Acura’s Race to the Finish

Acura brand vehicles are the dark horse of the professional racing circuit, which is filled with all your stereotypical sport vehicles: the Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, Cadillac CTS and Porsche 911, among others. 

Acura, on the other hand, is better known for producing luxury performance vehicles at an affordable cost. But while they may not have much representation at the Indianapolis 500, Acura cars have been tearing up the racetrack at many other major car racing series, most notable of which is the Pirelli World Challenge.

Since 1997, an Acura car has been crowned the Grand Touring (GT) Champion of the Pirelli World Challenge three times, and Touring Car (TC) Champion 10 times. RealTime Racing is a professional motorsports team whose drivers have piloted Honda and Acura cars to 18 professional titles in various motorsports series. 

While technically a separate entity from Honda’s U.S. division (the team receives technical assistance, but still has to assemble the car in-house), the racing team has demonstrated time and time again the superior racing qualities of Honda and Acura cars. Together with Acura, RealTime racing has won an unmatched 10 Manufacturers’ Championships, 14 Drivers’ Championships and 85 race victories and counting.

The Acura TSX GT has been the favored Acura racing prototype of the past few years, but the company is moving forward with its new TLX model for the 2015 year. Developed by Honda Performance Development (HPD), the racing arm of American Honda Motor Company, the new Acura TLX GT racecar will be powered by a twin-turbocharged, direct-injected V6 engine and will feature HPD chassis and aerodynamic performance parts manufactured specifically for the Pirelli World Challenge. The racing car will also utilize Acura’s Super Handling-All Wheel Drive (SH-AWD).

Acura’s new TLX GT puts the company in direct competition with some of its biggest upmarket competitors, such as the Nissan GTR, Audi R8 LMS, Dodge Viper, Cadillac CTS-V, Lamborghini Gallardo, Mercedes SLS, Porsche 911, Chevrolet Corvette and Ferrari 458 in the top category of the Pirelli World Challenge.

HPD President and Vice-President-Product Planning and Logistics of American Honda Motor Company Art St. Cyr isn’t fazed by the competition. “The 2015 Acura TLX is a true luxury sport sedan, so it is fitting that the car be raced against several of its natural luxury competitors in the Pirelli World Challenge,” he said at last year’s TLX GT unveiling.

Acura cars have a proven track record of excellence on and off the race track. One can only wait and see what the only all-wheel drive car in the category brings to this year’s Pirelli World Challenge series.