[Auto]2023 Honda Pilot TrailSport Prototype Drive: Finally, Some True Off-Road Capability

[Dr@g0n]

When Honda's new TrailSport off-road treatment first debuted on the two-row 2022 Passport, we were disappointed to learn it was little more than an appearance package, a butch dress-up kit for the otherwise pedestrian Passport SUV. But we knew then that the first-year Passport TrailSport and the larger '22 Pilot TrailSport were only the beginning for the TrailSport sub-brand, which promised to expand not only to other Honda SUVs but also to grow more capable, too. The larger, all-new 2023 Honda Pilot's TrailSport variant represents the next phase. While it's no rock crawler—this is still, after all, a car-based three-row family crossover—the newest Pilot TrailSport is able to traverse roads less traveled, based on our ride in a camouflaged pre-production model. While we can't show you the interior or details of the exterior, we can relay how the ruggedest Pilot ever handles the Swan River trail in Breckenridge, Colorado and how this SUV came to be.Honda's engineers at its Research and Development center in Raymond, Ohio knew that the initial TrailSport effort on the old Pilot had left plenty of room for improvement. That next level didn't come without some convincing of the Honda of Americas executives, however. In 2018, the Ohio engineers took a third-generation Pilot and added a one-inch lift and all-terrain tires to test out their ideas of what TrailSport could be. Later that same year, the engineers took those aforementioned executives out for a trail ride in that modified Pilot around the off-road trails of Lake Arrowhead in San Bernardino, California, during the one time in 2018 that Southern California saw rain. The modified three-row not only survived, but impressed the execs enough to make this the blueprint for this upcoming Pilot TrailSport based on the new fourth-gen Pilot. The goal for the 2023 Pilot TrailSport was for it to conquer moderate-difficulty trails as rated by U.S. public land authorities. This means the new Pilot TrailSport is capable of traversing over 50 percent of the publicly available off-road trails in the U.S., and can reach places most average mid-size crossover SUVs could not. After all, how many mall-crawlers do you see easily tackling dirt, mud, sand, medium-sized rocks, water crossings, ditches, slopes, or high-tilting terrain?Before we delve further into the TrailSport's upgrades, let's pause to look at what's new with its basis: The all-new 2023 Pilot. This new-gen Pilot receives improvements to its unibody, with additional support structures and revisions to its existing structures upping rear lateral rigidity by 30 percent, rear bending rigidity by 20 percent, rear damper torsion by 30 percent, and front lateral rigidity by a staggering 60 percent over the 2022 Pilot. The rear body also now has more load paths to maintain overall stiffness in spite of the new SUV's larger cabin space. Every Pilot will look similar, though the TrailSport does jazz things up with beefier tires, some unique body cladding, a one-inch increase in ride height over last year's TrailSport (accomplished via longer springs, not simply spacers), and retuned shocks front and rear. Not only are the shocks and springs matched to take advantage of the additional one inch of travel afforded by the new springs, but Honda also throws in a set of off-road-optimized anti-roll bars. There are further hardware changes, too, that go well beyond the 2022 Pilot TrailSport's "rugged-style tires" and "exclusive TrailSport styling." Those include a new Trail drive mode that utilizes Honda's Real Time AWD with a "Trail torque logic" power split scheme. When the chassis goes off-tilt where a wheel is off the ground, power is split not only between the front and rear wheels, but also the left and right wheels. The front axle accomplishes this using the brakes to lock the airlifted wheel without traction in order to drive the tire with traction. The rear, however, can distribute torque across the axle, delivering up to 75 percent of engine torque sent rearward to the wheel with traction, leaving 25 percent flowing to the non-tractive tire. The reason? So the wheel in the air can immediately help motivate the Pilot forward when it touches back down. Additionally, the rear differential is capable of distributing 2,206 lb-ft of force, far more than the standard 2023 Pilot (1,838 lb-ft) or the previous-generation Pilot (1,568 lb-ft). Essentially, the gearing has been changed to provide more rear-axle torque while you're off-roading.
link:https://www.motortrend.com/news/2023-honda-pilot-trailsport-prototype-drive-review/