► Acura ARX-05 revealed
► New racer headed for IMSA series
► Revealed at The Quail 2017
Acura, Honda’s US brand, is taking its racing to the next level. This mad, almost Le Mans-like racer is the ARX-05 Prototype, which has been unveiled at The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering.
Acura Motorsport teamed up with Team Penske to get a pair of these new prototype racers into the 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, so US race fans will see it in the metal pretty quickly.
Acura says that the name stands for Acura Racing eXperimental Generation 5, which has a similar naming format to the NSX (New Sportscar eXperimental, for you motoring pub quiz fans).
Acura ARX-05 engines, specs
The ARX-05 uses a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 that’s found in a range of Acura’s cars in the US, but it’s not quite the same unit found in the NSX. Still, this prototype racer is the next step up from the NSX GT3 racer that was made available for privateer racing teams to buy earlier in 2017.
The engine has been used for years by Acura in a series of Le Mans racers and has powered class winners from the 12 Hours of Sebring too.
Acura vice president Jon Ikeda, said: ‘At Acura, Precision Crafted Performance is at the heart of everything we do. Whether it is our production cars or a prototype race car, if you want to be a performance brand you need to perform.’
The ARX-05 was revealed at The Quail, but will also be on show this Sunday at the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours.
Check out our review of the Honda NSX