Honda Media Newsroom - Headlines - Acura ILX Endurance Racer to Debut at 25 Hours of Thunderhill


Project ILX - The Build Continues ~ Honda Performance Development


The observant and knowledgable of you might notice I'm not listed in the first article as one of the driver's. Which is fine, I'll be there, I have a flight, I will bring my gear, I'll probably get one 3AM stint...

Emilio will tell you that we're some evil factory team with millions in budget. Reality is the cars are built by a small handful of guys in their free time, in a small shop.

Anyway, epicness will happen in E1 @ 25 Hours of Thunderhill. Win or lose I'm just happy to be able to go. The 25 is amazing.

 

If I am out crewing, I will have to come find you and say hi during some downtime.

 

Try not to spill your caviar tins near the 949 pit/favella. lolol

Edit:
That car looks awesome.

 

Good luck to both of you. I will pray to Satan, my immortal lord of infinite darkness, that both teams tie.

 

 

Damn know-it-all factory sponsored teams with their shiny new parts and their pretty white garages...

 

I lol'd pretty hard when I wrote that, some of my finest work.

If I knew Luke better and if he knew that I realized I was forever in debt to him and could take full poetic license I would have typed:
"When those caviar tins spill out of your ILX into the 949 favella, they can use them as ash trays when they smoke gas-station cigars on the podium."

 

Honda is pretty awesome for doing this. I'm also jealous of anyone piloting a chariot with a K24.

 

I lol'd.

Hopefully both teams are on the podium, all smoking cheap cigars.

Ideally Acura 1-2, Mazda 3...


Last year, Miriam from Hondata cooked for our team. Twas some very excellent New Zealander foods, but alas, no caviar...

 

Some pics from SEMA floor:

Acura preps ILX for endurance racing challenge

 

Gimmie dat ****.

 

Where did you get that? I know some of the guys building this car, same basic organization as past T25 entries from HRC. It's an after hours project coming out of their pockets with maybe a little help here and there. No $80K Motec D/A system and things of that sort.

My crew did quite a bit of smack talking though. I'm so proud of them!

Maybe you missed my FB post after I saw the car at SEMA last week:

This beautiful car is built by employees of Honda and Honda Research on their time. I'm sure they get a little help from corporate and have some great sponsor connections that we don't have. We know some of the talented guys working on it. After walking around and inspecting this ILX for a while though, I see a car that is a little short on development time. Indications that some of the guys building it might not have any enduro experience. While I would not want to go up against it in a sprint race, over the 25 hours I think we'll have them covered. It takes a team to win T25 and we have the best.

Some of the guys working on it contacted me offline and mentioned it was a little thin on development time. I think it will be fast and eat front tires. I wouldn't be surprised if it was a tad faster than Crusher due to the 1.4 lbs/hp gift FWD + 4 door cars get.

 

Sorry, didn't see your FB post, not a devoted follower on FB I guess...

The core team has lots of Thill 25 hour experience, there's always new members but the crew chief, main car builder and most of the drivers have done 5+ 25 hours.

Honestly, my take on the ILX vs. your E1 car(s) is quite the opposite. I think your car would be faster in a sprint race, but I think we'll have a car that will be very reliable and should be easier to drive through E3 traffic.

The development time on these cars is awfully short, luckily the car is near as makes no difference identical to the '12 Civic Si, which is very similar to the '06-'11 Si, neither of which is short on development.

Tire wear with the BFG R1s is generally very good on these sorts of cars. Of course we wear the fronts much quicker than the rears, but the rears wear so slowly that we can keep good tires on the car even with the 1-tire per pit stop rule.

I'm guessing your cars will be at the Pwr/wt for PTC (for a lot of the power band...?). These cars built to the USTCC rules should have a pwr/wt advantage over a PTC car, however, I seriously doubt we'll be at the power level we're allowed, or the lower weight limit. I don't know the details but I doubt we'll even be close to the pwr/wt allowed by the USTCC rules...or even that of a well built PTC car. The engine is almost 100% untouched. Just an intake, downpipe/header thing, and an exhaust. From the throttle body to the stupid integrated exhaust outlet the engine is 100% OEM Honda, which should make for very good reliability, but is leaving a whole lot of performance on the table.

My guess is one of the cars will have some newer guys driving it, and the other car will be chocked full of good shoes. Some really good shoes...

Anyway, should be an epic battle, and I look forward to early December.

 

PS - My comments are my own, and not the teams. Honestly, I know very little about the cars. They are being built by my colleagues in LA, I'm based in Ohio and have never seen the cars, know very little about them.

My comments are purely conjecture on what little I know.

What I do know is I've been invited to crew for the team, and will happily be wrenching on them come December

 

I wish. The "Miata" tax I'm given is 1.3lbs/hp more than base. If you don't get taxed, and you shouldn't be, the ILX will be allowed 1.4lbs less (2.7lbs/hp total) less than Crusher. Wonder how the Mustang and RSX pulled away so easily at Ohio? That's how.

Crusher is awful in traffic, eats tires, always breaks and all our drivers are slow non-national champions.

 

I don't know if you're talking about Performance Touring taxes or USTCC taxes, but they are different. Either way, these ILXs won't be anywhere near the Pwr/wt they would be allowed by the rules. Likely, they'll be 30whp down or 300lbs heavy, or both...

In theory we should have a significant Pwr/wt advantage over you guys, in reality who knows.

You guys running NT-01s again this year?

 

Federal 595RS-R

 

You guys running those on 9's? the 205's?

I've been running those tires since last year, everybody was **** talking on them but i like how they perform. Whats your take on them?

 

On a plane right this minute headed to Sacremento. Hoping to get to the track before the end of the practice sessions.

I'm guessing most of 949 guys are already there getting ready for the test day.

I don't know if I'll be able to do updates during the race, but I'll try. I think 949 is planning on making updates on Facebook and twitter

Anyway, 25 Hour starting soon, should be awesome, amazing, kick ***, etc. etc.

 

Sacramento? Anyone want to check out/buy a Fiat 128 for me while they are there? I'll ship it back home....

Seriously... I found a Fiat 128 for sale out there and struggling to figure out title/smog issue/purchase and ship home to Chicago. I'd pay someone for their time...