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Here's Why Acura's IMSA GTP Race Car Sounds Just Like Chewbacca

Here's Why Acura's IMSA GTP Race Car Sounds Just Like Chewbacca photo
Here's Why Acura's IMSA GTP Race Car Sounds Just Like Chewbacca photo

Like most of you reading this blog, I'm a big fan of race car sounds. Naturally aspirated, turbocharged, hybrid, modified or purpose-built, the Symphony of Horsepower comes in many shapes and volumes. That being said, I don't think I've ever heard a race car and immediately thought; "Yup, that's Chewbacca from Star Wars." Until now.

Acura's IMSA GTP hybrid prototype, the ARX-06, is powered by a 2.4-liter, twin-turbocharged, direct-injected V6 gasoline engine paired with an IMSA-specified Bosch electric motor and Williams Advanced Engineering battery pack. All of this amounts to roughly 700 horsepower and a series of funky noises that sound unmistakably like that hairy creature from the popular sci-fi movie.

Motorsport journalist Marshall Pruett and the IMSA folks put together a fantastic YouTube video bringing to light these unique sounds ahead of this weekend's Rolex 24 at Daytona. And in order to explain how they happen, Pruett interviewed the mastermind behind all the complex engineering: HRC US president David Salters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj56Rn2qUnM