Honda has been competing in various forms of two-wheel and four-wheel racing since its inception. With over 60 years of racing experience, the company has produced numerous historic race cars and bikes. Recently, Honda's performance division, HRC, announced its new plans to restore, maintain, and support these vehicles for private owners through its Heritage Racing Program.
The program's main focus is on restoration services, which will be offered at HRC's US headquarters in Santa Clara, California. The same shop that supports HRC US operations, including the ARX-06 IMSA program, will provide full tear-down restorations based on original documentation and archival photographs. Once the restoration is complete, HRC will offer trackside support from its staff of engineers to historic racers buying the cars.
The first car included in this program is an Acura ARX-01a, which was the first sports car racer built specifically for Acura. This particular car, which raced in a SiriusXM livery for Andretti Green Racing as part of the American Le Mans Series LMP2 category, won its class on debut at Sebring in 2007.
View Price on AmazonHonda may be pausing its Acura-branded IMSA GTP program next year, but its racing operations continue in America with a new IndyCar engine set to be attached to the new IR28 chassis. Buyers looking to own an HRC product but not quite operating in the historic prototype racer price range should soon have a chance to own an often-teased new variant of the Civic Type R that has carried the racing imprint's badging in concept form.
Fred Smith's love of cars comes from his fascination with auto racing. Unfortunately, that passion led him to daily drive a high-mileage, first-year Porsche Panamera. He is still thinking about the last lap of the 2011 Indianapolis 500.
Source: roadandtrack.com
