Honda Racing Corporation USA is now in the business of selling championships. The HRC Heritage Racing Program, announced this week during Monterey Car Week, gives private buyers access to restored, race-ready Honda and Acura machines, complete with factory-level support to keep them competitive on track.
The headline offering at The Quail on August 14 is the V8-powered #26 XM Satellite Radio AGR Acura ARX-01a, the first purpose-built Acura endurance racer and the first car and engine designed entirely by HRC in the United States. Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta, and Tony Kanaan drove it to an LMP2 class win at the 2007 Sebring 12 Hours in its debut race. It is currently available for purchase and restoration through the new program.
Also for sale: Acura NSX GT3 Chassis No. 5, displayed at Laguna Seca in its “Lady Liberty” livery. It is the winningest NSX GT3 ever built, with 38 class wins across IMSA and SRO, plus two manufacturers’ championships, five drivers’ titles, and four teams’ championships from 2017 through 2023. Both cars are being offered with full HRC restoration, not just a handoff with paperwork.
The restoration process is more involved than most historic programs. HRC tears each car completely down, rebuilds the engine at its Santa Clarita, California headquarters using the original homologation documents and archived notes from the engineers who built the cars originally, then track-tests the finished machine before delivery. Electronics are modernized and some materials updated for safety, but the stated goal is a car that drives as close to its original spec as possible. HRC engineers remain available for trackside support and competition assistance after the sale, which is the part that separates this from an auction transaction.
The program grew out of work HRC had already been doing quietly. Four Acura ARX-05 DPi endurance racers have been restored and now compete in IMSA’s Historic SportsCar Racing Series. A 2019 Acura Team Penske ARX-05 is on display at Laguna Seca this weekend. The 2010 ARX-01c “Strakka Racing” Le Mans LMP2 class winner, freshly restored, is racing in the Scott Pruett Legends event on Saturday with current Acura GTP driver Nick Yelloly driving, then moves to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Sunday.
HRC also assisted with a higher-profile restoration: the 2001 Reynard 01i raced by the late Gil de Ferran for Team Penske in the CART championship. Zak Brown, McLaren Racing’s CEO, purchased the car from Roger Penske earlier this year and worked with HRC US to source a period-correct Honda engine and get the car track-ready. De Ferran won back-to-back CART championships in 2000 and 2001 on Honda power and set the fastest official closed-course qualifying lap in U.S. racing history, 241.428 miles per hour at California Speedway. That record still stands. The Reynard will make demonstration laps at Laguna Seca this weekend.
HRC US has accumulated more than 500 race wins and 60 series championships across IndyCar and IMSA. The Heritage Racing Program is the company’s formal move to monetize that archive rather than let it age in a warehouse. HRC plans to expand future offerings to include more historic Honda-powered IndyCar machines beyond the current focus on endurance racers.
Pricing for the ARX-01a and NSX GT3 Chassis No. 5 has not been disclosed.
For buyers not ready to spend race-car money, HRC is also offering engine components from the McLaren MP4/5B driven by Gerhard Berger in the 1990 German Grand Prix, including pistons, connecting rods, camshafts, and valves from the RA100E, Honda’s last V10 Formula One engine, each in a bespoke display case with a certificate of authenticity. A jewelry collection crafted from smaller components of the same engine, produced in collaboration with B.L.S. Co., Ltd. using silver craftsmanship from Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture, is also on offer. Premium 1:8 and 1:18 scale models of the Honda RA272, the car that won Honda’s first Formula One victory at the 1965 Mexico Grand Prix, round out the collectibles, produced with Amalgam Collection and featuring a fully replicated Honda V12 engine.
HRC built these cars. Now it is selling them back to the people who want to race them. That is a better outcome than a storage unit.
Source: Honda. Images courtesy of Honda.
