'We Love Racing !' - this is the motto that Honda lives by. Racing is in Honda's blood and embodies the very spirit of Honda. Having taken over operations here in Malaysia for almost 3 years, Honda Malaysia took the next step forward for this year, living up to its own motto by entering three teams for this year's Merdeka Millenium Endurance race.
The Merdeka Millenium Endurance (MME) race was introduced locally at the turn of the century (hence the word millenium) to be held annually to celebrate the independence day of Malaysia. Thus it was conceived as a 12-hours endurance race to be held on the 30th of August every year. Entries are divided into 4 classes, classified as O, A, B, and C, based broadly by engine capacity and amount of modifications allowed. The most liberal is Class O or the 'open class' which more or less allows any type of car to be raced. Classes A, B, and C are the production car categories and are classed by engine capacity - Class A for saloon cars above 1900cc and sports cars of any engine capacity while Class B is for saloon cars 1601 - 1890cc and Class C for saloon cars 1550-1600cc in capacity.
The MME race has been extremely successful in previous years and it's looking more so for this year. Cars that have been raced in the past includes Porsche 911s, Lotus Elise and TVRs (Proton, the Malaysian car manufacturer owns Lotus while some TVR models are made locally here !), Nissan Skyline GT-Rs, Mistubishi EVOs, etc. Class B and C are particularly popular with Honda enthusiasts because this is where Honda rules with EG & EK Civics and DC Integras. For class B, the Honda cars gets competition from the local Proton GTis and Coupes (known as Satria and Putra respectively).
Into this race comes Honda, with 3 teams this year; their official factory team and two dealers teams. As is well known, when Honda does something, they tend to go all out and so too it is with this MME entry. Honda Malaysia specially brought in a JDM one-make series DC5 Integra Type-R for the MME. This particular car is specially built as a race-car from the start, without air-cond and other unncessary accessories and without any padding and noise damping materials. These kind of cars are sold by Honda as special purpose built race cars in Japan and cannot be registered for street use. This particular car has previously been raced in the Integra One-Make series in Japan. The other two teams, by Honda dealers Kosmo Kars and Westar uses race-prepped DC5 Integra Type-Rs from Hong Kong. For these, the base car is the 'export version' DC5 Integra Type-R (as sold in Australia, etc).
As befitting it's status, Japan has many race drivers. The most well-known and well-loved by enthusiasts worldwide will of course be the living legend 'Drift-King' Keiichi Tsuchiya. But besides Tsuchiya, Japan also has many other legendary race drivers as well. For the MME, Honda Malaysia went all out by getting the grand patron of Japan's racing scene, Takahashi Kunimitsu of the 1995 24-hours Le-Mans GT2 class winning NSX fame. The DC5 that was entered by Honda Malaysia is prepped by team Kunimitsu Racing hence the car is known as Honda Kunimitsu Integra Type-R.
The other 2 dealer teams are not that much less lavish either. One of them brought in very successful race drivers from HongKong while the other fielded some of the best race drivers that Malaysia has to offer. As explained, both their cars are prepped overseas and brought in here ready to race.
Honda Malaysia launched their 3 race teams via a lavish "Launching of Honda Malaysia Racing Team" on August 26th 2003 at a private function in KL. All three DC5s were displayed at the function. As is the norm nowadays, I was delighted when I received an invitation from them to attend the function as part of the media.
The function was officially opened by the Honda Malaysia CEO Kuraishi-san after which the various team personnels were introduced and finally the race cars unveiled. I was extremely surprised but very excited when the team personnels actually allowed us to check out the car up close. When the bonnet of the Honda Kunimitsu DC5 was opened, I think there's no need to say that I had my paws all over the engine bay ! I took tons of photos and asked as many questions as I could. However after thinking it over, I decided that this article is not the right place (or rather time) to show the photos or write about the cars as they will be raced in 2 days time. When the race is over, I plan to cover the cars in detail. For the moment, I will only show selected photos of the race cars and the launch.
Category-wise, the 3 DC5 Integra Type-Rs will be racing in Class A where all the 'terror' cars prowl. Thus they will be expecting to battle against the likes of the Skylines, EVOs, Lotus Elise, etc. Tough competition indeed. But this is a 12-hours endurance race so never underestimate what Honda might be capable of acheiving ! And of course readers around this region might want to attend the MME race on saturday to cheer the Honda teams on. See you guys there and Happy Merdeka Day to all my Malaysian readers !
 Team Honda Kumimitsu - official factory team |
 Team Westar Honda - dealer team |
 Team KosmoRacing - dealer team |
 Side mirror with identifyer lights |
 HIDs are going to be real handy at night ! |
 Drivers for Team Honda Kunimitsu |
 Takahashi Kunimitsu giving a speech |
Wong KN
August 2003
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