Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
8/14/23 2:47 p.m.
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Honda Performance Development today announced a race-ready version of the all-new Acura Integra Type S.

[2024 Acura Integra Type S: On sale this June]

The Type S race car is built to compete in the TCX class of the SRO TC America championship starting in 2024, and there are plans for the car to also race in the Sports Car …

Read the rest of the story

Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
8/14/23 3:01 p.m.

I know there's a lot more involved in racing, but am I crazy for thinking that less than $200,000 is a good price for a whole race car?

ClearWaterMS
ClearWaterMS Reader
8/14/23 4:28 p.m.
Colin Wood said:

I know there's a lot more involved in racing, but am I crazy for thinking that less than $200,000 is a good price for a whole race car?

Isn't this about the same price as what a global MX5 cup car sells for?  $150k...  

 

Captdownshift (Forum Supporter)
Captdownshift (Forum Supporter) GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
8/14/23 5:50 p.m.

In reply to ClearWaterMS :

The ND2 global cup car is still a good bit under $150k...

AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter)
AnthonyGS (Forum Supporter) PowerDork
8/14/23 8:08 p.m.

Isn't the Honda HPD civic race car a lot less?  

Datsun310Guy
Datsun310Guy MegaDork
8/14/23 8:36 p.m.

Scrounge the couch for coins?  

ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter)
ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) Dork
8/14/23 9:34 p.m.

Racing factory prepped production cars makes no sense to me. 

Noddaz
Noddaz GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
8/15/23 7:39 a.m.
Datsun310Guy said:

Scrounge the couch for coins?  

I don't have enough couch for that.

DirtyBird222
DirtyBird222 PowerDork
8/15/23 9:26 a.m.
ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) said:

Racing factory prepped production cars makes no sense to me. 

These sanctioning bodies decided to create classes like TCR(X) and GT4, limit the suppliers of homologated cars, so now we get things like this. Instead of a couple dudes building a car in their garage to go race against the big boys. If you want to play you have to make your down payment before the order window closes, otherwise go find another manufacturer to buy from if you can find one willing to sell to you. Oh and limited production means you get to pay market prices.

Yea it's cool you get a race car completely ready to go for the price listed with some support from the manufacturer; however, the mantra of "evening the field" for E36 M3 like BoP and "overall costs reduction" has made some of these series a complete snooze fest and totally devoid of creativity that we used to see in racing. The top tier MX-5 cup is an outlier in this scenario as the racing is usually pretty awesome. The Michelin Pilot challenge used to be full of some home built and pro built cars racing against each other. Now it's just a snooze fest of TCR and GT4 cars IMO. 

I will say the HPD Civic Si race car for $55k is a steal, considering most dealers have been charging close to $40k for those for the past two years anyways. 

BA5
BA5 GRM+ Memberand HalfDork
8/15/23 9:44 a.m.

"Dual axis MacPherson strut for reduced optimized power application control"

DirtyBird222
DirtyBird222 PowerDork
8/15/23 10:20 a.m.
BA5 said:

"Dual axis MacPherson strut for reduced optimized power application control"

It's the same suspension mechanisms they used on the 10th Gen CTR that came out in 2017 to help reduce torque steer and wheel hop. 

QuikMcshifterson
QuikMcshifterson New Reader
8/15/23 7:47 p.m.
DirtyBird222 said:

Yea it's cool you get a race car completely ready to go for the price listed with some support from the manufacturer; however, the mantra of "evening the field" for E36 M3 like BoP and "overall costs reduction" has made some of these series a complete snooze fest and totally devoid of creativity that we used to see in racing. The top tier MX-5 cup is an outlier in this scenario as the racing is usually pretty awesome. The Michelin Pilot challenge used to be full of some home built and pro built cars racing against each other. Now it's just a snooze fest of TCR and GT4 cars IMO. 

 

I agree with a lot of what you're saying except the "snooze fest" part. The racing in SRO is pretty damned good. 

 

 

David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
8/16/23 11:30 a.m.

What do race cars run on? Money.

And what does it take to convert a modern production car into a race car? Even more money.

Just before we got today’s homologated TCR cars, a friend who team ran the DIY touring cars put it this way: We pay for development work with $10,000 bills. 

His point was that developing anything–cooling, electronics, aero, etc.–cost many, many thousands of dollars. And then when it was time to sell the car, he added, they were lucky to get pennies on the dollar.

ConiglioRampante
ConiglioRampante New Reader
8/16/23 12:54 p.m.

Since it came up earlier, here's a link to what it costs to buy a global MX-5 car from Flis Performance.  
https://cvf69e.p3cdn2.secureserver.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Mazda-MX-5-Cup-Race-Car-Purchase-Agreement-rev-23-COST-WORKSHEET.pdf

DirtyBird222
DirtyBird222 PowerDork
8/16/23 3:45 p.m.
David S. Wallens said:

What do race cars run on? Money.

And what does it take to convert a modern production car into a race car? Even more money.

Just before we got today’s homologated TCR cars, a friend who team ran the DIY touring cars put it this way: We pay for development work with $10,000 bills. 

His point was that developing anything–cooling, electronics, aero, etc.–cost many, many thousands of dollars. And then when it was time to sell the car, he added, they were lucky to get pennies on the dollar.

Yet every weekend there are people out there racing in home built racecars.

Production series are always way more exciting IMO. The old school Firehawk series. The Conti/Koni support series in the pinnacle of the Grand-Am days. Again my opinion, these uber spec series just don't have the same allure. It's supposedly a cheaper entry point yet field sizes are nowhere near as big or diverse as some of the predecessor series with the home builds....

fornetti14
fornetti14 GRM+ Memberand Dork
9/12/23 5:37 p.m.

I hope one or two of these show up at local open track days! 

Some people just have really big check books and I fully support their decisions.

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