The 3.5litre twin turbocharged V6 is the latest in a series of now more than 12 high performance brands to enter GT racing around the world.

The startling new NSX was launched in a Macau ceremony attended by senior Honda executives, industry representatives, FIA personnel and media.

2016 IMSA Weathertech Sports Car champion Renger van der Zande will debut the Honda NSX in this weekend’s FIA GT World Cup.

Stephane Ratel, chief executive of SRO which runs the Blancpain GT Racing series in several global regions has described Honda’s GT entry as highly significant.

“ Nissan and Lexus are already fielding GT cars against the best of Europe, “ he said.

“ With Honda we now have substantial Japanese manufacturer involvement”.

The NSX is built by JAS Motorsport in Italy in conjunction with Honda Performance Development un the USA.

Each car will come with a comprehensive customer support program to assist owners to get the most from their racing experience.

The package includes technician training and pro-driver coaching for owner drivers.

Honda Racing has quoted the base price of the NSX GT3 at Euro 465,000 plus a minimum spares package of Euro 90,000 and specialist service tools of Euro 7000.

More than 1200 specially GT cars are now in action in series around the world, according to SRO.

At Macau this weekend no fewer than seven brands will contest the FIA GT World Cup.

Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche have been joined by Honda in the 18 lap fight for the FIA GT World Cup which has so far been claimed by Mercedes-Benz and Audi.