Taking on Cadillac's thundering, championship-winning V8-powered CTS-Vs, V10-powered Audi R8s and other high-caliber machinery in the 2014 Pirelli World Challenge GT class has led Acura to prepare bigger artillery for its new TLX racecar.
(Check out more of Marshall's sports car racing analysis over at Racer. It's the best motorsports mag in the business as far as I'm concerned. - T.O.)
Technical specs for the four-door sedan, revealed yesterday at the Detroit auto show, are rather light at this point, but Honda Performance Development technical director Roger Griffiths was able to shed some light on what the TLX will be packing under the engine cover.
"Moving to a new model and class in Pirelli World Challenge was a case of we'd been running the Acura TSX for some while also and a Honda Civic with RealTime Racing, and with the TLX being a new product, everyone recognized Acura has a motorsports heritage of its own and we wanted to showcase the brand," Griffiths told RACER. "The car will be very interesting – the engine's based on the LMP2 engine, it will feature all-wheel-drive, and we've got a ton of work to do, frankly. A lot of the work will be done in-house."
Wisconsin-based RTR and California's HPD will collaborate on the TLX project as they prepare for the series' season opener at St. Petersburg on March 28-30.
"It's a two-way partnership; we've done the design here and Peter Cunningham's team will build the car for us," Griffiths added. "They have an incredible amount of touring car experience and will put all of their resources into sourcing the right components and preparing the TLX for testing and its debut. It's a pretty cool project – a significant undertaking – but one we believe will add another unique chapter to Acura's racing history."
This story originally appeared on Racer on January 15, 2014, and was republished with permission. Also check out some more sports car insight from Racer here:
Ford DP teams prepping for durability test ahead of Rolex 24
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