How Acura created the ARX-06 race automobile that gained the 24 Hours of Daytona

The Acura ARX-06 took the primary win of IMSA’s LMDh prototype period on the 2023 Rolex 24 at Daytona. Previous to the race weekend, Acura launched a documentary exhibiting how the automobile was designed.

Branded GTP by IMSA in reference to the category of prototypes from the sanctioning physique’s Eighties glory days, the LMDh rule set consists of hybrid powertrains, in addition to chassis from permitted suppliers, however provides producers freedom for styling and within the selection of internal-combustion engine to be paired with spec hybrid elements.

2023 Acura ARX-06 LMDh race automobile teaser

Profiting from the comparatively open design guidelines, the ARX-06 was styled by the Acura Design Studio in Los Angeles, going via the identical design course of because the automaker’s highway vehicles, full with clay modelling and a wall of sketches. So whereas designers began out with a primary chassis from Oreca, the identical provider used for the outgoing ARX-05 DPi prototype, the look is distinctly Acura.

Acura selected a purpose-built 2.4-liter twin-turbo V-6 from Honda Efficiency Growth to couple with the aforementioned rules-mandated hybrid {hardware}, together with a motor generator unit from Bosch and Williams Superior Engineering battery pack, in addition to a 6-speed sequential gearbox from Xtrac.

The foundations specify a most output of 670 hp, with 40-67 hp of that whole coming from electrical energy, relying on the observe. The hybrid system additionally permits for all-electric driving at low speeds, together with when leaving the pits and driving to and from the garages—a novelty for IMSA racing. 

Acura gained a number of IMSA championships underneath the outdated DPi format however, as crew boss Wayne Taylor notes within the documentary, the ARX-06 is a clean-sheet design. That required shut collaboration between his Wayne Taylor Racing outfit and Meyer Shank Racing, the opposite crew fielding an ARX-06 within the 2023 IMSA season, to develop the automobile earlier than they might battle one another on observe.

That growth work paid off at Daytona, the place the quantity 60 Meyer Shank Racing ARX-06, pushed by Tom Blomqvist, Colin Braun, Howdy Castroneves, and Simon Pagenaud, took pole and the race win. Wayne Taylor Racing’s quantity 10 ARX-06, pushed by Filipe Albuquerque, Louis Deletraz, Brendon Hartley, and Ricky Taylor, completed 4.1 seconds behind its sibling automobile. Watch the complete documentary to see how this race winner was created.