2012 Acura NSX Review, Modification, and Wallpaper

January 19, 2012 By: autocar Category: honda car, Sport Car, top car design

2012 Acura NSX Review, Modification, and Wallpaper

The NSX represented the pinnacle of Honda’s sports heyday of the 1980s and ’90s. Launched with input from Formula One great Ayrton Senna, the NSX set a brace of technological firsts — from its aluminum monocoque frame to the variable valve timing that would become a standard on engines worldwide.

2012 Acura NSX white modified

2012 Acura NSX performance

The NSX wasn’t the fastest or most-powerful supercar, but reflected Honda’s balance between power, weight and handling — a sweet spot that few cars have ever achieved. In 1984 Honda commissioned the Italian car designer Pininfarina to design the HP-X (Honda Pininfarina Xperimental), which had a mid-mounted C20A 2.0 L V6 configuration.

The NS-X was the first production car to feature an all-aluminium monocoque body, incorporating a revolutionary extruded aluminium alloy frame, and suspension. The use of aluminium in the body alone saved nearly 200 kg in weight over the steel equivalent while the aluminium suspension saved an additional 20 kg; a suspension compliance pivot helped maintain wheel alignment changes at a near zero value.

2012 Acura NSX sport car

2012 Acura NSX power

Honda spent a great deal of time and money developing the NS-X. With a robust motorsports apparatus, Honda had significant development resources at its disposal and made extensive use of them. Announcing the rebirth of the Honda NSX: one of the most iconic sports cars of the 1990s will return in 2015 as an American-built Acura with all-wheel-drive and an electric-enhanced rear engine. Here’s a hybrid to get excited for.

2012 Acura NSX dealer

Honda mulled replacing the NSX for years with a V-10 powered successor, but the company soon embraced smaller engines and a tight focus on fuel efficiency. Somewhere along the way, it also lost a piece of the racing spirit that birthed the NSX, unleashing a string of unsuccessful to ungainly models that offered little over their competitors. After last year’s update of the Honda Civic — a freshening that did little to improve the car’s weakening position against tough competition — Honda’s executives vowed to revive the company’s soul. The new NSX, to be sold under the Acura brand, shows they’re serious enough to design the most attractive Acura ever.

2012 Acura NSX modified car

2012 Acura NSX concept

The concept retains the mid-engine V-6 layout of the original NSX, but adds in a new Honda all-wheel-drive system that relies on electric motors to power the front wheels. As with its predecessor, Honda vows the NSX won’t rely on brute force, but combine lightweight materials with high technology for supercar performance and respectable fuel economy.

If there’s a disappointment here, it’s that Honda has held back several key details about the NSX concept, including the power its engines and electric motors will generate. But the U.S.-based team developing the NSX for production in Ohio has three years to get it right.