Honda Racing Corporation USA is hauling a matte Thermal Orange Passport TrailSport concept to six overlanding expos across the country this summer, starting May 15 at Overland Expo West in Flagstaff, Arizona. HRC isn’t just attending. It’s the title sponsor.
That’s a significant pivot for an outfit that built its reputation on IndyCar engines and IMSA prototypes. HRC US, formerly Honda Performance Development, has spent three decades engineering powertrain and chassis components for professional racing. Now it wants to bolt skid plates onto your family SUV and sell you a rooftop tent.
The concept itself, which first appeared at SEMA last November, is no wallflower. It sits on a 60mm suspension lift with oversized tires, redesigned bumpers for better approach and departure angles, extended aluminum skid plates protecting the prop shaft and rear drive unit, a swing-out spare tire carrier, an 8,000-pound winch, and an onboard air compressor. The interior gets blue Alcantara with HRC branding and a built-in refrigerator. A custom multi-zone lighting system controls fog lights, ditch lights, chase lights, and camp lights mounted along the sides.
It’s a parts showcase, not a production vehicle — at least not yet. Rob Ray, HRC’s general manager of performance parts, chose his words carefully: “We’re continuing to evaluate how that could show up in future products.” Translation: if the overlanding crowd bites, expect a catalog.
HRC has quietly launched a new business unit dedicated to producing performance parts for Honda and Acura customers across street, track, and off-road applications. The overlanding tour is essentially a six-month focus group. Honda product specialists and engineers will staff every booth from May through October, collecting feedback from people who actually sleep on top of their trucks.
The timing makes sense. The overlanding market has exploded over the past five years, and Toyota has owned the conversation with the 4Runner and Land Cruiser. Ford’s Bronco carved out massive territory. Honda, despite the Passport TrailSport’s genuine capability, has been a footnote in the adventure segment.
Deploying HRC — with its motorsport credibility and engineering depth — is Honda’s way of saying the Passport deserves a seat at the campfire. Whether weekend warriors buying $60,000 SUVs care about the same badge that powers Colton Herta’s IndyCar is the open question.
The tour hits Range2 Ranch in McCall, Idaho in June, Xoverland’s Big Thing in Three Forks, Montana in July, Overland Expo Mountain West in Loveland, Colorado in August, MSO Adventure X Fest in Circleville, West Virginia in September, and Overland Expo East in Arrington, Virginia in October. Six events, six months, thousands of conversations with the exact buyers Honda needs to convert. It’s a ground game, not an ad campaign.
HRC also plans to display Honda powersports products alongside the Passport and sell exclusive HRC merchandise at each stop. The whole operation is designed to plant a flag: Honda’s racing division doesn’t just do race tracks anymore.
The real tell will come after the tour ends. If HRC starts listing bolt-on Passport parts in a catalog by early 2027, the concept did its job. If it quietly disappears, it was a very expensive tent display.
Honda sold nearly 99 percent of its U.S. vehicles from North American factories last year, and electrified models accounted for nearly a third of volume. But volume isn’t the problem. Credibility in the dirt is. And Honda just sent its racing engineers to go get some.
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