Honda Is Running a Sweet HRC Livery for This Weekend’s IndyCar Race

Back in 2023, there was a seismic shift in how Honda went about its racing activities across the globe. Initially divided into Honda Racing Company abroad and Honda Performance Development in North America, the longstanding HRC and HPD monikers united to eliminate the red tape and race globally under the same HRC banner. Besides its racing activities, however, HRC US also set out to create a whole new business, one that focuses on bringing track-proven performance parts to Honda and Acura vehicles.

To promote this new venture, Honda is plastering its eye-popping HRC logo all over Alex Palou’s No. 10 Chip Ganassi Racing Honda for this weekend’s IndyCar race at Barber Motorsports Park. And yeah, it looks freakin’ great.

While not officially out yet, the performance parts HRC is developing and promoting have been previewed on a couple of different concept cars so far. The most popular of them is the yellow Acura Integra Type S debuted at last year’s Monterey Car Week. The low-to-the-ground hatch rocks functional add-ons like new front and rear fascias, performance hood, and side splitters, all of which aid in better cooling.

There’s also that massive rear wing, which, along with other performance enhancements, is derived from the Integra Type S TCX race car that competes in the SRO TC America championship. Most notably, however, the prototype ditches air conditioning and its backseat in favor of a carbon fiber shelf to carry a set of track tires. The drivetrain’s also been tweaked for better performance, but Honda won’t say what specs it’s packing.

You probably noticed I said “functional” when describing these parts. That’s because they are. Last November, while at a special Honda-organized test I attended in Vegas, I saw Red Bull F1 driver (VCARB at the time) Yuki Tsunoda drive the hell out of that prototype Integra on a road course. He liked it so much, he asked the HRC US president to build him one to keep in Japan.

According to a scoop we brought you in January, these performance upgrades will likely be part of a new, high-performance trim that sits above Honda’s existing Type R and Acura’s Type S trims.

“You have the Type S or Type R for the road and [on the other end] you have a race car that you can buy for the track—so this would be something in between—right at the verge of where your significant other won’t want to ride with you,” HRC vice president Jon Ikeda told The Drive earlier this year. “If you’re going to put the HRC brand name on it, that’s what you’re saying [that it’s the ultimate expression of that model], and it has to be street legal.”

Other HRC performance parts were shown at last year’s SEMA show in the shape of a Honda Pilot HRC Prototype, which featured special off-road fenders, performance racks, suspension lift, wheels, tires, rock sliders, and more.

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