Honda has been scoring major points with enthusiasts lately. The company started offering new parts for the original NSX, and it’s also working on an even more hardcore Civic Type R. Now, Honda is moving on to its next big project: giving fans a chance to buy and restore some of its legendary race cars.
Ahead of Monterey Car Week, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) announced its new Heritage Racing Program, which will let fans get their hands on actual Honda race cars and bring them back to life. And we’re not talking replicas here. These are genuine race cars that competed—and won—at events like Le Mans, Sebring, and Daytona.
There is a small catch, though. You don’t actually get to pick whatever race car you want. Honda decides which cars are up for grabs.
The first one is a pretty cool place to start: an Acura AGR ARX-01 that won the LMP2 class at the 2007 12 Hours of Sebring. The car was driven by Dario Franchitti, Bryan Herta, and Tony Kanaan, so there’s some serious racing history attached to it.
There's also an NSX GT3 with 38 class wins in both IMSA and SRO, and a 2001 Reynard 01i raced by the late Gil de Ferran for Team Penske.
After buying one of these cars, the restoration process stays, for better or for worse, in the hands of Honda’s HRC professionals in California, who do everything from rebuilding engines to replacing body panels. The goal is to get the cars to drive like they did when they left the factory, while still feeling new and fresh.
David Salters, president of HRC US, says of the program:
'Classic race cars never die; their myth and aura just grow, and the HRC Heritage Racing Program is all about keeping our incredible Honda and Acura race cars doing what they were born to do—race.
As the builder of these race-winning machines, and custodian of the original IP and knowledge, HRC is uniquely equipped to restore them to their original form, ensuring they can return to historic racing competition authentically and ready to be enjoyed by our customers and fans.'
Honda's Racing Heritage
HRC already has an extensive history restoring its older cars. In the past few years, HRC has been involved in restoring Team Penske Acura race cars from the IMSA Championship series, as well as a 1996 Team Kunimitsu NSX GT2. The brand will also showcase another Acura ARX-01 car at Laguna Seca this upcoming weekend for fans to see.
Outside of Le Mans-winning cars, Honda will have a large lineup of other heritage motorsport cars at this year’s Monterey Car Week, including Baja trucks and even some bikes from MotoGP.
While Honda has not said whether or not any of the other cars displayed will be sold, we can assume that over time, more and more of its collection will go into the hands of private buyers.
Motor1's Take: Honda has a huge collection of heritage race cars, so seeing them being restored and then brought to fans of anything and everything HRC is both great for Honda and also gives people the ability to own a piece of motorsport history.
