Acura Advanced Sports Car Concept: Acura rethinks NSX
No more mid-engine, rear drive for Ferrari-fighter
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Article provided by: Motor Trend Magazine
Acura is calling this rakish coupe the Advanced Sports Car Concept, but it's essentially the replacement for the much-missed NSX. It's not a direct replacement, however: The engine sits up front, and it's unlikely the production version will feature the all-aluminum construction of the original.
Why? Cost. The original NSX, launched back in 1990, may have forced Ferrari to build better handling, more reliable cars, but Honda reportedly lost money on it. This car is designed to be less expensive to manufacture, although it'll be powered by an all-new V-10 engine, which pays homage to Honda's Formula One effort, although F1 regulations have forced the teams to replace V-10s with V-8s. The rear-drive biased all-wheel-drive platform architecture negates the need to develop an all-new front-engine, rear-drive platform, for example.
Honda Motor Company president Takeo Fukui presented the car at the Detroit show. The production version is expected for the 2009 model year.