Showing posts with label Next Gen Acura NSX. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Next Gen Acura NSX. Show all posts

Monday, April 25, 2011

Report: Honda NSX development soldiers on

Automotive News reports that the long-dead NSX is back under development after its spiritual successor was sent to the round file in 2008. We've heard an increasing chorus of rumours that the project has been taken off the shelf, but this is the first time we can recall reading direct quotes from higher-ups within Honda confirming its existence. Takanobu Ito, Honda's President, reportedly disclosed that his company is currently working on a successor that will be both entertaining to drive and efficient, which likely means buyers can expect to be met with a hybrid drivetrain when the supercar launches. When will that be? Ito didn't give specific details on when the new-generation NSX will land, though he did say that the racer will be the brawnier bigger brother of the company's CR-Z hybrid.

That means that we can kiss the luscious V10 mounted in the old HSV-010 goodbye. That vehicle was intended to be the most recent take on the NSX, but was scrapped after the auto market at large began circling the drain back in 2008. While fans of the Japanese supercar were up in arms over the fact that the HSV-010 abandoned the mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive finesse of the original NSX for an all-wheel drive platform, we have to imagine many NSX loyalists might not have kind words for a hybridized version of the bruiser.

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Honda to develop high-performance sports car

Honda Motor Co. officially announced its plan to develop a high-performance sports car to serve as a successor to the now-defunct NSX.

President Takanobu Ito confirmed earlier reports about the car at a press conference held Friday to highlight Honda's 2011 motor sports activities.

The new model will be based on the 3.4-liter HSV-010GT race car. Honda runs the car on the Super GT auto racing circuit.

Ito said he wanted to commercialize the HSV because other automakers participate in the competition with racing versions based on cars sold on the market.

"I think Honda should respect the history of the Super GT competition (as a stock-car race)," Ito said.

Ito also indicated Honda may develop a low-priced small sports car.

"There are two types of sports cars--affordable and high-performance. I hope we will be able to market both," he said.

Soource (via TOV);
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201102060128.html

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Honda/Acura NSX a go!

Honda heads, rejoice! In Japan today Honda president Takashi Ito announced that the company will renew development of the NSX. The next generation of Honda’s supercar was put on hold as a result of the Lehman Shock (Japanese for Global Financial Crisis) in 2008. However, Ito says that the marketplace has a demand and it is one that “we must answer.” Details are sparse and no release date was given, but with the LFA ant GT-R, we might just have another Japanese supercar renaissance on the horizon. It’s a shame they didn’t announce this at the New Year Meeting.

Source (via autoblog);
http://japanesenostalgiccar.com/2011/02/04/honda-restarts-development-of-the-nsx/

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Acura Will Keep Flagship Sedan Conservative, May Add High-End Sporty Vehicle to Lineup

The launch of the refreshed Acura RL flagship gave us a chance to drill the company’s executives and PR reps with questions about the car’s successor as well as Acura’s latest plans to bring back something sports-car-like to the lineup. The information firewall was up in full force, so we were left to read between the lines. Following numerous conversations with Acura’s ebullient product chief, Vicki Poponi, and others, this is what we can surmise about the top of Honda’s top line.

The next Acura flagship likely will be called RL, not Legend or anything else terribly evocative, and it most certainly will not have a V-8 (we were told to stop asking). A former chemical engineer, Poponi is a numbers person, and she cites surveys that Acura believes disprove any notion that cylinder count is of real importance to luxury customers. “The market is moving to us,” the Acura folks said, citing increasing demand for higher fuel economy as well as the economic downturn prompting luxury customers to rein in their extravagant ways. We also kept hearing statements such as “Honda is a very conservative company,” and “the RL customer is a conservative customer.”

These hints suggest that the next RL will build upon the improvements made for 2011 in the areas of quietness, safety, and material quality, although the car will probably not feature terribly radical styling, nor will it grow all that much. So it won’t be a Lexus LS fighter but more like an Infiniti M fighter. Given that, we would also be very surprised if the next-gen car doesn’t add 25 to 50 horses so it can at least match the M37’s base output of 330 hp. When will we see the next-gen RL? With the current model’s age—and abysmal sales of about 3000 per year—it can’t come soon enough. Nods and nudges from Acura folks suggest that it will arrive very soon, perhaps within the next 12 to 18 months. We think the RL had better be at least a bit flashy if Acura hopes to get newfound attention from consumers in the brutally competitive $45K–$70K luxury-car segment. In this case, erring on the side of conservative may be an error indeed.

Details were far sketchier regarding additional members of the Acura lineup. We were told that Acura will soon introduce something unconventional sometime around the launch of the new flagship sedan. Will it be sporty? Probably. Will it be called NSX? Who knows. Will it be the front-engine supercar we saw lapping the Nürburgring a couple of years ago? No. Although that car was all but finished, according to Acura insiders, it was cancelled—not even shelved—due to Honda’s concerns that it might be crass to offer a $150K–$175K sports car in the face of worldwide economic hardship. However, much of the technology developed for that car will appear in the new car. Whatever it’s called.

Source;

http://blog.caranddriver.com/acura-will-keep-flagship-sedan-conservative-may-add-high-end-sporty-vehicle-to-lineup/

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Honda NSX Gets New Lease on Life

Finally! Some Honda/Acura sportscar news! Now if we can just get Honda to start thinking about a Next Generation Honda Prelude (non hybrid of course) ....
The NSX lives, at least in a different form. According to one source, Honda never gave up its plans for an NSX successor. Even though the V-10-powered post-NSX concept came along at the wrong time -- during the economic meltdown -- and had to be cancelled, Honda engineers didn't completely shelve the project.

They simply applied a more market-friendly (and eco-friendly) sports-car approach to the company's flagship two-door, giving it the latest hybrid gizmology. Completely different than Toyota's THS-II hybrid system, the technology slated to power Honda's new sports coupe "can be driven with either a clutch and an engine only, the engine and motor only, or the motor only," says our source. It will also offer a manual transmission option.

It apparently will employ a modified Accord platform, and power will come from either a 2.4-liter 4-cylinder or a 3.5-liter V-6, with the latter considered the sure favorite. Why do we think so? Once again our spies in Japan have uncovered a patent application that specifies a "V6 powertrain developing upwards of 400 horsepower." (yes!) That makes sense, especially when you consider what one company staffer told us about Honda's desire to return to making sports cars.

"Honda does not see the CR-Z as a sports car. It's a sporty coupe and a great first try in the hybrid-sports direction. To be called a sports car, a car needs to have the potential of an NSX or an S2000. That's what we need to aim for."

And as expected, the coupe will employ a version of the automaker's proven SH-AWD system, but Honda will apply NSX concept technology by fitting the rear-drive-based SH-AWD setup that enabled the test mule to lap the Nürburgring in 7 minutes, 37 seconds two years ago.

Using the front-wheel-drive Accord platform as a base for this car will cut R&D costs dramatically. Engineers will swap the front and rear around to create a rear midship AWD package. If the coupe gets the green light for production, expect to see it in showrooms as early as 2014. Still unclear is if the car will continue to be badged as an Acura here in the U.S.

Source (via autoblog);
http://www.motortrend.com/features/auto_news/2010/1011_honda_nsx_gets_new_lease_on_life/index.html

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Honda/Acura NSX Supercar Could Still be Revived - 2011 Debut Rumoured

Here we go again....
The Honda/Acura NSX could be revived as early as 2011, according to AutoBild. In an unsourced report, the German magazine says that a road-ready version of the HSV-010 GT racecar is being developed to fight the Lexus LFA.

A new version of the supercar was officially cancelled by Honda during the peak of the economic crisis. At that time, the company announced that they would be eliminating many of their niche market models in favor of vehicles that are broadly accepted worldwide, and can be produced in large volumes.

The magazine says that the production NSX would come with a 5.0-liter V8 engine. The production version would likely be both narrower and less defined than the race model, and be sold without a rear spoiler.

The Honda HSV-010 GT uses a 3.4-liter V8 engine generating 493 horsepower (500PS, 368 kW). The race car got its debut earlier this month at Japan's Suzuka Circuit, where two of them crashed out .

Source;
http://www.worldcarfans.com/110033025407/hondaacura-nsx-supercar-could-still-be-revived---2011

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Super GT Provisional Entry List Revealed

For those of you that don't know, this was going to be the replacement for the Acura/Honda NSX....
It’s shaping up to be a great season of Super GT this year with the news that 13 GT500 and 25 GT300 teams have completed entry registrations.

Among those 13 GT500 teams, 5 supported by Honda with its new HSV-010 GT with Epson, Keihin, Raybrig, ARTA and Weider teams running the new car. Only three teams, Calsonic Impul, HIS Advan Kondo and Motul Autech, will field Nissan’s GT-R in 2010 with Hasemi Motorsport leaving their GT-R behind and moving out of the GT500 class to enter a Nissan Fairlady Z in the GT300 class. Nissan has also introduced a new 3.4L V8 for this season and hopes to be very competitive up against the previous season winning Lexus SC430.

GT300 class has had a total of 25 registrations, two more than last year thanks to the previously mentioned team Hasemi Motorsport, plus an new entry in the form of an Aston Martin V8 Vantage fielded by A Speed. ThunderAsia Racing is a Singapore-based team running a Mosler MT900M and will be the first wholly international team to race in the Super GT for an entire season. The team that brought an ‘Itasha’ BMW Z4 M to Round 6 of the 2008 Super GT season will return this year but under a new organisation, now named Goodsmile Racing with Cox and fielding a Porsche 911. Toyota Team Tsuchiya that raced in the GT500 class previously will now be called Samurai Team Tsuchiya and enter the GT300 class with a car that has yet to be announced.

An interesting battle among tire manufacturers will surely add some spice to each race too with all three Nissan GT-Rs running different tire brands, with Nismo Motul Autech running Michelin tires, Calsonic Impul running Bridgestone and the HIS Advan Kondo running Yokohama. So expect to see some different race strategies between these teams running the same car but different tire brands.

The season opener will be held at Suzuka Circuit on March 20 – 21.
Entry list: http://supergt.net/supergt/news/2010n/news100222_1e.htm

Source;
http://www.7tune.com/super-gt-provisional-entry-list-revealed/

Monday, January 5, 2009

Next Gen Acura NSX, Dead or not Dead?

Well? Is it dead (for now) or is it alive? First off, Honda released word that the upcoming (and "faster than the Nissan GT-R") was cancelled due to current world economics. Then a few days later a few sites report that Honda is going to be showing how far they had gotten by showing off their wares at the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show. It appears that the reports were a translation error and that the NSX is indeed shelved.

Anyway, here is a link to some back story;

http://www.worldcarfans.com/9081231.003/acura-nsx-supercar-is-not-dead

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Next Acura NSX to have more Performance than the GT-R (and cost more too!)

While Honda doesn’t seem to be a fan of V8s, a V10 is a whole different story. According to the company’s Executive Vice President Koichi Kondo, the V10 powered NSX is on the way and Honda will do all it can to make it the best sports car in its category.

This sort of discussion was made between the American Honda people and r&d people, and some people were questioning whether it’s really necessary to have a V-10,” Kondo said in an interview with Automotive News. “But sports is a special category. We said if we’re going to do it, we’re going to go to the extreme.”

Kondo said that Honda is expecting to sell 1,000 units of the NSX in the U.S. annually. The NSX is rumored to carry a price tag of $160,000 when it debuts as a 2011 model year.

Kondo says that while the price tag may be well above the NSX’s $70,000 Nissan GT-R rival, it will also have better performance.

Source;
http://www.egmcartech.com/2008/10/13/acura-nsx-to-cost-twice-as-much-as-gt-r-will-have-better-performance/#more-26912

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Next Gen NSX may be Limited to Acura Markets Only

The last NSX, discontinued in 2005, was branded as both a Honda and an Acura, depending upon the market it was sold in. That could change for the next-generation NSX, however, as Acura may be seeking to protect the brand identity of the halo sports car, and thereby its ability to charge a premium price. An unfortunate side effect for much of the world, however, is that the car would not be sold in markets where Acura doesn't do business.Currently, the U.S., Canada, Hong Kong, Mexico, China and soon, Russia, are the only markets that get Acura-branded cars.

The company is planning on introducing the brand to Japan in 2010 or after, and the use of the NSX as a halo vehicle to lure buyers and establish its credibility as a real step up from Honda may be exactly what it needs.But that will still leave the majority of the world, including Australia, the UK, and all of the countries in Europe, without Acura or the NSX, according to latest reports. Speaking with GoAuto, Honda spokesman Fumihiko Ike ruled out bringing Acura to Australia, and along the way, he mentioned that the NSX would not be coming either, declaring that the two are inextricably linked.

“Internally we are trying to harmonize the policy because NSX is exclusively for Acura brand. But now we are not bringing Acura brand to Asia, maybe very strong resistance from U.S. people that we put the [Honda badge] on the NSX, that is going to dilute the image of Acura, so that is a big dilemma for us,” Ike said.“We initiated the Acura brand for the sake of the U.S. market and how to rebuild the Acura brand in the U.S. that is our priority, so maybe we have to sacrifice (NSX availability in other markets) but we have to be patient,” he added.Keeping the NSX out of so many markets may be the best thing for U.S. perception of the Acura brand, but the impact it could have on the NSX itself, not being available in the home of so many of the world's greatest sports cars - Europe - is a significant consideration - especially when the company is directly targeting those European greats.

Perhaps that is what Ike was speaking of when he mentioned patience, though only time will tell what strategy Honda adopts for its newest NSX, and the wait will likely require a great deal of patience, since the car isn't expected to arrive until 2010.The NSX has already had a very troubled birthing process, as designers deliberated over the car's appearance, which was at first expected to closely follow the Acura Advanced Sports Car concept, eventually scrapping their work and starting over part way through - though the spy shots and renderings indicate it won't stray far from the concept's lines. Brand issues delayed the car the year before, but now that several prototypes have been spotted testing on the Nurburgring, it is believed that final development is underway, and on schedule to meet the 2010 deadline.

Source;
http://www.motorauthority.com/next-generation-nsx-may-be-limited-to-acura-only-markets.html

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

200th POST! And Even More Next Gen Acura NSX Pic's

200th POST!!!!!!!
Wow, this car has almost achieved cult status with the amount of renderings it is getting!

Btw; 200th post.