of a naturally aspirated 3.5-liter V6, this Baja Spec uses a mid-engine setup, bringing in the twin-turbocharged, hybridized 2.4-liter V6 from the Acura ARX-06 race car.
All that power makes its way to the wheels by way of a five-speed transmission, with a special all-wheel drive transaxle setup at the back with dual rear driveshafts. At the front, torque makes its way to the wheels through a Mason Motorsports differential and portal gear sets mounted at the front hubs to improve its ground clearance.
Under the faux-Passport cosmetic elements, flared fenders and the Red Bull livery, the Passport Baja Spec trophy truck brings quite a bit of tech to the party as well. Dual-axle brake-by-wire, adaptive traction control and AI-assisted power deployment — all brought over from Honda’s motorsport experience in Formula 1, IndyCar and IMSA racing — will make its Baja debut here. Honda Racing Corporation president Kelvin Fu says this 1,300-horsepower Passport is “essentially a software-defined vehicle”, wherein proprietary programming brings the truck’s powertrain, energy management and chassis systems into a single platform.
Still, there’s plenty of hardware involved with this Passport Baja Spec build, as well. The truck gets custom long-travel suspension, a set of Toyo tires all around with a couple spares at the back, while engineers built in air tunnels around the cab to reduce aerodynamic drag. To clock the long distances necessary to compete in the SCORE 500, the Passport Baja Spec gets a 145-gallon carbon-Kevlar fuel cell positioned at the center of the cab for better weight distribution.
After it hits up SEMA next week, the Honda Passport Baja Spec will compete between June 2-6, 2027 with double Baja 1000 winner and world record holder for the longest truck jump, Bryce Menzies.
