Acura has taken the wraps off its latest sports prototype racer at the Monterey Car Week in California.
The ARX-05, designed per the Daytona Prototype international rulebook and based on the LMP2-spec ORECA 07 chassis, will compete in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship from 2018 onwards.
Powered by a 3.5 litre, twin turbo V6 engine derived from Acura's production models, the car will be run by the famed Team Penske outfit.
Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya and 2016 IMSA series champion Dane Cameron were confirmed as the first drivers for the two-car program on Tuesday.
“The Acura DPi is the latest example of an automotive manufacturer applying key design features and technology from its consumer vehicles into a world-class racing application,” said IMSA President Scott Atherton.
“Acura and Team Penske join a formidable WeatherTech Championship Prototype class that includes race-winning DPi programs from Cadillac and Nissan, a Mazda DPi team that should be highly competitive in 2018 through its new relationship with Joest Racing along with several highly professional and competitive LM P2 programs."
Roger Penske's team has already conducted the first tests of the ARX-05 at Circuit Paul Ricard, with further sessions planned ahead of the car's race debut at the Daytona 24 Hours in January.
The IMSA-specific DPi regulations mean HPD and Acura can design their own bodywork elements to fit over the baseline ORECA tub, which is itself homologated to the championship.
“We created a variety of initial sketches, then pared those down to a handful of potential designs,” said Acura global creative director Dave Marek.
“Next came aero and wind-tunnel model testing and time for the engineers to have their say."
"The design continued to be refined throughout the testing and evaluation process until we came up with a final treatment that met our performance goals, while maintaining Acura’s styling cues. It’s been an exciting process.”
Acura last entered a top-level sports prototype in 2009, when customer asset Highcroft Racing won the American Le Mans Series title.
The brand will continue to campaign its NSX-GT3 models with Michael Shank Racing in the IMSA championship next year, while a European-based Honda GT3 program is set to enter the Blancpain Series.
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