Former Honda President and CEO Takeo Fukui introduced the successor for the Acura NSX way back at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show as the Acura Advanced Sports Car Concept. When he announced its cancellation a year ago just as it was ready to start production, everyone assumed the NSX was dead.
Now the car might make it to the road after all, only in the form of a racing car. The Super GT Series is the most popular racing series in Japan, featuring highly modified GT cars at races held throughout Asia. Most Japanese manufacturers are involved, notably Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota and lately Subaru. This year, the midengine #8 Autobacs Acura, driven by Ralph Firman and Takuya Izawa, won the GT500 class championship at the final race when the favored Nissan GT-R got a flat tire.
For next season, the new-generation, front-engine NSX will be entered for the Super GT Series. It will be equipped with a 3.4-liter V8, not the 5.0-liter V10 that had been rumored for the production car.
Honda has managed to side-step the Super GT rules that require the use of a car based on a production vehicle by presenting the drawings and specs of the car to JAF (Japan Automobile Federation), which sanctions the GT Series. The rules permit cars that are production ready, though not necessarily in production, which is why the NSX and Toyota Supra are still a part of the championship.
JAF has given the okay, so the NSX will take its place on the starting grid in Japan next year. Not that this is any consolation for NSX fans in the U.S., but you could always book a trip to Japan to go watch a race. -- Mak Tokuyama, reporting from Japan
cwmoo740 says:
02:12 PM, 12/11/09
AAAARRRRFASFASFDSFUK! This just adds to the frustration I feel for Honda/Acura.
93aero says:
02:44 PM, 12/11/09
i feel like they could have done something right here, but didnt ....
firstwagon says:
03:00 PM, 12/11/09
Awkward looking car but I can't just put my finger on why.
It's a shame as my 1st reaction to the original NSX was wow!
Acura doesn't seem to get any wows anymore.
rallyandbosox says:
06:05 PM, 12/11/09
Why couldn't they do a limited production for homologation? Even Maserati did it with the MC12; sad that Honda/Acura gets away with it. The road car could be ultra exclusive but at least be a big boost for Honda/Acura especially with the GT-R on Nissan's side.
billt9 says:
07:24 PM, 12/11/09
Please dumb down the tech and sell it for $35,000. It can compete with a G37 coupe or an A5.
notabigdeal says:
08:44 PM, 12/11/09
TOSS THE F***ING SILVER BEAK ITS N.O.T COOL.
estreka says:
10:46 PM, 12/11/09
I saw an NSX with the Arta widebody kit on eBay for $35K. I was so tempted.
hondacura4 says:
07:31 AM, 12/12/09
"Please dumb down the tech and sell it for $35,000."
Bilt9, dumbing down the technology wouldn't get it anywhere near $ 35K as it would have had its own assembly facility, would be mostly hand assembled, had its own chassis and probably a be a mix of aluminum, carbon fibre and magnesium. Then add the other high end interior materials, exclusive paint process (original NSX had a 20+ step process that used processes from aircraft technology for a much higher level of luster, depth and durability) the super expensive 550-600hp V10, exclusive RWD based SH-awd setup, other associated costs and the price keeps climbing. Certainly nowhere near Lexus LFA levels but probably a similar pricing structure to the standard Audi R8 4.2.
"Why couldn't they do a limited production for homologation?"
Rally, I asked the same question. Ito stated that he redirected all of the NSX successors R&D teams/engineers to hybrids and fuel cell research. When I read this months ago I was very frustrated yet after thinking about it...it made perfect sense from a business perspective as Honda is still a rather small company (compared to Toyota, GM, Ford and Hyundai) so they have to use their resources (financial/engineering) extremely, extremely carefully. Even though Honda has remained profitable through this tough crisis their resources are very limited. Damn those priorities!
"Awkward looking car but I can't just put my finger on why."
Firstwagon, the design concept on the stage was scrapped in favor of the design that you saw on the Ring. If you compare the 2 and look at the proportions they are totally different in profile as the car on the Ring had an Aston Martin type of theme to it as it had a duck tail.
Below are links to a TOV (Temple of VTEC) thread where various TOV member renderings of the NSX successor, a TL coupe (side view), the next generation RL, and a retro S2000 chop were posted. Most were pretty impressive especially the NSX successor (with the grill) and the TL coupe.
S2000/TL coupe:
http://www.vtec.net/forums/one-message?message_id=827663&page_number=2&
RL/NSX successors:
http://www.vtec.net/forums/one-message?message_id=827663&page_number=1&
NSX successor:
http://www.vtec.net/forums/one-message?message_id=827663&page_number=3&
"TOSS THE F***ING SILVER BEAK ITS N.O.T COOL."
Notabigdeal, I agree but if you follow the links I posted the "silver beak" has been better executed/implemented and extremely toned down yet it looks more detailed/expensive while still using a similar design theme.
Other NSX successor renderings:
http://photos.autoexpress.co.uk/images/front_picture_library_UK/dir_536/car_photo_268299_25.jpg
http://img.worldcarfans.com/2008/11/large/new-honda-nsx-artist-rendering.jpg
notabigdeal says:
09:04 PM, 12/12/09
In the Pic hondacura posted the car looks much better. Def not a 200k car but it would pass for a GT-R rival if priced right. The silver beak makes the cars look like a bird. When I see an Acura in my rear mirror in the highway it creeps me out. I liked Acura up to the 3rd generation TL and then things went very bad.