Honda and Hoonigan Built an Ultimate Ridgeline IndyTruck with Acura NSX Parts

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Imagine that Honda Performance Development not only gave you a Honda Ridgeline pickup, but also threw in one of their IndyCar engines to turn into the ultimate project truck. What would you build? Well, Hoonigan might have read your mind if you thought about turning it into a truck-bodied (mostly), mid-engine race truck that also uses some suspension parts from the 2021 Acura NSX. Yes, it's exactly as incredible as it reads on paper.

It's not everyday that a major IndyCar manufacturer just hands out an engine that isn't going into one of their teams during the season. These particular engines are unique and far different from the engine used in the Honda Ridgeline Unlimited race truck that races off-road at the Mint 400 and the Baja 1,000. While that's a racing engine, it has more in common with the production Ridgeline engine than the IndyCar twin-turbo V-6 does.

This 2.2 liter engine is known as the HI18TT that uses a 98mm (3.85 inch) bore that is capable of 12,000 rpm (when using IndyCar's specified limiter) and weighs in at just 250 pounds. That includes the pair of BorgWarner EFR 7163 turbochargers that can supply nearly 24 psi of boost when push-to-pass is used. This means that at full boost and on E85 fuel, the engine is capable of somewhere around 700 horsepower. That fuel is also sprayed into the cylinder both directly into the combustion chamber and in the intake system.

That intake is also an ITB system that is drive-by-wire but feeds boost into the top-mounted air box after passing through its intercoolers. This is all controlled by a MoTeC ECU and the engine information is passed on to the driver via a MoTeC dash display mounted to the original Ridgeline dashboard. Controls for the ignition, transmission controls, and more are done by a MoTeC Canbus Keypad and PDM. The keypad does have a button for what looks like an onboard starter and that would be a welcome change from the original IndyCar setup.

Normally, these cars use an external starter to reduce the weight of the engine and transmission package. That being said, it looks like the hole to mount the exterior starter in the Xtrac transmission remains, possibly as a backup, but we weren't able to confirm with Hoonigan at the time of publication.

The actual rowing of the gears is done by a paddle shift system mounted behind the Momo Protopito steering wheel while a Tilton pedal box provides the clutch and brake pedals. Since the Ridgeline is already a throttle-by-wire, its throttle pedal was retained. The driver and passenger sit in a pair of Recaro Podium carbon-fiber racing seats with "Hoonigan" embroidered on the headrests and held in with custom made "Hoonigan" brackets, while the harnesses are Willians six-point, cam lock style straps.

The other key difference between the Ridgeline Unlimited Truck engine is that the IndyCar engine with the Xtrac 1011 transmission are stressed members of the chassis. This means that they considered a part of the chassis with suspension parts attached to them. Attaching all of this in the traditional front-engine set-up was going to be difficult. Instead, the team at Hoonigan decided to keep it a mid-engine layout by cutting the back-half of the Ridgeline's unibody and creating a new mounting system that works with the Honda IndyCar engine.

It also retained the IndyCar's rear pushrod suspension design using a set of Moton three-way adjustable motorsports dampers, keeping the motion of the NSX hubs in check. The front end uses a similar design by changing from the Ridgeline's original strut setup to a pushrod suspension using 2022 Acura NSX hubs.

This required a whole new front subframe along with a custom-made upper support to attach the pushrod bell cranks that transfers the motion of the suspension pushrods to the dampers. Slowing this IndyTruck down are a set of 2022 NSX carbon-ceramic brake discs and Brembo six-piston front, four-piston rear brake calipers. These are mounted behind a custom set of Rotiform LTN 20-inch forged wheels with 295/40R20 front and 305/40R20 rear Pirelli P-Zero tires.

Another change that Honda provided was an update to the looks of the 2017 Ridgeline. Rather than use the outdated exterior body that was still being used, these parts were updated to 2022 spec, but with custom touches like the red "H" badge on the grille, the louvered hood, and a set of wider front fenders to help differentiate it from a standard 2022 Ridgeline. Once you get past the rear door, everything is a custom touch like the flare that melds into the rear doors and leads air into the radiator and heat exchangers.

While the truck bed is missing, a custom piece mounted below the wing retains the 2022 Ridgeline tail lights while a triple element wing and rear diffuser are mounted directly to the Xtrac gearbox. Unfortunately, they didn't add some sort of "bed" or some inspired version of its dual-action tailgate. even as temporary parts when its not on track, but that would defeat the idea of this being an IndyTruck. Still, it would have been hilarious to see a removable bed tray or something from the original bed of the 2017 Ridgeline besides the tail lights.

This incredible feat of customization by Hoonigan was also helped in part with input from Honda's HPD engineers throughout parts of the project, but the majority of the fabrication was done by those enthusiasts in their shop in Compton, California. It's on display with Rod Millen's Pikes Peak Toyota at the outdoor Pennzoil display at SEMA 2022. It will soon be on a racetrack to test it and see if they have created the ultimate Honda Ridgeline—we're going to take a bet while we're here in Vegas and say they did.