Detroit 2012: Honda NSX Concept

Japan introduces two competing sports car concepts at Detroit.  What is it, 1989 again?  The Lexus LF-LC and the Acura NSX are both fighting for the spotlight at Cobo hall.  But really, a new NSX?  Can this be for real?

The original NSX is still a high-water mark in sports car development.  For a company as conservative and reactive as Honda, it's really still shocking that they developed and made it, much less that they kept a loss-leader like the NSX in production for 15 years.  The NSX showed the world a lot of things about sports car.  It was the world's first exposure to VTEC, or variable valve timing, something we now take almost entirely for granted.  Back then, the high-cam wail of the NSX was totally foreign, an exotic wave of the future.  The NSX set the standard for sports cars in a number of ways, some which sent Ferrari back to the drawing board - after the mediocre "Testarossa Jr." 348ts, we got the F355.  Things like aluminum construction, a driving position designed around a human being, and driveability and reliability that were no different than a mainstream Honda - Ferrari couldn't deal with the real-world no pretense nature of the NSX.  It was a car built to be fantastic, not built to be a Ferrari.  Gordan Murray cited the NSX as his inspiration for the Mclaren F1's ride and handling characteristics.  Praise doesn't come much higher.

And the driving experience - well, the NSX has input on the chassis setup from a guy named Ayrton Senna.  And Japanese F1 driver Satoru Nakajima, and another guy named Bobby Rahal.  While other sports car entertained with their wayward handling - the 911's tendency to kill you when you let off the gas, the Corvette's to kill you when you got on it, and the Esprit/Ferrari's to kill you if you sat in them - the NSX offered neutral handling, predictable responses, and immense performance.  That's why people today are drooling over the 22-year-old NSX, but not many people remember the 348.  It reset the expectations, and it was so good people kept buying them for 15 years with just the most minor of revisions.  But then it stopped.  2005 rolled around, the last NSX went through the doors, the end.  Sure, there was the Advanced Sports Car Concept at the 2007 Detroit show, with it's front-mounted V10 and AWD, which eventually turned into the HSV-010 GT race car.  But no road car.

This new concept NSX is promising, though.  Not without reservations - we'll get to that - but it's a sign of the resurgence that Honda's been talking up.  It might not be simply a modern-looking NSX; it's different in a lot of ways, but it might be the paradigm-shifting culture shock that it's dad was.

For starters, it sure looks like an NSX.  We've actually seen this before:  the pictures of the prototype NSX Roadster that Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is driving on the set of the new Iron Man movie are remarkably close to the coupe presented here.  It doesn't have the elegance of the original, but nothing else does.  The front end is all knife-edged and multi faceted and angry like most modern Acuras, but the rest of it has an organic, flowing shape to it.  Good looking car.

The most interesting thing is what's under the skin.  While the original NSX relied on a naturally-aspirated V6, a manual, and RWD there's a lot more going on here.  The rear wheels are powered by a "next-generation VTEC V-6 engine with direct injection" - through a dual-clutch automated manual, with a built-in electric motor.  But wait, there's more - each front wheel has it's own electric motor as well.  Honda calls this setup Sports Hybrid SH-AWD, and it's pretty clever.  The individual front electric motors can provide positive or negative torque to each wheel to correct mid-corner handling - giving the same effect as an e-diff but with electric motors.

The idea is provide supercar performance (and admittedly, the thing will probably be a rocket with a high-tech V6 and three electric motors and through the road AWD) with a nod towards environmental responsibility.  And Honda's a company that knows a thing or two about the green angle, so I tend to believe them.  As an automotive purist who's a fan of the "that's unnecessary, remove it" mentality, this isn't an NSX.  An NSX is a simple, lightweight, mid engined aluminum sports car.  This new concept makes an R8 V10 seem simple by comparison.

But looking at what the original NSX represented - the car that reset the supercar convention - then this could be a fitting replacement.  It could be the sports car that shows the rest of them you can pull 3-second 0-60 times and get good gas mileage with minimal emissions.  Honda is, and always has been above all else, an engineering company.  I'd say this is a trick piece of engineering.  The company says the new NSX should go into production within the next three years, developed by Honda America R&D and built in Ohio.  Stay tuned - this could be interesting.  Gallery with press photos below!

Photos by Kanishka Sonnadara