SlipAngle79

Honda is at it again in sports car racing and it looks like they mean busuiness. They debuted a new V8 engine for the ALMS series this year at the SEMA show. The Acura badged engine will be powering several teams LMP2 chassis. LMP2 stands for Lemans Prototype 2 (formerly LMP900kg) class, and these are lighter less powerful cars compared to LMP1 - think Audi R8 and Bentley Speed 8. Honda is planning on competing with the currently dominating Porsche LMP2 car. This should be a great battle. Honda has taken an aproach as R&D plus supplier as opposed to only the latter. This means that they will work on chassis and on-track R&D with the teams they supply to. These cars will run at the 24 hours of Lemans in 07 and if Honda/Acura can pull off a class win, it will be the first one since 1996 when a Honda NSX won the GT2 class. I hope Honda will put that V8 in their next flagship sports car and the RL at the very least.

Firebird Raceway first test:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOgYfE8eSCU

Sema interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVN0g283QOM...related&search=

Keith

Good luck dethroning Audi. They are light years ahead of the competition. Good to hear that Honda found some competition in ALMS since they are running the IRL spec series.... great move Honda!

Keith