Acura Engineers To Race Four Vehicles Up Pikes Peak

Acura has a big contingent of vehicles that will be racing up Pikes Peak in the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Four of the rides will be driven and crewed by full-time Acura R&D engineers. Acura notes that this is the largest collection of competitive entries in the brand's history and the cars will fly up to the mountain on June 30.

The Acura vehicles are all hand-built, homegrown cars according to Acura. Four production-based Acura models will participate in multiple race classes with the drivers of all four vehicles being engineers who work at Acura product development in Ohio. Along with the four amateur drivers in their homegrown rides, Acura also has a pro driver in the RealTime Racing Acura TLX GT all-wheel-drive race car; the pro driver is Peter Cunningham.

The entries include an Acura MDX Sport Hybrid that was built just for the hill climb. It uses the standard 3.5L V6 engine that has been bored out to 3.7L and makes 400hp and 350 lb-ft of torque. That isn't the engine used in the street MDX Hybrid, but it does use the three motor electric hybrid system.

A 2019 RDX A-spec using a 350hp and 330 lb-ft 2.0L turbo four engine and 10-speed automatic is taking on the mountain. The car has a larger turbo, short-path intercooler, and electric supercharger fed by a 48V micro-hybrid system. The "Time Attack" NSX has a larger rear wing and more aggressive front splitter for downforce and has a modified engine with larger turbos to reach 625hp.

A production spec NSX is making the run-up the hill using the factory twin-turbo V6 and three motor Sport Hybrid system for a combined 573hp and 476 lb-ft of torque. The last of the cars is the Realtime Racing TLX GT using a J35 V6 with twin-turbos; its power is a mystery.