02/20/2014 - SANTA CLARITA, Calif.
Starworks Motorsport to Debut HR35TT at Sebring
Latest Racing Application of Production-Based Honda V6 Engine
Two-Team HPD Effort In TUDOR United SportsCar Championship


Honda Performance Development Thursday announced a new, 3.5-liter racing application for the versatile, production-based Honda V6 engine found in a wide range of Honda/Acura passenger cars and light trucks and now raced in multiple categories worldwide.

The Honda HR35TT twin-turbocharged V6 is expected to make its TUDOR United SportsCar Championship debut at the 2014 Mobil1 12 Hours of Sebring, mounted in a Riley Gen3 prototype chassis campaigned by Starworks Motorsport.

Previously, Starworks partnered with HPD to win the LMP2 class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and World Endurance Championship in 2012, using HPD's ARX-03b chassis and Honda HR28TT twin-turbocharged V6, which also is derived from Honda's J35 series of engines.

Starworks becomes the second team to utilize Honda power for the new TUDOR championship. Extreme Speed Motorsports campaigns a pair of prototype class HPD ARX-03b Hondas, after a successful initial season with the same package in the 2013 American Le Mans Series.

"This is an exciting program for HPD and our customer teams in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship," said Steve Eriksen, HPD Vice President and COO. "Adding Starworks, a team that achieved great success with us in 2012, in a prototype machine alongside the proven HPD-Honda combination run by Extreme Speed Motorsports provides HPD with a strong, balanced attack in the inaugural TUDOR Championship."

"It's a fantastic feeling to be partnering with Honda once again," said Starworks team owner Peter Baron. "No doubt we had amazing success with HPD in 2012, but unfortunately it was only a one-year program. We have had numerous conversations over the past two years about building a Daytona Prototype motor and we're thrilled to see it come to fruition. We absolutely love working with HPD and have been in collaboration to find a new opportunity to partner with them again. We will have our work cut out with the steep learning curve to get us to Victory Lane, but HPD brings determination and success to every program it touches. Although HPD already competes in the Prototype class, we feel this is huge step for the TUDOR series and Starworks is thrilled to be part of it."

Starworks Motorsport has compiled an enviable record in Daytona Prototype competition, with five race victories, including back-to-back wins at Indianapolis in 2012 and 2013; and a second-place finish in the Daytona Prototype team championship in 2012, with two victories and six podium finishes. That same year, Starworks became the first American-based prototype team to win an FIA World Championship since 1968, and HPD won its first world title in WEC competition.

The HPD-developed twin-turbocharged Honda engines to be used in the TUDOR championship are both derived from the Honda J35 series of production V6 engines, and include relevant twin-turbocharger technology, along with the efficiency provided by direct fuel injection.

The HR35TT is yet another competition application of the ubiquitous J35 engine. The first, the HR28TT, was designed for LMP2 competition and won in its American Le Mans Series debut in 2011. The engine has gone on to record 24 individual race victories and three series titles in the American Le Mans Series, World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series Competition.

Other variants of the engine have been raced in Japan's Autobacs SuperGT Championship, the One Lap of America competitive rally and Pikes Peak International Hillclimb.

Honda Performance Development (HPD) is the Honda performance company within North America. Located in Santa Clarita, Calif., HPD is the technical operations center for high-performance Honda racing cars and engines. The company is marking its 20th anniversary in 2013.

As an engine supplier to the IZOD IndyCar Series, Honda has scored 204 race victories in both CART and IZOD IndyCar Series competition since 1994, and powered Scott Dixon to a series-high four victories and the 2013 IZOD IndyCar Series drivers' championship.

HPD offers a variety of race engines for track applications from prototype sports cars to karting; and showcases "fun-to-drive" products for professional, amateur and entry-level racers.

For a photograph of the Honda HR35TT V6, go to: http://broadcast.sportssystems.com/h...cfm?key=101706

Honda HR35TT V6 Engine

• Engine Type Aluminum alloy, twin-turbocharged, direct fuel-injected V6
• Displacement 3.5 liters
• Valve Train Single overhead camshaft, four valves per cylinder
• Crankshaft Alloy steel
• Pistons Forged aluminum, low-friction coatings
• Connecting Rods Machined alloy steel
• Engine Management HPD/McLaren
• Ignition System Digital inductive
• Lubrication Dry sump system
• Cooling Single mechanical water pump
• Fuel E10 100-101 octane gasoline, 10% ethanol

http://hondanews.com/channels/corpor...ototype-engine

The Japanese government will aid the country’s 8 automakers by chipping in half of the project’s 1 billion yen ($9.9 million) budget. The automakers will foot the rest.

(Reuters) - Two former Honda Motor chiefs have called on CEO Takanobu Ito this year, urging him to focus more on quality issues, increasing the pressure he's already under from U.S. regulators and politicians over mass air bag recalls.

Nobuhiko Kawamoto and Hiroyuki Yoshino made separate visits to Ito at the Japanese car maker's Tokyo headquarters, three people familiar with the visits said. They said the former CEOs had a firm message for Ito, 61, urging him to act quickly on quality issues that risk damaging the Honda brand.....

Inventing elegant solutions to complex problems is a Honda specialty. When the first hybrids arrived in the U.S., Honda beat Toyota to the market, barely, by simply installing a pancake AC motor ahead of the engine’s flywheel. That design, called Integrated Motor Assist, was compact and efficient but didn’t offer pure-electric drive until 2006. Now that hybrids are evolving into plug-in hybrids, Honda has created a new, two-motor powertrain layout that’s also nothing like the intricate CVT-based drive system found in the original Prius and many subsequent hybrids.

What’s clever about Honda’s latest innovation is that it has no transmission. At least, none in the conventional sense. There are four gearsets between the electric and combustion power sources and the front wheels, but all drive ratios are fixed. The compound powertrain provides three standard propulsion modes—electric-only, gasoline-only, and blended gas and electric—without shifting gears or varying a planetary ratio.

The 166-hp AC drive motor revs to 12,584 rpm. Full torque, an energetic 226 pound-feet, is available from zero to 4000 rpm, providing the Accord with light feet in traffic. The motor’s efficiency is diminished at highway speeds, but it still provides some of the propulsion torque up to the Accord’s governed 114-mph top speed. During deceleration and braking, this electric machine acts as a generator to replenish the 6.7-kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

The secondary AC machine is smaller and serves mainly as a generator, providing the drive motor with electric current to augment or replace juice from the battery during cruising. On cue, this machine starts the engine so it can supply the required torque, but it never drives the wheels.

The 141-hp four-cylinder engine was engineered just for this application with several special features. As in most hybrids, it uses an Atkinson cycle (late-closing intake valves) that sacrifices some low-rpm torque to gain mid-range efficiency. A two-mode variable intake-valve-timing and -lift system provides extra power for acceleration and maximum efficiency during cruising. Recycling cooled exhaust gas (EGR) also reduces consumption, and the brake booster, air conditioner, and cabin heater are all electrically powered. Above 43 mph, the secondary motor spins the engine up to speed, and a clutch connects it to the drive wheels. The engine and motor collaborate beyond that speed. A control computer adjusts engine load so it stays in its most efficient operating zone, but once the clutch is engaged, engine rpm is proportional to car speed.

It's the LA Auto Show this week, but one company that won't be there is Honda, mostly because it overslept. The outfit has announced - with toothpaste smears all over its face - that it's had to delay the launch of its new production fuel cell car from 2015 all the way back to March 2016, where it'll hit the road in Japan, with the US and Europe coming at some point in afterward. In the meantime, Honda is hoping to distract you from its slipped deadlines (and incorrectly done shirt buttons) with the natty-looking FCV Concept. According to the press release, the vehicle "strives to achieve harmony between man and machine by taking advantage of new powertrain packaging efficiencies," which, as we all know, is marketing-speak for "the engine's smaller, therefore there's more legroom." Honda's now been seen shuffling to the nearest coffee house in the hope that it can take a look at Toyota's notes before the afternoon begins.

Before the end of the year, Honda will begin to introduce our new 4-cylinder VTEC® Turbo engines