Nerd’s Eye View: Honda R&D’s Acura ILX Endurance Racers

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A challenge with endurance racing is having drivers of different heights. THRW marked the seating position of each driver for super quick adjustments during driver changes. That’s what I call S-M-A-R-T.
An OMP WRC steering wheel was paired with an NRG Innovations quick release to allow for faster driver changes.
The pedals are, well, stock. It does appear the guys at THRW bent over the brake pedal a little closer to the gas to facilitate easier heel-toe downshifts. As with all modern cars, the throttle is drive-by-wire requiring keeping the stock throttle pedal assembly with the electronics built-in. The nice thing about modern cars is you can often reflash the stock ECU and adjust all the throttle tables. A Hondata Flashpro handles all the ECU tuning.
A D-Gauge Multi-gauge is mounted under the central hood to keep tabs on some of the engine vitals such as coolant temperature, oil temperature, oil pressure, and A/F ratio. A Solo lap timer from AiM Sports helps the drivers keep pace.
Kenwood handles the communications between the driver and pit. The stock shift knob is really quite nice and looks essentially the same as the ones found on S2000s.
The pull handle for the fire suppression system is attached to the shifter mount. The bottle holding the retardant is mounted low and towards the center of the car to minimize the polar moment of inertia; i.e. the car will rotate faster. The bottle for the Accusump system is also mounted straight in the middle of the car and DEI protective insulation covers the lines going into the engine bay. Remember, high grip tires along with some aero downforce allow the car to generate high cornering G forces typically beyond what the stock oiling system is designed to handle. The Accusump helps ensure there is always proper oil pressure preventing a destroyed engine.

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