News Brief: Acura to enter 2007 American LeMans Series

Acura announced at the 2006 New York Auto Show its first motor sports effort in the company’s 20-year history with the unveiling of the Acura ALMS Concept car. Starting with the 55th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring race in March of 2007, Acura will compete in the American LeMans Series, duking it out with Porsche and Mazda in the LMP2 class.

Who says Honda doesn’t build a V8? The Acura ALMS Concept car features the first racing engine completely designed and developed in-house by Honda’s wholly-owned racing subsidiary, Honda Performance Development (HPD) of Santa Clarita, Calif. For the Acura ALMS car, the engine displaces 3.4 liters and makes over 500 bhp. The normally-aspirated, aluminum block V8 is a dual overhead camshaft design with four valves per cylinder, dry sump lubrication, and a single water pump. Chassis will come from Lola Cars International of England, and Courage of France.

The 10 race series runs through October of 2007 and also includes endurance events at courses such as Road America, Laguna Seca, Lime Rock, Road Atlanta and, of course, the 24 Hours of LeMans in France.

Photos by Ron Perry