Acura captured a sixth consecutive podium at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, with driver James Robinson finishing third in the highly competitive Time Attack 1 class. Robinson’s time of 10:01.913 in a 2019 NSX, bested his previous fast time of 10:02.448 (set in 2018) to establish a new record for a production vehicle with a hybrid powertrain.
Two race prepared 2021 Acura TLXs made their motorsports debut at the 2020 “Race to the Clouds”, ahead of the second-generation sport sedan’s arrival at dealers on Sept. 28. Drivers Jordan Guitar and Justin Lumbard, both engineers at the company’s Ohio R&D Center, finished fifth and sixth in class, respectively.
A third 2021 TLX, an early development prototype for the upcoming Type S high performance variant, served as the hill climb’s official Pace Car. Driving the TLX Type S was Nick Robinson, a principal engineer in the company’s Chassis Development Group and Pikes Peak veteran with class wins on both two and four wheels and current front-wheel drive record holder.
Pikes Peak serves as a test bed for new Acura performance technologies and as an opportunity for the company’s engineers to further sharpen their performance-focused driving and engineering skills. The Acura Pikes Peak race team is comprised of a group of volunteer engineers who are responsible for all aspects of competition, including the development of vehicles, race prep, crew support and navigating race cars to the finish line.
