Acura Completes Two-Day LMDh Test at Magny-Cours

Acura has completed the first proper track test of its ARX-06 LMDh car at Magny-Cours, opening the next phase of the manufacturer’s development program for a 2023 debut.

After undergoing a preliminary shakedown at Le Castellet airport last Friday, the Honda brand took its ORECA-based, spec-hybrid prototype further north in France for a two-day circuit test on Saturday and Sunday.

Honda Performance Development vehicle performance engineer Matt McMurry and Wayne Taylor Racing driver Ricky Taylor took turns behind the wheel.

The Magny-Cours session included the first night running for the ARX-06, which is the successor to Acura’s ARX-05 DPi prototype.

Wayne Taylor Racing and Meyer Shank Racing will campaign the car in next year’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTP class.

“Of course, it is still early days, but I would have to say we’re quite pleased with the results of both the initial shake-down runs last week at Paul Ricard; followed by two days this weekend, which ran into the night both on Saturday and Sunday,” said David Salters, HPD President and technical director.

“Everyone on our team from ORECA, HPD, the Wayne Taylor and Meyer Shank organizations – worked together extraordinarily well in preparing for and conducting these initial runs. Now the truly hard work begins!”

In addition to outlining its testing activities, Acura released the first images of the ARX-06 on track in a camouflage testing livery.

It included the first real-world glimpse of the car’s front end, which had been alluded to in renders but was obscured in last week’s shakedown footage.

The vehicle’s styling was conceived by the Los Angeles-based Acura Design Studio, in conjunction with HPD and ORECA.