Acura announces 2007 American Le Mans Series lineup
Honda Performance Development is leveraging its involvement with the Indy Racing League to launch a three-team effort for the 2007 ALMS season. IndyCar veterans Fernandez Racing and Andretti Green Racing will join the Acura LMP2-class effort, along with Highcroft Racing.
Fernandez Racing will mount their HPD/Acura engines in Lola B05/40 chassis and focus on engine development with HPD, while Highcroft will run an Acura-Courage LC75 (shown above in generic Acura livery), working with HPD on chassis development, as Honda prepares to develop its own chassis for the 2008 season. Andretti Green, also running a Courage, brings sponsor XM Satellite Radio from their IRL effort, while Fernandez Racing will be sponsored by the Lowe's home improvement chain. All three teams will run Michelins. Highcroft Racing is the only one of the three teams currently running in the ALMS, competing in LMP1 with its Lola EX257-AER.
This will be another boost for the fast-growing ALMS, not least because of the inevitable rumors of a Mario/Michael/Marco three-generation Andretti driver matchup. However that storyline plays out, it's clear that Honda isn't fooling around with its ALMS effort.
[Source: Honda]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Buster Hymen 4:12PM (7/21/2006)
if only honda would produce race insipired engines in a few of their cars (ie nice low end torque instead of their mid range I-VTEC engines that feel like molassas at low end rpm's.
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Tim UF 4:23PM (7/21/2006)
Could this be part of the rampup for the NSX replacement by getting the acura brand some visibility in the racing world
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Yada Yada Yada Blog 4:25PM (7/21/2006)
I agree. I have owned Hondas for years, with my first one being a 1980 civic. These cars are renown for the number of miles you can get on one, but having a race inspired new Honda with more meat than the s2000, would be fantastic and I would be first in line to get one. I have had about 8 Honda cars, and have never had an major problems with them.
http://importantblogposts.blogspot.com/
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Al 4:27PM (7/21/2006)
I agree. The NSX is one fantastic car, however is due for a change/upgrade. http://importantblogposts.blogspot.com/
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Al 4:28PM (7/21/2006)
I agree. I would love to see a new NSX.
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gkz 4:32PM (7/21/2006)
#1 - Honda's racing engines ARE high RPM screamer engines. These stats aren't 100% accurate: the IRL 3.0L engine puts out appx. 650 hp at 10,300 rpm and the F1 2.4L engine does 750+ at about 19000 rpm. The torque figures are significantly less.
Needless to say, these technology employed by these engines does not easilty translate into torque monster street engines.
Further, since nearly all racing (excepting drag) demands power to be applied while already at speed, racing engines are designed more for max horsepower rather than low end torque. Even NASCAR engines which are about as large in displacement as a racing engine gets, are designed to produce high horsepower at very high(for a pushrod design) RPM.
That said, I hope the ALMS does continue to gain popularity. It generally is very exciting racing to watch.
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SLVR6 5:06PM (7/21/2006)
Since when does any race engine have low end torque? Most race engines are tuned to have a specific rev range of about 3000rpm max, the engine is kept in that band with gearing.
Funny, my '04 Accord is unlike any other Honda I have owned, it has plenty of low end torque (2.4L I4 with i-VTEC)
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AutoFan 5:13PM (7/21/2006)
Honda isn't putting race technology into its production vehicles? VTEC, anybody? PGM-FI? Double wishbone suspensions on Civics (not anymore, but in 1988 it was big news)? Famously lightweight internals? C'mon, Honda's been better than any other MASS producer (that excludes Ferrari, Porsche, et. al., so back away from the keyboard now) at putting what it races into its street cars.
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gkz 5:20PM (7/21/2006)
#7 and 8 - I agree. My point was simply that the racing engines Honda produces probably aren't the best direction to look to in order to get low-rpm torque for street engines as #1 seems to be suggesting. I wouldn't argue with anything either of you say; just clarifying my point.
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Ryan 5:28PM (7/21/2006)
This will be fun! Audi will beat them in their Oil burner. Can't wait to see it happen :)
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Mike from Scarborough 6:13PM (7/21/2006)
VW should come out with a car as well,,say the w-12 that's already in the Bently Coupe..Then It would be an Audi VW,,,1 & 2,,,,,acura maybe 5th.
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JSFORBES 8:13PM (7/21/2006)
Very cool. I love how manufacturers are embracing ALMS. More great cars for a great series, yippee!
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Knight 9:16PM (7/21/2006)
Honda knows more about racing than a lot of people give it credit for. Not throwing salt on any entry Audi can field, but for the first time in IRL history, the entire Indy 500 was completed without a single engine problem.
As an owner for years, it'd be nice to see Honda's reliable tortise beat Audi's hare.
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MikeW 10:19PM (7/21/2006)
There is no way in hell the 3 liter IRL engines make 650hp@10,300 rpm, that would be 331ft=lbs (110ft-lbs liter) at that engine speed, it most engines do not make peak torque at peak power.
And that honda commercial that shows racing engine sounds (flat plane crank V8s) coming from honda's plebeian range of vehicles.
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Tired_Watcher 11:34PM (7/21/2006)
Well it also has the Porsche RS Spyders to worry about as well. They were close to beating the Audi at Utah.
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RacetrackOwner 7:16AM (7/22/2006)
Keeping my fingers crossed that we'll also see Nissan and Toyota jump in... that tends to happen when one of the Japanese Big Three goes racing...
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do you understand racing... 12:17PM (7/23/2006)
With the comments about "slugs at low rpm" and "most engines don't make peak torque at peak power", I have to wonder what anyone on here knows about racing.
Race engines are tuned to produce maximum power. Since power is torque * speed (speed the torque is produced at), that means the they design race engines to make max torque at as high revs as possible. So now you have an engine designed to produce max torque at max speed, and HP is torque * speed, so you end up with an engine that does indeed produce max torque at max HP.
And the reason is because just becuase they want to go as fast as possible.
And race engines are slugs at low RPMs. Since they have close-ratio gearboxes, they don't need much driveability below about 60% of max rpms, so they sacrifice it for more power. Race engines generally don't have much use for variable valve timing and other such tweaks to improve driveablity outside the peak power range.
The S2000 (2.0L) is as close to a race engine as you get in a street car.
110 ft-lbs per liter seems completely reasonable to me.
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Vexorg 7:51PM (7/23/2006)
While it's good to see more entires in ALMS, I really wish they would get some more teams running in GT1. Right now all you have there are the Corvettes and Aston Martins, and there isn't really much to see there. Even so, I had a lot of fun going to the Utah race (even if it was ridiculously hot) and look forward to going again next year.
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MikeW 1:04PM (7/25/2006)
My thing about peak torque, in naturaly aspirated engines peak torque isn't occuring at the engine's power peak, and that IRL engines are overrated. IRL cars are low drag/low downforce.
If honda's IRL engine made 650hp@10,300 rpm, peak torque would have to be greater (maybe ~5%) than the torque at peak power, 115ft-lbs /liter Not in this universe.
Yes racing engines make lots of power, look at Ferrari 2000F1 engine, peak torque was ~253ft-lbs@ 15,500 rpm, some 747hp there. Peak power was 817hp@17,500 (866with ram air) So torque at 17,500 was 245ft-lbs w/o ram air and 260ft-lbs with.
So obviously peak torque with ram air will be greater than 260ft-lbs, approaching 90ft-lbs / liter.
But F1 engines had variable intake runner length to enhance driveability/power, and the torque had a local maxima @ 13,500 and then local minima@14,500 and on to peak torque @ 15,500, smooth elsewhere.
Look at Race replica motorcycles, the 600cc class is basically at 200hp/liter.
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acura honda 3:27AM (10/11/2006)
they are good, but not as good as Audi
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