Strange as it may seem, when a company has both a mainstream brand such as honda and a luxury brand under its umbrella of responsibility sometimes one of the brands gets left out of the fun. With the anticipation of the Acura NSX that will be a serious player on the luxury sports car stage we haven’t heard a peep to tell us there will be anything fun from Honda to come down the line and gives us something more than the new Civic Type R. Even though the new Civic is pretty awesome, we are banging our fists on the table to get served a new Honda sports car on our plate to make us full at this dinner table.
The new Acura NSX has been anticipated for a long time. Terms like “finally” or “it’s about time” have been tossed around with this new supercar, but Acura should take it’s time to make certain the car is everything it needs to be to offer some of the best power and performance we have ever seen with the Acura badge on it. This new car will benefit from the all-wheel drive technology and become the flagship for this brand and Honda to build on for more performance models to come down the line.
As certain as we discuss the need to put one of these beauties under the Honda name one is in the works. This new sports car is expected to be a smaller, less expensive mid-engine sports car that will be the little brother to the NSX and offer us an affordable (at least for more of the majority of car buyers) performance model to give us all the fun and entertainment we could desire from behind the wheel of the latest and greatest from the Honda name.
Where will this new Honda sports car be sold? Of course the primary market will be the United States as we Americans can’t get enough of an affordable sports car. You put some power under the hood and slap a price tag on it that we can afford and we will buy them up in huge numbers, at least that is what Honda hopes as they greenlight this project and prepare to bring us this new offering as one of the best sports models we have ever seen. At least it will be as long as it does follow in line with the NSX from Acura.
Since the engines are already in the planning and development stages the expected engines starts with a 2.0-liter turbocharged VTEC four-cylinder engine that is already found in the Civic Type R but will produce and even stronger 330 horsepower. This new NSX miniature will also benefit from the Super Handling All-Wheel Drive (SH-AWD) found on many Acura models. This is expected to employ two electric motors up front with the engine already driving the rear wheels helping to increase the overall horsepower for this new Honda model to a massive 400 horsepower. Even the transmission is already under way and is expected to be the nine-speed dual-clutch automatic that shifts smoothly and easily.
By the time we see this mini NSX from Honda the car will take full advantage of some weight reduction technology such as using aluminum framework and body panels. The weight will further be reduced by using carbon fiber in some of the body panels as well. Because of the use of these weight reducing technologies, and because the NSX is already being produced there, this will not only be a model that is built alongside the NSX, but it will be one that is built in the US at the Performance Manufacturing Center in Ohio. All this gives us the positive feeling of knowing we are the target market for another Honda product that is actually produced here in the US to fulfill our desires for affordable performance.
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