BACKGROUND: Honda Performance Development, Inc. (HPD) is Honda's racing company within North America and is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Founded in 1993, HPD is the technical operations center for Honda's and Acura's high-performance racing programs. HPD is the single engine supplier to the IndyCar® Series and competes in prototype sports car racing under the Acura banner in the American Le Mans® Series.

FACILITY: HPD operates out of a 123,000-square-foot building in Santa Clarita, California. The two-story structure houses comprehensive motorsports research & development operations, including design, development engineering, prototype and production parts manufacturing, race-engine preparation and rebuilding areas, material analysis laboratory, quality-control inspection areas, engine dynamometer test cells, machine shop, electronics laboratory, parts center, multiple meeting/conference rooms and administrative offices.

ETHOS: Passion + Innovation = Success. As a former racer, Mr. Soichiro Honda deeply believed in competition as a means to improve his company, its people, and its products. This ethos is alive and well today at HPD. We race to learn. While second can be painful, reflection on such failure can lead to the next success. The company derives its strength from the contributions of inspired associates, driven to develop fresh ideas, winning solutions, and leading-edge technologies. Honda associates take pride in the quality of work and products they create. They possess a relentless desire to constantly improve, redefine and exceed expectations. Honda Racing products have proven time and again to be innovative, fast and reliable. More than any other automobile manufacturer, racing is embedded in the Honda corporate culture. At Honda Performance Development, racing is a way of life. It's in our DNA.

HISTORY: In Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) competition from 1994 to 2002, HPD captured four Manufacturers' Championships (1996, 1998, 1999, 2001), six consecutive drivers' championships (1996-2001) and Honda engines recorded 65 race wins and 65 pole positions. In 2000, Gil de Ferran set the all-time oval-track qualifying record with his Penske Reynard Honda at California Speedway with a spectacular 241.428 mile-per-hour lap.

HPD entered the IRL IndyCar Series in 2003, and established its dominance against strong competition from other major automotive manufacturers. Tony Kanaan drove the Andretti Green Honda Dallara to the first IndyCar win for HPD on the one-mile oval in Phoenix, Arizona, on March 23, 2003.

By the 2004 season, the normally aspirated V-8 engine produced by HPD and technical partner Ilmor Engineering was the dominant motor in the IndyCar Series. Honda drivers scored 14 victories in 16 races, including HPD's first Indianapolis 500 win, when Buddy Rice visited the coveted Winner's Circle at the world's most famous race track.

The 2005 season was equally successful for HPD, with Dan Wheldon taking the Indy 500 and series championships. A total of 12 Victory Lane celebrations took place as Honda dominated the series once again.

In 2006, HPD and partner Ilmor became the single engine supplier for the IndyCar Series, including the Indy 500. The entire 500-mile race was run without a single engine failure—a remarkable display of engine performance and reliability.

HPD undertook a new challenge for the 2007 motorsports season with the new Acura sports car program in the American Le Mans® Series. For the first time since HPD's inception, a new V-8 engine was designed and produced entirely in-house at HPD's Santa Clarita headquarters. Also for the first time HPD, in technical partnership with Wirth Research Ltd., produced the first homologated Acura sports car chassis, the ARX-01a. The program debuted in spectacular fashion, as Bryan Herta, Dario Franchitti and Tony Kanaan combined to drive to an LMP2 class victory in Acura's very first American Le Mans Series event at the grueling 2007 12 Hours of Sebring. During the season, three Acura sports cars collected ten LMP2 podium finishes.

In 2008, Acura waged a spirited and sensational battle with the Penske Racing Porsche race cars. Acura took a majority of the LMP2 victories and finished one point shy of capturing the manufacturers' championship.

HPD announced its goal to move into LMP1, the top American Le Mans Series class, in 2009 to compete for the ultimate sports car prize, the overall championship. Patron Highcroft Racing and de Ferran Motorsports are campaigning the new Acura ARX-02a chassis and powerful four-liter, normally aspirated V-8 engine. Acura also continues in the LMP2 class, with Lowe's Fernandez Racing competing in its Acura ARX-01b.

Building upon an unparalleled resume at the pinnacle levels of motorsport, HPD now undertakes an initiative to expand the company presence in the grassroots motorsports market. This broad-based initiative will include the development of products and services that support racers who compete at the club and entry-level professional ranks. These products include original equipment parts, as well as specific racing performance parts.

The grassroots motorsports initiative also supports the fans of grassroots racing through an integrated marketing plan, focusing on fan identification with the Honda Racing brand through merchandise sales and additional services.