Acura reveals the ARX-06 LMDh car for the 2023 IMSA season

Having previously only released limited images of the car in camouflage livery from Le Castellet testing in July, the Acura ARX-06 was revealed in full for the first time on Wednesday in a predominantly white color scheme.

A public demonstration will take place on Friday at Car Week in Monterey, California.

The marque also revealed that it has built a custom 2.4-liter twin-turbo V6 combustion engine for the Oreca-based LMDh engine, and it was designed by Honda’s in-house Performance Development.

Acura said it’s the smallest engine the brand has built for endurance racing, well below the 3.5-litre V6 aboard the current ARX-05 DPi title car, but still in line with the 500kW performance target at the rear. here.

The ICU will be combined with a hybrid system specification developed jointly by Xtrac, Bosch and Williams Advanced Engineering.

“We took on the challenge posed by this new package of rules from IMSA and ACO and developed what we believe to be a very competitive solution,” said Pierre Decamp, who led the HPD transmission design team for the ARX-06.

“We went in a new direction for HPD in the design of the ICE. It’s still the V6 that Honda is known for, of course, but we’ve included a few new bits that we think will make the best use of the electric MGU and battery.

“Our new engine will rev to the maximum 10,000rpm set by the regulations, so it makes a great sound too!”

The new ARX-06 will be campaigned by Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing in the GTP class starting next season, with both teams remaining on the manufacturer list of IMSA teams from the current DPi era.

MSR and WTR are the only teams in contention for the 2022 IMSA Drivers’ and Teams’ titles, guaranteeing Acura championship honors in the final season of DPi rules.