Honda is gearing up for another season of Super GT racing with the competition-spec NSX you see here. And man, does it look the business, left in bare black carbon fiber.
Reworked for 2017, the new NSX-GT picks up where the existing NSX-GT Concept leaves off after three years of competition. But while it looks like a track-focused version of the roadgoing supercar, underneath all the composite bodywork sits a completely different powertrain.
Instead of the production model’s complex 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 hybrid powertrain with its nine-speed dual-clutch transmission and all-wheel drive, the NSX-GT packs a 2.0-liter turbo four with a paddle-shifted constant mesh gearbox. Though smaller in displacement, the competition engine produces slightly more power than the trick hybrid, with over 600 horsepower trumping the road-going model’s 573.
The revised NSX-GT will compete in the top GT500 class of Japan’s domestic touring car series. It has big shoes to fill, succeeding the original NSX that won the championship three times and the experimental HSV-010 that scored another in 2010 (and was originally envisioned as a front-engined NSX successor for the road as well).
To prove itself worthy, though, it will have to beat the Nismo GT-Rs that won last year and are poised to win again this season – not to mention the new Lexus LC500 that replaces the RC F as well.
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