At the 2006 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Acura officially announced their plans to develop a Le Mans Prototype program for the American Le Mans Series, competing in the LMP2 class for the initial year of competition in 2007.

By the time the American Le Mans Series opening round at the 12 Hours of Sebring arrived, the two Courage LC75 teams had modified their chassis to such an extent that Acura applied for homologation from the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) and Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO).

Elements of the Acura V8, dubbed the AL7R, share similar architecture with the Honda engine used in the Indy Racing League although none of the parts are interchangeable.

On July 12, 2008, the #9 Patrón Highcroft Racing ARX-01 earned Acura's first-ever overall victory in the American Le Mans Series.

David Brabham and Scott Sharp started the Highcroft entry from pole, and managed to retake the lead from the #7 Penske Racing Porsche RS Spyder in the final 90 seconds of the Northeast Grand Prix.

[2] This was followed by a second overall win at the Detroit Sports Car Challenge, this time led by Andretti Green Racing's Franck Montagny and James Rossiter.

Highcroft was ranked second in the Teams Championship, Andretti Green fourth, Fernandez fifth, and de Ferran sixth.

Highcroft faced stiff competition but was able to beat the Cytosport Porsche by 20 points despite running a 25 kg series-imposed ballast.

The team won 4 victories and extended the points lead further when Cytosport was absent from Lime Rock due to a crash.

However 2 DNFs out of 5 races meant that Strakka missed out on the championship to the more consistent RML team, who ran a Lola chassis with an HPD engine.

At the Paul Ricard test the cars were very slow due to the level of engine development prior to homologation.

RML stated that they were literally the slowest car of the whole field, and that "there's not a class out there that can't drive by us on the straight".