Honda Performance Development: ARX-04 news **REVEALED**

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Old 01-15-2014, 08:53 AM
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Honda Performance Development: ARX-04 news **REVEALED**

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112132

Honda Performance Development is set to build an all-new LMP2 coupe for the 2015 season.

The motorsport arm of American Honda has revealed that it is working on a design for a car to replace its existing open-top ARX-03b in time for next year.

HPD technical director Roger Griffths told AUTOSPORT: "It is our desire to produce a coupe and the design is well advanced, and from everything we are seeing, it should be a step forward."

Griffiths stated that HPD felt it needed to react to key P2 competitors ORECA and OAK/Onroak, which announced coupe projects in October and November respectively.

"ORECA made the statement that it is building a new car and OAK has done the same, so it is going to become harder to sell a three or four-year-old design with new cars out there," he explained.

"Many gentleman drivers who fund programmes have restrictions on them about not driving an open car, so we don't want to limit the market."

Griffiths said that the interest shown in a coupe by HPD's existing customers suggested that the project would get the go-ahead.

"We would need genuine interest and our existing customers are very enthusiastic, but whether we would need purchase orders before committing to building the car is not yet decided," he continued.

HPD's new coupe, which is being designed like its previous cars by Wirth Research in the UK, will be constructed around a monocoque built to the 2014 LMP1 regulations.

New rules are due to come into force in LMP2 in 2017, but indications are that changes will be minimal apart mandating the same safety upgrades being introduced in P1 for this season.

DID YOU KNOW...
... the ARX nomenclature of HPD's Le Mans Prototypes stands for 'Acura Racing Experimental'? The cars were branded after Honda's prestige brand from the start of the programme in 2007 until the end of '09.
Old 01-15-2014, 08:54 AM
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Not surprising. Most teams that were using the ARX have moved on to newer models.
Old 01-15-2014, 03:46 PM
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Honda Performance Development and its partners at Wirth Research could have a new P2 chassis to offer customers in November. A final decision on whether to move forward with the project is expected to be made within the next week.

Like the P1 engine and chassis program HPD revealed to RACER at last year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, the new P2 coupe, which would be dubbed the ARX-04b, would most likely require a few customer commitments before going into production.

“We haven't made any formal announcements on the P2 car yet, but we were working on a P1 car, which has been challenging to sell, and one of the outlets for that design is a P2 coupe,” HPD technical director Roger Griffiths told RACER. “Some other manufacturers have announced new P2 coupes for 2015 (OAK and ORECA, in particular), and we realized that if we didn't offer something new, we could lose ground and customers in the P2 category.

“It requires a significant investment to develop a new prototype, and it's not something we're prepared to fund without the knowledge that the car has customers awaiting delivery. We've had a number of teams and drivers express an interest in a P2 coupe; for some of them, the gentlemen drivers come to mind, they have insurance requirements where cockpits are required, and if we have more strong interest that comes in, it's easier to confirm the P2 coupe will go forward.”

With a lineage dating back to the 2006 ORECA LC75 P2 chassis, HPD's ALMS P2 cars starred in the category beginning in 2007 under the Acura banner before switching to the current HPD ARX moniker in 2010. HPD and Wirth redesigned and replaced almost every facet of the ORECA underpinnings as 2007's ARX-01 evolved into the most recent ARX-03b package, and with the ACO's move to require cockpit enclosures on new prototypes, producing an all-new prototype – the brand's first since 2009's ARX-02a P1 car – has gained momentum.

Provided the ACO can add a bit more clarity to the intended lifespan for the new P2 rules package, there's a solid chance we'll see HPD's ARX-04b testing later this year.

“If it happens, it would be fully compliant to the new 2014 (P2) rules, which the P1 cars was designed to meet and would take some revising to adapt to P2,” Griffiths continued. “It would also use the current engine, which is proven, and although the chassis rules are confirmed through 2016, we're hoping any new car designs to the 2014 rules would have a long life. We don't mind safety updates or body updates, but if we're building a car to debut in 2015 and then have to build something new for 2017, it's not a business model that anyone would ask for.

“There's suggestions the new P1 rules could last as long as 2020, and we'd like to see something similar for the (2014) P2 rules. It helps the manufacturers and the customers who buy cars knowing they'll get a lot of use from them.”
So no funding unless they are customers putting down deposits first?
Old 02-28-2014, 04:58 PM
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With its championship- and Le Mans-winning ARX-03b P2 chassis ready for a successor, Honda Performance Development has chosen to move forward with its replacement, the closed-top ARX-04b, for use in 2015.
The new prototype chassis is said to be a clean-sheet design from HPD and its partners at Wirth Research, and has been described as a departure from the looks and aerodynamics featured on some of the other new P1 and P2 coupes coming online next year.
A new HPD P1 design was readied in 2013, but the manufacturer tabled its costly production while waiting for orders to be placed. A P2 design was also created, and with similar production cost concerns, it appears Honda's California-based competition arm has received enough response from potential clients to green light the ARX-04b. Official confirmation of the project is forthcoming.
The most recent brand-new creation from HPD and Wirth came in 2009 with the ARX-02a P1 car (TOP). The cutting-edge design went on to win the ALMS title that season with Highcroft Racing and was immediately retired after Acura's withdrawal from the series. The new-look P2 coupe will be the first closed-top design from HPD and Wirth and is expected to break cover in October.
Looks like customers have been found. I don't quite understand this "strategy" by Honda. Why is Honda in the business of customer racing in prototype sports cars? They obviously have no motivation for winning Le Mans at this stage, so why even continue?
Old 02-28-2014, 05:01 PM
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Good question F-C, maybe Honda sees little return from the possibility of winning the classic endurance races as a factory team vs. the known value of selling their cars to teams and letting them bear the costs of trying to win those races. At the prototype level, Audi, Toyota and Porsche obviously, feel differently.
Old 03-01-2014, 08:48 PM
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The gasoline powered Acura prototype cars have absolutely no chance whatsoever in beating the mighty turbo-diesel entries in Le Mans.
Old 03-01-2014, 09:54 PM
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Originally Posted by Chief F1 Fan
Good question F-C, maybe Honda sees little return from the possibility of winning the classic endurance races as a factory team vs. the known value of selling their cars to teams and letting them bear the costs of trying to win those races. At the prototype level, Audi, Toyota and Porsche obviously, feel differently.
The cars aren't even "branded" as Honda or Acura. No casual observer will recognize HPD as being associated with Honda. So there is zero marketing benefit from this exercise, which is normally the point of manufacturers being involved in racing.

My own speculation is that Honda USA is maintaining involvement just to keep their prototype team in California employed. This program was started to win ALMS, and with the eventual goal of winning Le Mans. With Acura not funding the development anymore and ALMS dead, this is really a program without any goals. Until Honda Global gets serious about Le Mans, it's really just pointless.

Last edited by F-C; 03-01-2014 at 10:02 PM.
Old 04-09-2014, 09:42 AM
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http://www.racer.com/imsa/item/10259...l=&limitstart=



The market for brand-new P2 cars will be flooded in 2015 as Ligier, ORECA, Dome and a few other manufacturers bring their designs into the marketplace, and they'll have stiff competition from Honda Performance Development looks to reassert itself with the HPD ARX-04b.

Penned by England's Wirth Research and California's HPD, the marque's first coupe design bears little resemblance to its ARX predecessors or, for that matter, any of the other P2 cars it will compete against.

According to Wirth, the ARX-04b features considerable amounts of technology found within his recent (albeit stillborn) P1 coupe project, and with the lineage of the current ARX-03b P2 car dating back to the Acura ALMS effort, the new P2 coupe is meant to put the past to rest and start a new chapter with a clean-sheet prototype design.

"The bottom line is, you probably know more than most people how long they've been working on our P1 car, and actually, from HPD and Wirth Research's point of view, the last time we had a car on the track which represented the limit of our group's knowledge was in 2010 with the ARX-03c," Wirth told RACER. "It was the car run by Strakka in the WEC in 2010 when they blew everyone's doors off in Le Mans.

"So we had not started developing coupes at that point, and yes, it wasn't a P1 car, but that [ARX-03c], with all the technologies from the [2009] P1 program put back into the P2 car, to that set of rules, was the best car that we could build as a group. And at that moment we got stopped doing any more development. The car, our P2 car that races this year, is essentially that car from 2010. The ACO didn't allow any development to it apart from cutting holes in the wheel arches, so it was time to concentrate our efforts on starting over with a coupe, which we're quite proud of."

The last clean-sheet design from Wirth and HPD came in 2009 in what proved to be Acura's swansong as a major entrant in the ALMS. The ARX-02a P1 car (ABOVE), fielded by Highcroft Racing and de Ferran Motorsports, broke new ground by using wide front tires and a centrally-mounted rear wing attachments atop the main element— items now commonplace in P1— and allowed both camps to push the boundaries of their knowledge and engineering capabilities.

Despite the cost-capped nature of the modern P2 class, Wirth says the ARX-04a is far from a "budget" prototype, containing the best both firms have to offer in terms of aerodynamics and mechanical componentry.

"What's so interesting about this is this 2015 car that we're doing is the first time that you'll see our group, Honda program, put the fastest, best car on the track, and it's five years on from when last were able to do so," he explained. "And I will say no more than that. It's going to be interesting. And I'm very, very happy for ORECAs and Ligiers and for anyone who wants to come and race. Bring it on.

"And the people who know us and know HPD, know the effort they're making on all fronts and the fact that is going to be a Honda, a fully integrated solution. Because it's a Honda car, we work very well with the engine group, all the electronics; it is a one-stop option and we're super excited about it. Would I love to be doing the P1 car? Of course, I would. And the origins of this car is the P1 project. Politically, we couldn't get that to go, but what we have with the P2 car is the closest we can come to that, and we're really excited to show what this car can do."

Honda's proven 2.8-liter twin-turbo V6 will power the ARX-04a, and Wirth expects the entire package to have a long and competitive lifespan.

"Because of the way the FIA and ACO regs are written, it's got such a long lifetime, it's very, very important for people making that huge decision to buy a P2 car to get it right," he added. "Because they put their money down, although it's not an expensive car, they're not going to want to change it. So we're hoping that they will look at the history, look at the quality of the program, look at what we're don't doing and realize that it's the first time we're allowed to do something properly in many years. And it's very different to other cars out there in ways that we understand."

Visually, the ARX-04a features a few of Wirth's signature P2 items, including the tall, swept front fenders, but the tub itself, from the angled nose that matches the sloped windshield to the raked cabin profile, distinguishes the coupe from its competitors. Add in the unique brake ducting across the front beam section, and Wirth has a car that looks like part Red Bull X-1 and part…well, it looks like nothing else we've seen so far.

Response to the project, according to Wirth, has exceeded their initial production plans.

"We're already going ahead in building four cars, and we've got a limit of six," he said. "The problem is we've got expressions of interest for currently seven, which is more than we can build. So it's going to be first-come, first-served."

With Ligier's first JS P2 chassis having already tested last month, the Onroak-built prototype will have considerable mileage under its belt after undertaking the upcoming WEC season. Strakka's new Dome S103 is also being prepared for testing this week ahead of a WEC campaign, leaving the HPD ARX-04b at least six months behind the opposition. ORECA's P2 car isn't expected to turn a wheel until after next year's Rolex 24 at Daytona, but Wirth is confident their coupe will be ready for 2015.

"We certainly have plans to get the first car on track comfortably before the end of this year," he confirmed. "It will undergo rigorous testing beforehand in simulation and on the racetrack. We expect the car to be quite formidable."​

Last edited by F-C; 04-09-2014 at 09:44 AM.
Old 04-09-2014, 09:45 AM
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It's an interesting design. Too bad it's not for LMP1.
Old 06-04-2014, 10:58 AM
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News Update

The deal is still coming together, but all signs point to Michael Andretti's burgeoning motorsports empire returning to sports car racing in 2015.
An off-season change in Verizon IndyCar Series engine suppliers which saw Andretti Autosport leave Chevrolet in favor of becoming Honda's anchor program appears to have opened the door for both companies to resume a relationship in sports cars that concluded at the end of the 2008 American Le Mans Series season.

RACER has learned Andretti Autosport is preparing for a two-car Prototype entry in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship next season using Honda's new HPD ARX-04b LMP2 coupe, and provided the funding is completed for the project, it would see the team competing in six series simultaneously – IndyCar, Indy Lights, Pro Mazda, Formula E, IMSA, and Global Rallycross.
"I can't comment on any specifics, but we've been exploring returning to sports car racing for some time," said John Lopes, Andretti's senior vice president and chief marketing officer. "There's a couple of options we're evaluating; it's not a fait accompli at this point and we want to make sure if it comes together, we can win and be competitive from the outset. Culturally, it's a good fit for our company. We want to make sure the program is properly funded. We're still baking the cake, but it's not done."
"It's safe to say Andretti is a thousand percent interested in returning to sports car racing. But there's also a lot that needs to happen between now and next year for that to happen."

Six HPD ARX-04bs (BELOW) are under construction, with two committed to Extreme Speed Motorsports, two likely headed to Andretti Autosport and the final two expected to land with another American team.

Old 08-05-2014, 07:47 AM
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Update

Honda Performance Development expects to have six of its new ARX-04b LMP2 coupes racing in customer hands next season.

HPD boss Steve Erikson revealed that the US constructor is on target to sell half a dozen of the new cars, which are being developed by Wirth Research in the UK, for next season.

He anticipates they will be split between the United SportsCar Championship and the World Endurance Championship.

"Our target was to have six cars for next season and I have every confidence that we'll have all six out there," he said.

"If I was guessing today, I'd say there will be four in the USC and two in the WEC."

Extreme Speed Motorsports, which is running an open-top ARX-03b in the Prototype class of this year's USC, has already announced that it is swapping to the coupe for next season.

The identities of the other teams with which HPD is in negotiation have not been revealed.

Erikson explained that HPD was on target to have its new design, which like its predecessor is powered by a twin-turbo V6 engine, up and running for the first time in November.

"The progress on the car is going really well: we're planning to put the first cars together in late October and then they'll be on track in November," he said.

The new HPD will be built to the latest LMP1 chassis regulations, which will become part of the P2 rulebook for 2017.
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Old 08-05-2014, 08:19 AM
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This is awesome, but God i hope they dont disappoint and not have the cars ready in time
Old 03-10-2015, 11:58 AM
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Car looks great, unfortunately, it's a pig?

Le Mans/WEC - WEC: Major changes planned for HPD, Tequila Patron ESM

Back to more development.
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