Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA
Honda Performance Development has no current plans to make the Acura ARX-06 available to customer teams. Vice President Kelvin Fu has not completely ruled out such possibilities in the future.
Scheduled to debut at Rolex 24 at Daytona next month with Meyer Shank Racing and Wayne Taylor Racing and Andretti Autosport, HPD and Acura are now focusing on factory-backed partner teams for the debut season of the hybrid-powered prototypes. I'm here.
When asked by Sportscar365 about the potential prospects for future customer vehicles, Fu said: You need to evaluate what level of support makes sense.
“I know Porsche does that, but they have that infrastructure all over the world.
"It might be interesting, but you have to figure out what really makes sense."
Of the four manufacturers slated to debut their LMDh cars in 2023, only Porsche has made customer cars available in the launch year of the platform.
Fellow LMDh makers BMW and Cadillac have also yet to declare a potential privateer availability in 2024.
"Our business model [for LMDh] It's about having a works team, not a customer race," said Fu of HPD.
“But when really good customer teams come along and they have the capabilities…these teams have a lot of the capabilities they need to even get to that first basic step.
“This is a step above DPi. They need to have such capability in-house first, and we might talk about what that means.”
Fu, meanwhile, questions the level of customer support LMDh's customers need.
"What is customer racing these days?" he asked. "I don't know what level of support you'll get with all these Porsche his customers his team.
"We are fully embedded [Meyer] Shank and Wayne Taylor, we think that's the best way to win.
“We know our customers probably want to win too, but it takes a lot of integration to make it work smoothly.
"Maybe one day, when we know about cars, we'll have a software package and be able to figure it out. But that's definitely not a discussion for 2023."
LMDh cost higher than originally expected
According to Fu, the cost of LMDh is "definitely" higher than originally envisioned.
“A lot of it is the supply chain,” he explained of the higher-than-expected costs. "It's also much more complicated than people originally thought.
"Whether it's our engine, our ORECA chassis, or our hybrid system, there's probably been more testing and these changes and fixes than anyone expected from the start. .
“It probably increased the overall cost.
“These have a significantly higher operating cost per vehicle than the DPi. They are heavier, which means more wear and tear. [increased] a bit.
"Cars are quite expensive. You need a professional electrician or something like that.
“It's definitely expensive, but we're committed. It's HPD's job to stay within the budget given by Honda.
John Daigis Founder and editor-in-chief of Sportscar365. Dagys has contributed to many other motorsport publications around the world, spending eight years as motorsport correspondent for FOXSports.com and the SPEED Channel.contact john