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Acura ARX-02a: Up close

After two years learning the ropes in LMP2, Acura is gunning for overall victory in this year's Sebring 12 Hours. AUTOSPORT takes a look at the super-sophisticated machine its pinned its ALMS title hopes on

Gary Watkins Mar 19, 2009, 4:33 PM

Acura had just claimed its first American Le Mans Series pole position when the brains behind its still-new LMP2 contender was given a new challenge.

Nick Wirth, whose eponymous company was responsible for the P2 racer, was asked to come up with a way of beating the turbodiesels with a petrol-powered LMP1 prototype. The result is the radical Acura ARX-02a.

That was way back in April 2007, when Dario Franchitti claimed overall pole at Long Beach at only the third event for the Courage-based ARX-01a. What followed at Wirth Research was nearly two years of hard graft dovetailing the design of a new P1 with the near-constant development that turned the P2 car into both an overall victor and a regular class winner.

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Author Gary Watkins

Gary Watkins has, for reasons best known to himself, devoted all his working life to covering sportscar racing. This season is his 33rd as a motorsport journalist, during which time he has reported on major long-distance events on four continents and approaching 80 24-hour races. He reckons a degree in political philosophy makes him well qualified for covering the sometimes Machiavellian world of international sportscars.

Gary, who also writes for Motor Sport, Autocourse, RACER and others, lives in Surbiton close to the former workshops of the Cooper Formula 1 team but spends more time on the road than at home for most of the year.