The Honda Super Speedway Aero Kit, produced by Honda Performance
Development, Honda’s racing arm in North America, includes a variety of
individual aerodynamic components fitted to the existing Honda-powered
Dallara Indy car chassis. All are intended to give Honda’s six Indy car
teams – encompassing a potential 17 ‘500’ entrants – the ability to
maximize performance at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval
and other large ovals ( over one mile in length) on the 2015 Verizon
IndyCar Series schedule.
“We’re excited to unveil our Super Speedway aero kit, the newest
element in this era of enhanced manufacturer competition in the Verizon
IndyCar Series,” said Art St. Cyr, president of HPD. “Coupled to our
proven Honda Indy V6 engines, these aero kits are the products of
thousands of hours of research, development and testing, as we seek to
give our drivers and teams the tools they need to win the race that
Honda holds as its most important goal each season: The Indianapolis
500.”
Honda’s Indy car aero kits were developed by utilizing the latest in
Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
technology, then validated using Driver-In-Loop (DIL) Simulators. This
process minimized waste at the prototype stage, and allowed aerodynamic
direction to be determined prior to the creation of full-size
components.
Full-scale wind tunnel testing was used to confirm actual aerodynamic
performance characteristics and create aero maps to be used during
on-track testing. Final proof-of-concept correlation then took place
with on-track testing prior to the start of production earlier this
year.
The complete Super Speedway Aero Kit provides Honda drivers and teams
with a range of configurations to tune the cars to their desired
characteristics for Indianapolis, a circuit where fine-tuning is
essential to achieve optimum performance.
Honda’s Indy car aero kits will make their public on-track debut
during an Open Test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 3.
Official practice for the Indianapolis 500 opens on Monday, May 11,
with the 99th running of the Indianapolis 500 scheduled for Sunday, May 24.
About Honda Performance Development
HPD was founded in 1993 to spearhead Honda’s entry into Indy car
racing. No other manufacturer has matched Honda’s success in Indy cars,
which includes 212 race victories, 15 drivers’ championships, six
competitive manufacturers’ championships and 10 Indianapolis 500
victories since 2004, including the 2014 event won by Ryan Hunter-Reay
of Andretti Autosport.
In addition to Indy car competition, HPD and Honda have a history of
success in the classic endurance sports car races, including a pair of
LMP2 wins and a privateer LMP1 victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans since
2010; as well as multiple American Le Mans Series championships and five
LMP2 class victories at the 12 Hours of Sebring since 2007. HPD’s Honda
engines have recorded 74 race wins at endurance sports car races around
the world, with 70 of those victories coming in the HPD-developed line
of sports prototype cars.
HPD offers a complete line of race engines for cars from grass roots
to pinnacle; for professional, amateur and entry-level racers. For more
information about HPD and the company’s racing product lines, please
visit http://hpd.honda.com.