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When the reborn Acura NSX debuted, some claimed it to be overly complicated, saying that Acura had killed the essence of what once made the original car so great. The hybrid powertrain, the all-wheel-drive setup, and the hyper-exotic styling all seemed out of character to those forgetting that NSX stands for New Sportscar eXperimental. Presumably, the purists were happier when Acura launched the NSX GT3 race version, which comes without the electric motor and with rear-wheel drive. Now, Acura is putting that car up for sale for a price nearly as extreme as the car’s aero package.
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Acura announced this week it would be making the race car globally available to customer racing teams for about $ 543,000 (€465,000), before a $ 100,000 mandatory spare parts package. That’s even more expensive than the Mercedes-AMG GT3 and more than double the cost of a Mercedes-AMG GT4. But the teams who buy this wild child will be getting one hell of a vehicle. Since it was introduced, it has already won two races in the IMSA’s WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, and it has several top-five finishes elsewhere, including fifth place at its first race ever, the 24 Hours of Daytona.
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The GT3, which sends power from a twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V-6 engine to the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential racing gearbox, will be available to customers with the raw look of a bare carbon-fiber body. The GT3’s chassis and engine are built right here in the United States at the Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Marysville, Ohio, as they share plenty of architecture with the production NSX; final assembly takes place at JAS Motorsport in Italy.
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The car is eligible for more than 25 different race series all around the world. It can be used for the Pirelli World Challenge and WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in North America, the Blancpain GT Series and 24 Hours Nürburgring in Europe, the Blancpain GT Series in Asia, the Super GT GT300 class in Japan, and the Australian GT Championship, among others.
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- 2017 Acura NSX In-Depth Review
- Strip Tease: Watch the 2017 Acura NSX Turn 11s at the Drag Strip [Video]
- Acura NSX: Full News, Reviews, Specs, Pricing, Photos, and More
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“We’ve intended to compete at the highest level since the NSX was just a sketch on a pad,” Acura vice president and general manager Jon Ikeda said. “To see the NSX GT3 winning races and now available for racers and track enthusiasts to enjoy around the world is a major milestone for the second-generation NSX, the Acura brand, and the global development team that made it possible.”
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Now if only Honda would make a street-legal production version.
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