Acura's ARX-06 to race against Porsche, BMW in hypercar class

To say 2023 is an exciting year for endurance racing is an understatement.

Manufacturers such as BMW, Porsche, Cadillac, Peugeot, and even Ferrari are debuting their own Le Mans hypercars to battle in the grandest endurance races of them all – the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

And among those, established teams are also going with new race cars to race against the new (and returning) constructors. Acura has long been a stalwart in American endurance racing, particularly in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship where they use the ARX-05 prototype. Here's their newest challenger – the ARX-06 LMDh race car.

Built using the Le Mans Daytona hypercar rules, the Acura ARX-06 race car features a spec chassis and a mandatory hybrid system from suppliers chosen by the FIA. The ARX-06's chassis was built by Oreca, but the bodywork was designed in the Acura Design Studio together with Honda Performance Development (HPD)'s in-house CFD engineers.

The result is a body that's unmistakably Acura – sweeping LED headlights in front that bear a lot of resemblance with their road-going vehicles while making it as aerodynamic as possible. Acura involved its drivers in the design process and even recreated the ARX-06's cockpit in virtual reality. This was done to place the side mirrors where they could be most aerodynamically efficient while remaining useful for drivers' visibility.

Series rules meant the Bosch motor generator unit and the Williams Advanced Engineering battery pack has been paired to Acura's smallest displacement ICE yet – a bespoke 2.4-liter, twin-turbo direct-injection V6 unit that revs up to 10,000 rpm. In addition, the power unit has been designed to run on low-carbon fuel while still producing the mandated max power output of 670 PS.

According to David Salters, president and Technical Director of HPD, the ARX-06's power unit has elements of Honda's Formula One technology, particularly in the hybrid system's ECU platform.

“We are looking forward to the challenge of racing Porsche, BMW, and GM in IMSA’s pinnacle GTP championship. We are very aware that this is a big step for us. We have a lot to learn, but that is why we race” said Salters.

Acura will campaign four ARX-06 race cars under Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing teams in the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP class.