Honda Passport Baja Spec Targets 2027 Baja 500 With 1,300 HP
Honda Racing Corporation USA is putting the Passport name into SCORE’s top Trophy Truck class with a purpose-built Baja Spec race truck rated by Honda at 1,300 horsepower.
The Honda Passport Baja Spec is scheduled to make its global debut at a private event in downtown Los Angeles on October 29, 2026. Its first public appearance is planned for the 2026 SEMA Show in Las Vegas from November 3–6, followed by a competition debut at the 2027 SCORE Baja 500.
Two-time Baja 1000 winner Bryce Menzies will drive the truck. Honda announced the program on October 27 but has not yet disclosed the engine configuration, displacement, transmission, chassis design, suspension travel or vehicle weight. The 1,300-hp figure is a manufacturer specification, not an independently verified measurement.
Production note: This is a dedicated competition vehicle carrying the Passport name. Honda has not announced a 1,300-hp production Passport, a dealer conversion or a street-legal Baja Spec trim.
What Honda has confirmed
- Program: 2027 SCORE World Desert Championship.
- Class: Trophy Truck, SCORE’s premier unlimited-truck category.
- Driver: Bryce Menzies, a two-time Baja 1000 winner.
- Claimed output: 1,300 horsepower.
- First public display: HRC booth at SEMA, November 3–6, 2026.
- Planned racing debut: 2027 SCORE Baja 500.
Honda says the Baja Spec will use technology informed by its Formula 1, IndyCar and IMSA programs, but the announcement does not identify which systems or components carry over. Until HRC publishes a technical brief, it is not possible to determine how the truck makes its power or how much hardware it shares with other Honda race vehicles.
The Passport badge is a name, not proof of shared hardware
The dark teaser image establishes a wide-bodied desert-racing silhouette, very large tires and Honda, HRC and Passport branding. It does not establish a mechanical relationship with the five-seat Passport sold through Honda dealers.
That distinction matters because Trophy Trucks are specialized machines designed for high-speed running over extreme desert terrain. Their tube-frame structures, long-travel suspension and racing powertrains typically bear little resemblance to production SUVs beneath the bodywork. Honda has not yet described the Baja Spec’s construction in enough detail to make a component-by-component comparison.
The program arrives as automakers prepare a wide range of enthusiast builds for SEMA. Chiefs Review has also covered Nissan’s Sentra Spec-V and Z concepts and Mitsubishi’s Outlander Diamond Trail. Unlike those show-focused vehicles, Honda says the Baja Spec is intended to race in a championship.
A bigger step in Honda’s Baja program
Honda’s Baja history predates the first official race on the peninsula. In 1962, dealers and riders Dave Ekins and Bill Robertson Jr. took two Honda CL72 motorcycles from Tijuana to La Paz in 39 hours and 56 minutes, according to Honda’s historical account.
The company says it has since earned 22 overall Baja victories on motorcycles. Its four-wheel off-road program has recorded 17 class wins since 2015, including four Baja 1000 and five Baja 500 victories. Those results came in class competition; the Passport Baja Spec represents a move into the headline Trophy Truck category.
Menzies brings direct top-level experience to the project. Beyond his two Baja 1000 victories, he holds a 379.4-foot truck-jump record. That résumé gives HRC an experienced development and race driver, but the program’s performance will only be measurable once the truck competes.
What to watch at SEMA
The first public display should answer the immediate visual questions, but the important engineering details are the powertrain, cooling strategy, suspension design, drivetrain and serviceability. HRC also needs to clarify whether the 1,300-hp rating is peak engine output or another measurement.
For now, the confirmed story is a new Honda-backed Trophy Truck program with an ambitious output claim, an accomplished driver and a defined racing target. It is not a preview of a showroom SUV.
Featured image: Official Honda Passport Baja Spec teaser supplied through the Honda Newsroom. The intentionally dark image was released before the full vehicle reveal; credit American Honda Motor Co., Inc. / Honda Racing Corporation USA.