today is Mar 24, 2023
Acura Motorsports has released the first, heavily disguised, images of the company’s new ARX-06 LMDh prototype, which will be campaigned by Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP category beginning in 2023. The partial reveal is the first of a flurry of LMDh cars to be revealed in the next couple of weeks in the lead-up to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, with BMW and Cadillac expected to make announcements next week.
Exterior styling of the the Acura ARX-06 [Acura Racing eXperimental, generation 6] was led by the Acura Design Studio in Los Angeles, Calif., in conjunction with Honda Performance Development, the racing arm for Acura Motorsports and Honda Racing in North America, and chassis supplier ORECA.
“The process we used in creating the exterior design for the Acura ARX-06 is exactly the same as how we create a new Acura passenger vehicle,” said Dave Marek, Acura Executive Creative Director. “The same world-class stylists that lead Acura production car design created initial sketches, then pared those down to several potential designs. Next we created a scale model, did aero and wind tunnel model testing, and brought HPD and our partner teams in for their feedback. The design continued to be refined throughout the testing and evaluation process, until we came up with a final treatment that met our performance goals while maintaining all-important Acura styling cues. It’s been an exciting process.”
The Acura ARX-06 will be the latest in a line of endurance prototypes to be fielded by the company dating back to 1991. Based on the ORECA LMDh chassis, the ARX-06 will feature Acura-specific bodywork, aerodynamics and internal combustion power unit.
