They weren't in LMP1 (much cheaper as it was) most of said time. Acura even spent the money to build a complete LMP1 car that would have been basically useless at Le Mans anyways.
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Originally Posted by Articus
When LMP1 was common category in ALMS and the ELMS, was there even a manufacturer who didn't go to Le Mans with the car?
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Uh, Acura and Mazda.
BMW also elected not to defend their Le Mans win while continuing to race in ALMS in 2000, because as is typical for BMW the North American division had its own independent sports car racing budget. (also see: E46 M3 GTR, E92 M3 GT2 gen 1, Z4 GTE, M6 GTE)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Articus
Do you guys think that if the category was common and affordable, that Acura and Mazda would not go to Le Mans?
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I clearly do.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FormulaFox
Acura raced at Le Mans in LMP1 and LMP2. Just not every year.
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Acura has never raced at Le Mans. The ARX-01 didn't run a single race outside of North America until Acura had pulled out of sports car racing and left HPD to sell unbadged cars to privateers. A few years later when they began putting them in Ligiers as well they finally started calling the engines Hondas instead of only HPD.