LEXINGTON, Ohio - Acura Motorsports is moving ahead with plans to get its first NSX GT3 customers to race in North America, as well as worldwide, following Thursday’s formal confirmation of the manufacturer announcing it will sell the NSX GT3.
The two teams who have developed and run the car this year, Michael Shank Racing (IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT Daytona class) and RealTime Racing (Pirelli World Challenge GT class) had team principals Shank and Peter Cunningham on hand today at Mid-Ohio to describe the work they’ve done in the process of getting the car ready for customers in 2018.
Shank highlighted the customer service performed by Honda Performance Development when he ran a Honda-powered Ligier JS P2 prototype in IMSA in 2015 and 2016.
The media availability this morning at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course stopped short of confirming both teams will continue their own programs with the NSX GT3 next year, which would be customer-based and not factory as they are this year. That being said, both teams are working with Acura and HPD as they develop their 2018 programs.
Steve Eriksen, vice president and COO, Honda Performance Development, updated the production process in terms of getting NSX GT3s delivered to prospective customers.
“The production timeline and development was moved forward well ahead of Thursday’s announcement,” Eriksen told NBC Sports.
“That was done on purpose; the production was done well in advance to respond quickly when we get inquiries. The goal now is to move from interested parties to serious parties.”
Eriksen confirmed all four existing chassis, plus spares, run by Shank and RealTime this year are owned by HPD. It will be up to HPD to determine the path forward for those chassis after the respective seasons conclude.
For IMSA, the season finale is at Petit Le Mans on October 7 at Road Atlanta, and PWC’s last event of the year is a week later with the eight-hour SRO Intercontinental Challenge on October 15 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey.
Today’s media availability came a day after Acura confirmed the car will be available for sale worldwide at a price of €465,000 ($545,000).
This occurs after a year where there’s been more than 50,000-miles of on-track development between the two teams.
Shank has already delivered the car its first two wins in its inaugural season of IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition. The Pataskala, Ohio-based team is working to figure out its 2018 plans, with Shank preferring to focus on his sports car component first before adding any potential IndyCar program.
Here’s slightly more info about that from the release:
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The NSX GT3 is eligible to race in more than two dozen FIA-sanctioned racing series around the world, including:
- 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
- The Australian GT Championship
- The Intercontinental GT Challenge
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.