With GT3 and sports car competition growing worldwide faster than VTEC hits the proverbial redline, it should come as no surprise that Honda are considering producing a racing variant of their new NSX supercar for competition in either the GT3 or GTE international formulas. Though what might be a surprise is that the racer will not be propelled by a hybrid engine, as the pictured NSX Concept-GT was when it was first shown to the world in 2013.
The Honda NSX road car was unveiled at the 2015 Detroit Motor Show in January, 2015. With its aggressive chin, beady eyes, chiseled lines, and its longitudinally mounted twin-turbo V6 capable of 550bhp, plenty await its formal launch to the market in 2016 with bated breath. Building upon the solid platform that the new (and reportedly amazing) Civic Type R has helped create, the NSX looks set to hammer home the notion that Honda can still kick it with the young folk and make cool, fast cars.
New Zealand race fans should be familiar with GT3 by now, with several GT3-specification racers rolling around our national championships — including our North Island Endurance Series. GT3s are more commonly found in classes like the Blancpain GT Series and the Australian GT Championship, with more and more classes catering to them popping up left right and centre — America’s Pirelli World Challenge series being amongst the latest.
GTE on the other hand is the evolution of the old GT2 Le Mans class, where the likes of Kiwis Earl Bamber and Richie Stanaway often compete. While it’s the more expensive and restrictive of the two, the GTE framework is also more internationally recognized, featuring in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, plus several other blue-chip classes.
We hope to see the NSX released as a GT3-spec racer, purely on the selfish grounds that it highly improves the chance of us spotting one racing on our domestic Kiwi shores — especially with the Australian GT Championship visiting New Zealand twice in 2016.
