Tuesday 10th January 2012

Detroit show: the NSX is back

New Honda NSX revealed and stakes an instant claim on 'best in show' at Detroit

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The Honda NSX is a true PH hero if ever there was one, so confirmation from Detroit that Honda will build a new NSX has to be news to cheer us all. They’ve sure kept us waiting though, the various supercar concepts over the years whetting appetites for a successor to the original all-aluminium NSX that so famously carried the personal touch of Ayrton Senna.

HSV concept morphed into Super GT racer

The new NSX, unveiled under the Acura brand that Honda will be expanding to new markets (but not Europe) over coming years, continues the original’s pioneering, tech-heavy approach, but with a very 21st-century twist. It’s also a very different car to the front-engined, V10-powered HSV concept originally mooted as the ‘new NSX’ that lives on as a super-cool Super GT racer.

Inevitably that means hybrid technology. But take heart – the electric motor is to supercars what the turbo was a few generations ago, and Honda isn’t about to dilute the NSX’s hardcore appeal.

This being a Japanese supercar, there’s no shortage of not-so-snappy acronym action to describe the technology, Honda’s new drivetrain announced under the banner (deep breath) Sport Hybrid Super Handling All Wheel Drive, or Sport Hybrid SH-AWD.

New NSX is a sharp looker

And, like the original NSX, the new one gets a mid-mounted VTEC (yo) V6 petrol engine – direct-injection and a dual-clutch gearbox with an integrated electric motor among its ‘next generation’ features. Additional electric motors up front deliver on the AWD bit of the chassis tech and open up all sorts of exciting opportunities for delivering on what Honda boss – and original NSX development man back in the day - Takanobu Ito describes as “fun to drive spirit.”

A ‘bilateral torque adjustable control system’ offers torque vectoring of the sort we’re already familiar with, but Honda also boasts that the motors will be able to generate reverse torque during cornering for an effect not unlike McLaren’s Brake Steer system on the MP4-12C. Can the NSX still be considered a purist machine even with all this tech? Ito says yes, declaring, “The NSX will make the driver one with the car to enhance dynamic driving abilities without getting in the way.”

NSX very much a new-school supercar

Promisingly Honda also says "While most supercars opt for brute force delivered from a large engine, the NSX Concept champions the true racing philosophy of an extremely favourable power-to-weight ratio."

No figures for power output, weight or performance have yet been revealed (though around 300hp of petrol power and 100hp-or-so of electric shove is expected). But if Honda is true to its word it could mark a significant moment for supercars and an end to the horsepower arms race. Some would argue that’s what supercars should be about and it’s safe to say a hybrid Aventador is probably some way off but, as a mainstream manufacturer, Honda needs to be able to play the eco card too.

When? Honda’s playing coy, saying merely 'within the next three years'. We say it can’t come soon enough.

[DazBock]

Awesome!