Honda Racing Corporation USA has launched the HRC Heritage Racing Program, offering the sale and restoration of historic Honda and Acura race cars, timed to this week’s Monterey Car Week. The program covers machines that won races and championships at venues including Le Mans, Sebring, Daytona, and Laguna Seca, and the first car available for purchase and restoration is the Sebring-winning V8-powered #26 XM Satellite Radio AGR Acura ARX-01a, which headlines the HRC display at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering on August 14.
The Andretti Green Racing car was the first purpose-built Acura endurance racer and the first car and engine designed and developed by HRC in the US. It won the LMP2 class at the 2007 Sebring 12 Hours in its debut race, driven by Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta, and Tony Kanaan.
Restorations under the program use each machine’s original homologation documents along with notes and photographs from the original HRC engineers, supported by HRC’s archives of technical data. Each car is completely torn down and reassembled with new and reconditioned parts, with some updated materials in the interest of safety, while electronics are modernized and engines are rebuilt at HRC US headquarters in Santa Clarita, California. Every restored car is track tested, and HRC engineers are available for track support and to assist owners in competition.
The program grew out of recent HRC restorations running at this weekend’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Laguna Seca. HRC has restored four Acura ARX-05 DPi endurance racers that compete in IMSA’s Historic SportsCar Racing Series, including a 2019 Acura Team Penske car on display at Laguna Seca this weekend; the ARX-05 competed in IMSA’s DPi class from 2018 through 2022 and secured teams’, drivers’, and constructors’ championships in 2019, 2020, and 2022. The freshly restored 2010 ARX-01c Strakka Racing Le Mans LMP2 class winner races in Saturday’s Scott Pruett Legends event with current Acura GTP driver Nick Yelloly at the wheel, then moves to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Sunday for display in the Japanese Motorsports: The Rising Sun At Le Mans class alongside the 1996 Team Kunimitsu NSX GT2.
The program also recently supported the refurbishment of the 2001 Reynard 01i raced by the late Gil de Ferran for Team Penske in the 2001 CART championship, supplying a period correct Honda engine, supporting the engine fire up, and inspecting key electronics for current owner Zak Brown, the McLaren Racing CEO and longtime friend of de Ferran who purchased the car from Roger Penske earlier this year. The car will make demonstration laps at Laguna Seca throughout the weekend. De Ferran won back-to-back CART championships in 2000 and 2001 with Honda power and still holds the fastest official closed-course qualifying lap in US racing history at 241.428 mph, set at California Speedway. Also on display at the Reunion is the recently restored Acura NSX GT3 Chassis No. 5 in its Lady Liberty livery, currently available for purchase and the winningest NSX GT3 of all time; the model recorded 38 class wins across IMSA and SRO plus two manufacturers’ championships, five drivers’ titles, and four teams’ championships from 2017 to 2023. HRC US says future program offerings will expand to include more historic Honda-powered IndyCar machines.
Beyond the cars, the HRC display at The Quail and the Reunion will offer memorabilia including genuine components from the RA100E, the last Honda V10 Formula One engine, as raced in Gerhard Berger’s McLaren MP4/5B at the 1990 German Grand Prix. Piston and connecting rod assemblies, camshafts, valves, and a cam cover come in bespoke display cases with HRC certificates of authenticity, joined by a one-off jewelry collection crafted from the engine’s smaller components in collaboration with B.L.S. Co., Ltd. of Kofu, Japan. HRC will also offer 1:8 and 1:18 scale models of the RA272 that won Honda’s first Formula One race at the 1965 Mexico Grand Prix, produced with Amalgam Collection. In all, more than 20 Honda and Acura race machines will appear across Motorlux, The Quail, the Reunion, and the Pebble Beach Concours during the week.
GalleryPhotos by Honda
