Among all the gloom and doom surrounding Porsche’s decision to leave the P1 class in the World Endurance championship in order to compete in the WW(Formula)E, comes the good news that Honda’s pretty new GT3 NSX as seen in the North American Sports Car Championship will now be offered for sale globally.
But the new car won’t come cheap with a list price starting at €465,000 or just over $682859 Australian Dollars.
With more than 50,000-miles of on-track development and already a multi-race winner in its inaugural season of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition, the NSX GT3 is eligible to race in more than two dozen FIA-sanctioned racing series around the world, including:
The Australian GT Championship
The Intercontinental GT Challenge (including the Bathurst 12 Hours)
The Pirelli World Challenge and WeatherTech SportsCar Championship series in North America
The Blancpain GT Series and 24 Hours Nurburgring in Europe
The Blancpain GT Series Asia and GT Asia Series
The Super GT GT300 class in Japan
Additional options and complete customer support, including parts and service, training and engineering services are available. Orders for the NSX GT3 are being taken now by HPD, responsible for sales in North America, at AcuraClientRacing.com. JAS Motorsport is responsible for NSX GT3 sales in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, excluding Japan. MUGEN is responsible for sales in Japan.
The NSX GT3 chassis, including the multi-material body structure and TIG-welded chrome-moly roll cage, is built alongside the production NSX at the Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Marysville, Ohio, exclusive worldwide manufacturing facility for the NSXiii. The PMC also operates a repair facility for the NSX GT3.
The production-based 3.5-liter, twin-turbocharged V6 racing engines are built alongside their production-vehicle counterparts at the Anna Engine Plant in Anna, Ohioiv. The racing engine uses the same design specifications as the production NSX, including the block, heads, valve train, crankshaft, pistons and dry-sump lubrication system. A six-speed, sequential-shift racing gearbox delivers power to the NSX GT3’s rear wheels. Final assembly is completed at JAS Motorsport in Italy.
“We are extremely pleased with the progress and success of the NSX GT3 in our inaugural season,” said Art St. Cyr, President of HPD. “Winning at Detroit and Watkins Glen, two very different circuits, in this highly competitive class illustrates the breadth of capabilities of the NSX GT3. We look forward to seeing the car in Victory Circle at tracks around the world in 2018 and beyond.”
Competing in the GTD class of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and the GT category of the Pirelli World Challenge in 2017, the NSX GT3 races against premium automotive brands including Aston Martin, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche at a wide variety of North American racing circuits, ranging from the tight confines of street courses such as Long Beach and Detroit to traditional road courses like Road America, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and the wide-open Daytona International Speedway.
“We’ve intended to compete at the highest level since the NSX was just a sketch on a pad,” said Jon Ikeda, Acura Vice President and General Manager. “To see the NSX GT3 winning races and now available for racers and track enthusiasts to enjoy around the world is a major milestone for the second generation NSX, the Acura brand and the global development team that made it possible.”
OK, so it’s not an LMP1, although Honda/Acura will be competing in the Daytona Prototype class in next year’s North American Sports Car Championship with a the all conquering Penske team, but it is another piece of good news in the sportscar racing scene which continues to thrive despite the missteps of the FIA and ACO.
