The Honda HSV 010 V8 race car has been spied testing at Suzuka in Japan.
Although Honda calls it "a racing car specially developed for Japanese Super GT category", it is loosely based on Honda’s axed 'next NSX' project.
See the Honda HSV 010 race car in hi-res
Honda put a lot of time and work into developing a new front-engined V10 super-coupe, to go head to head with the Lexus LFA.
The car was seen testing and was close to being signed off when Honda pulled the plug in winter 2008 as the economic crisis hit, around the same time Honda announced it was quitting Formula One.
Sources say Honda’s plan was to launch the new V10 super-coupe as the Acura Sports, its launch timed to coincide with the debut of Acura, Honda’s luxury dealer channel, in Japan.
In the end, both projects got canned, but not before Honda put quite a bit of work into developing a separate, pure race version of the Acura Sports for Super GT, Japan’s hugely popular tin-top race series.
The Super GT version of the Acura Sports will carry the road car’s silhouette but underneath it would be totally different, with an all-new carbonfibre chassis and swapping the road car’s 5.0-litre V10 – good for 500bhp plus – for a race-bred 3.4-litre V8 to meet the new Super GT regs.
The road car’s high-performance, rear-biased Super Handling 4WD system has also been exchanged for a simpler, more robust rear drive layout, again to meet Super GT regs.
Honda will build a limited run of race cars to meet the requirements of the Super GT teams, but has stressed the race car will not be sold, nor form the basis of a road car.
It’s a 90-degree V8 with 3400cc capacity, rev-limited to 10,300rpm and good for 600bhp plus. For Super GT duty, the engine will have to be significantly reworked for a more endurance spec. Super GT races are longer and harder than Formula Nippon and each engine also has to last for four races.
The V8 engine will also be air-restricted to 500bhp to meet the regs in Super GT’s top GT500 class, but will lose the rev limiter.
The details of the car and the team organisation will be announced in January.
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Re: Honda 'NSX' racer - new pics
wanger!
What a fine man you are. I do admire you for pointing out how exceptional the big H is.
Thank you.
And to Chunkster - what an ignorant little man you are. You know nothing about cars and especially nothing about Honda. Plus what is wrong with the design of the Integra may I ask?
Re: Honda 'NSX' racer - new pics
just for kcrally`s hedification:
Honda entered the IndyCar Series in 2003, and scored 28 victories in 49 races (2003-05) against strong competition from opposing manufacturers, including Indy 500 and IndyCar drivers' and manufacturers' championships in 2004 and '05. Overall, including its 65 victories in the CART Champ Car series from 1994-2002, Honda owns 128 race victories in open-wheel competition in the U.S.
During the course of the 17-race 2007 IndyCar Season, 36 drivers, utilizing the Honda Indy V8 (HI7R) racing engine, recorded a total of 166,608 miles with just a single in-race engine failure - a demonstration of outstanding design and build quality rarely seen in a highly stressed racing engine. For the second consecutive season, Honda also powered the entire 33-car starting field at the 2007 Indianapolis 500. And for the second year in a row - and the only two times in '500' history - there was not a single engine-related retirement in the event.
Re: Honda 'NSX' racer - new pics
If not a full IRC series in the States!
Hmmm which manufacturer supplied the entire engines to the Indy 500 race, and did not suffer one engine failure from any of the cars in the field during the whole of the race?
answers on a postcard....