Katherine Legge slid into the infield of Turn Two at Daytona with her team’s Acura NSX GT3 Evo22. She lost a spot as she tried to pass the slower Porsche 911 GT3R in front of her, but a Ferrari 296 GT3 tore through the white and green plastic on her car. Legge and her three Gradient Racing partners quickly put up a fight against the G.T.D. Pro drivers in the class above them. In the 24-hour race, they got off to a good start and came in third place among the G.T.D.s. Unlike previous years, No. 66 was the only N.S.X. in a group of 59 cars. It was also likely the last time anyone saw one at the Rolex 24 event, where it was first shown. In 2022, Acura’s sports car will no longer be made. However, Honda Racing Corporation’s (H.R.C.) trackside tech Wayne Gross told us that by 2024, the company would no longer support the N.S.X.’s GT3 program in IMSA, S.R.O., and Japan’s Super G.T. It’s possible for a privately owned team to enter a GT3 car if it is approved for racing until 2029, but this is likely to happen later. Like the K-mart K Café, H.R.C.’s 18,000-pound semi-trailer will be switched out for the N.S.X. section at the end of the season. It has control arms, turbochargers, powertrains, carbon fiber parts, and brake pads inside. Keeping going since 2017 The NSX GT3, which made its debut in the Daytona endurance race in 2017, had never failed to finish the tough 24-hour race until this past weekend. The Gradient N.S.X. had the best finish for an Acura in the 2022 IMSA season. It won at Road Atlanta after coming in second place in its G.T.D. class at Long Beach. It was owned by Meyer Shank Racing in 2020 and won the IMSA title in its class. The team got off to a good start, but an electrical problem kept them from finishing this year’s biggest race event in North America. Gradient Racing’s owner, Andris Laivins, told us after the race that there was “some interference in the throttle signal, which was putting the car into limp mode.” “The default setting for these cars’ throttles is around 3000 rpm.” It makes it impossible for drivers to shift gears while the throttle is in that set position. No matter what the drivers did with their feet, the throttle would stay in the same place. Laivins and his Gradient Racing team had to deal with the strange electrical problem more than once, which was not fun. They ended the race because they thought it was too dangerous to drive through multiclass race traffic with speed problems every once in a while. This was after hitting race debris that damaged the N.S.X.’s front bumper, headlight, and tire. Gradient stopped the NSX GT3’s last Daytona race early, after 237 laps and almost 13 hours. Another 18 race cars were destroyed in the same way. These included two Ford Mustang GT3s, two Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs, and one of Wayne Taylor Racing’s Acura ARX-06 GTP cars, which H.R.C also backs. Help with Honda H.R.C. sent three trailers to Daytona to support Gradient’s N.S.X. We also saw the two Wayne Taylor Racing Andretti Grand Touring Prototypes and the five Civic Type Rs that raced in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge race before the Rolex 24 main event. The engineers in two trucks act as air-conditioned control rooms, watching data like doctors who are always keeping an eye on a patient’s vital signs. There is a particular spot in the trailer set aside for team talks and arguments after the race. Gross says that most talks for consultation and debriefing are now done through Microsoft Teams video conferences. As a safety measure during the spread, this choice was made. We followed Gross on a Motocompacto electric scooter to the truck, bringing all the goods through the crowd of IMSA fans at this year’s event. In the fan zone, there are a lot of IMSA shop booths, but the only place to buy turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four Civic Type R engines is on the scary blue and red H.R.C. trailer. The crew at H.R.C. says that driveshafts and brakes are the most typically looked-for parts on an H.R.C. vehicle. Out of the three engines they brought to help the TCR series, only two were left after the race. Before each race, teams are given a list of the about 1,000 things that are on the truck, along with prices and when they can be bought. The H.R.C. team also sells replacement body parts made of carbon fiber, exhaust systems, turbochargers, and even J.A.S. race hardware made in Italy. Before the race, we thought the H.R.C. trucks had the best paint job, but no one said anything. Laivins told us that one of the best things about competing with the N.S.X. is having H.R.C.’s local backing. It is already possible to acquire components and support in North America for individuals who are in possession of an Acura N-S-X. Since our office is in Austin, Texas, we need to be able to talk to people and move things that are already in the United States. Even though there were some strange electricity problems this year, Laivins continued to show off the N.S.X.’s best features. “This powertrain has always been super reliable for us, and the traction system always kept us fast in the rain.” While other Acura cars were being made at Honda’s Marysville plant in Ohio, the N.S.X. was first put together in the United States. It was then sent to Milan, Italy, where J.A.S. Motorsport made major changes to it to make it a GT3 car. The most powerful V-6 engine on the grid is the NSX GT3, which has a 3.5-liter twin-turbo engine teamed with a six-speed sequential transmission. Its strength and weight are balanced for performance (B.O.P.), which means that it has fewer of the pros and cons of its competitors on every racetrack. For the rest of the season, the N.S.X. will race against GTD-class GT3 cars like the Ferrari 296 GT3, Mercedes-AMG GT3, Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2, Porsche 911 GT3 R, BMW M4 GT3, Lexus RC F GT3, Chevrolet For example, the Corvette Z06 GT3.R, the Ford Mustang GT3, and the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo. Right now, H.R.C. has told us that the N.S.X. in IMSA will not get a GT3 substitute right away. There will be a crazy-looking Civic Type R in its place, though, when the GT500 class race season in Japan’s Super G.T. starts in April. Laivins told us when we asked him if he had already started looking for a race car for next year that his team’s main goal was to win the last ten races of this season. The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship starts up again in March at the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring in Florida. We wish them the best of luck.
