Acura has finally revealed to the Racing world its new 2018 Daytona Prototype International contender. The new race car was revealed Friday at The Quail during this week’s pebble beach Concours d'Elegance event.
According to Motorsport, Acura will field a new prototype race car called the ARX-05 in the upcoming 2018 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship. Joining Acura in next year’s IMSA event will be Team Penske, the professional stock racing and open wheel racing team founded by Roger Penske.
What to expect from the new Acura race car
The Acura ARX-05, which stands for Acura Racing eXperimental, is the Honda marquee’s fifth-generation prototype and the brand’s latest salvo in the racing world.
The new racing car will make its race debut this coming 2018 Daytona 24 Hours event in January 2018.
The ARX-05’ bodyworks body has been designed by Honda Performance Development with some design inputs from Acura global creative team, which responsible for the brand’s road car design. The bodyworks also include Acura design features, including the brand’s signature “jewel eye” headlights. The chassis is based on the Oreca 07 LMP2 car setup, with a body. Compared to the other DPi entries, the ARX-05 is notable for its aggressive look with an F1-style wing.
As for the powertrain, the Acura ARX-05 features a 3.5-liter V6 ART35TT twin-turbocharged engine that’s based on the J35 series six-cylinder found in most of Acura’s production models, which include the Acura RDX and the recently improved Acura RLX.
Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya and Dane Cameron have been confirmed to drive one of the race cars at Daytona, while the second car’s lineup to be announced later. Additionally, Team Penske’s IndyCar driver Helio Castroneves has also been linked to the Acura and Penske’s lineup. The new Acura ARX-05 will compete against the likes of Oreca, Dallara, Nissan, Cadillac, Multimatic Riley, and Mazda.
In addition, the new race car has also joined the historic Acura race cars at this week’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion event. It also featured on the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance with Acura’s global creative director Dave Marek as the Pebble Beach guest judge. Check out the video below to learn more about the new race car.
Other Acura-related news and announcements
Acura has kicked off the Monterey Car Week with the debut of its redesigned Acura RLX sedan. This new flagship sedan has been revealed along with ARX-05 race car prototype, the Autoblog reported.
According to Autoblog, many of the changes made for the new RLX are conceived to accentuate its performance leanings. The new RLX is the company’s most sophisticated sedan ever. It has the brand’s signature grille along with new wheel designs, newly designed LED taillights, gloss-black rear diffuser, and dual exhaust finishers. The newly revealed 2018 Acura RLX is expected to go on sale later this year.
