A nice goodbye article. States the emissions reason is an unfounded excuse.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/12427440.htm
Posted on Fri, Aug. 19, 2005
Demise of Acura NSX
By G. Chambers Williams III
Special to the Star-Telegram
In my job as an auto writer, I have the privilege of driving just about every new car that comes along.
I test them all, from the lowliest of Kias to the most expensive of Mercedes-Benzes. Some people envy me for this – not the Kias, mind you, but the exotics, such as the best of the new High-performance vehicles such as the Corvette Z06, Mercedes CLK55, Ford GT, even the go-fast sport utilities such as the supercharged Range Rovers and turbocharged Porsche Cayenne.
Oddly, though, supercars and super power don't thrill me the way they do some real auto fanatics. I'm not into motor sports, for instance, and couldn't care less about auto racing.
Sports cars have never been high on my list of vehicles I want to drive, and I certainly have never aspired to own one. Give me a Jeep that I can take over the Rubicon trail and I'm happy; driving a high-power sports car in circles around an asphalt track is pure boredom to me.
But I can tell you that the Acura NSX ranks high on my list of “Special Cars I Have Driven.”
So what if it doesn't have a V-12 engine, or even a V-8. The NSX is one of the most-fun sports cars I've ever driven along twisty country roads, the places I like to go instead of some boring race track when I have a car that begs to be driven.
So it was with some sadness that I heard recently that Honda will discontinue the NSX after the 2005 model year, and will instead develop a successor to it for debut later on.
The official word is that the NSX, which has been around in its current form (but with many improvements) since its fall 1990 debut, can't be upgraded easily to meet new safety and emissions standards for model year 2006 in the United States, Asia and Europe. The current model, then, will be allowed to fade out gracefully, and we'll have to wait to see what comes next.
The car is a niche vehicle that has hung around a lot longer than I expected, and is rare to see on the road or even on a dealer's lot.
Acura, which is Honda's premium-car line, has kept the NSX around mostly for its value as an icon of the brand.
It represented the first supercar from a Japanese automaker, showing Americans and the rest of the world that the Japanese can make more than just affordable, quality cars for everyday life.
As a hand-built sports car, it joined some rather exotic company at the higher end of the automotive spectrum, and was the most-expensive Japanese car on the market at the time. An exotic, mid-engine sports car, it brought a lot of attention both to Honda and to the Japanese auto industry.
Today, with a list price of $89,000, it's still way up there among the exotics in price, but sales have been slim. Only 178 were sold last year in the United States, Acura officials said, and to date, about 18,000 have been sold, 8,854 of those in the United States, Honda said.
Some people have suggested that the car was doomed despite new safety and emissions regulations because it never had anything more than a six-cylinder engine. A recent brief story in the industry weekly Automotive News suggested that the emissions-safety issue was just a cover for the real reason: no big engine. “It's tough to be a V-6 in a V-12 world,” the article said. “Acura's self-proclaimed supercar, the NSX, will fade into oblivion at year end. The unofficial cause of death: cylinder envy.:
The magazine blamed the car's slow sales on the lack of a higher-performance engine, and I suppose if I were standing around counting my cylinders and comparing them to other supercars' cylinders, I might feel a little bit inadequate about my NSX (if I had one). But I can tell you that the few times I had the opportunity to get behind the wheel of an NSX, I never felt that there was anything missing.
Remember, I'm not a horsepower fanatic. But I know that people who buy supercars usually are, and with vehicles such as the 500-horsepower 2006 Corvette Z06 coming to market this fall with a sticker price thousands of dollars lower than that of the NSX, the maximum 290 horsepower of the NSX might seem a bit low. And at 290 hp., it's really hard to continue calling the NSX a supercar, when most supercars have nearly twice that much power.
There is no word yet from Acura as to when the NSX successor will arrive, what will power it, or how much it might cost. But Honda has no V-8 engines in its stable, let alone any V-10 or V-12s. One would have to be developed (an expensive proposition for a niche vehicle) or purchased from another manufacturer (a more-affordable scenario). Recent reports indicate, however, that Honda just might develop a V-10 for its NSX replacement. And the company apparently also is looking at designing a V-8 for some of its higher-end vehicles, perhaps even for a larger pickup to join the compact V-6-powered Ridgeline.
“We are committed to having an ultra high-performance vehicle in the Acura lineup in the future,” John Mendel, Acura's senior vice president for automobile operations, said in announcing the pending demise of the NSX. “It's too early to comment on specifics, but the all-new model will be just as groundbreaking as the 1991 NSX.”
Acura noted that during the car's 15 years on the market, it garned quite a few honors, including, Automobile Magazine's “Automobile of the Year” and “Design of the Year” awards, inclusion on Popular Science's “Best of What's New,” Road & Track's “Ten Best Cars in the World,” and Motor Trend's “Top 10 Performance Cars” lists. Motor Trend even once called the NSX “the best sports car ever built.”
The NSX, Acura says, was the first production car to feature an all-aluminum body, chassis, and suspension and to use titanium connecting rods in the engine.
There actually are two V-6 engines offered in the car: the aforementioned aluminum 3.2 liter, 24-valve, 90-degree V-6 engine, turning out 290 horsepower and 224 foot-pounds of torque, connected to a close-ratio six-speed manual gearbox; and a 3.0-liter, 24-valve V-6 engine with a four-speed “Sequential SportShift” automatic transmission that boasts 252 horsepower and 210 foot-pounds of torque.
Both NSX engines have Acura's patented variable valve timing system, as well as a variable-volume induction system, direct ignition, and programmed fuel injection. The engines have titanium connecting rods, which Acura says are stronger and lighter than comparable steel rods.
The all-aluminum unibody, which combines body and chassis into one, is 40 percent lighter that a comparably sized steel body would be, but Acura says it still “has the rigidity of a steel structure”
Giving the car its nimble handling is a four-wheel independent double-wishbone suspension with aluminum-alloy control arms and hub carriers that minimize unsprung weight, Acura says.
The brakes are supercar quality, as well: They include large-diameter, ventilated discs and an advanced four-channel antilock system. Traction control is standard, but probably not welcomed by most performance drivers.
The 2005 model comes with a removable roof panel that almost turns the car into a convertible.
G. Chambers Williams III is staff automotive columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and former transportation writer for the Star-Telegram. His automotive columns have appeared regularly in the Star-Telegram since 1995. Contact him at (210) 250-3236; [email protected].
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/12427440.htm
Posted on Fri, Aug. 19, 2005
Demise of Acura NSX
By G. Chambers Williams III
Special to the Star-Telegram
In my job as an auto writer, I have the privilege of driving just about every new car that comes along.
I test them all, from the lowliest of Kias to the most expensive of Mercedes-Benzes. Some people envy me for this – not the Kias, mind you, but the exotics, such as the best of the new High-performance vehicles such as the Corvette Z06, Mercedes CLK55, Ford GT, even the go-fast sport utilities such as the supercharged Range Rovers and turbocharged Porsche Cayenne.
Oddly, though, supercars and super power don't thrill me the way they do some real auto fanatics. I'm not into motor sports, for instance, and couldn't care less about auto racing.
Sports cars have never been high on my list of vehicles I want to drive, and I certainly have never aspired to own one. Give me a Jeep that I can take over the Rubicon trail and I'm happy; driving a high-power sports car in circles around an asphalt track is pure boredom to me.
But I can tell you that the Acura NSX ranks high on my list of “Special Cars I Have Driven.”
So what if it doesn't have a V-12 engine, or even a V-8. The NSX is one of the most-fun sports cars I've ever driven along twisty country roads, the places I like to go instead of some boring race track when I have a car that begs to be driven.
So it was with some sadness that I heard recently that Honda will discontinue the NSX after the 2005 model year, and will instead develop a successor to it for debut later on.
The official word is that the NSX, which has been around in its current form (but with many improvements) since its fall 1990 debut, can't be upgraded easily to meet new safety and emissions standards for model year 2006 in the United States, Asia and Europe. The current model, then, will be allowed to fade out gracefully, and we'll have to wait to see what comes next.
The car is a niche vehicle that has hung around a lot longer than I expected, and is rare to see on the road or even on a dealer's lot.
Acura, which is Honda's premium-car line, has kept the NSX around mostly for its value as an icon of the brand.
It represented the first supercar from a Japanese automaker, showing Americans and the rest of the world that the Japanese can make more than just affordable, quality cars for everyday life.
As a hand-built sports car, it joined some rather exotic company at the higher end of the automotive spectrum, and was the most-expensive Japanese car on the market at the time. An exotic, mid-engine sports car, it brought a lot of attention both to Honda and to the Japanese auto industry.
Today, with a list price of $89,000, it's still way up there among the exotics in price, but sales have been slim. Only 178 were sold last year in the United States, Acura officials said, and to date, about 18,000 have been sold, 8,854 of those in the United States, Honda said.
Some people have suggested that the car was doomed despite new safety and emissions regulations because it never had anything more than a six-cylinder engine. A recent brief story in the industry weekly Automotive News suggested that the emissions-safety issue was just a cover for the real reason: no big engine. “It's tough to be a V-6 in a V-12 world,” the article said. “Acura's self-proclaimed supercar, the NSX, will fade into oblivion at year end. The unofficial cause of death: cylinder envy.:
The magazine blamed the car's slow sales on the lack of a higher-performance engine, and I suppose if I were standing around counting my cylinders and comparing them to other supercars' cylinders, I might feel a little bit inadequate about my NSX (if I had one). But I can tell you that the few times I had the opportunity to get behind the wheel of an NSX, I never felt that there was anything missing.
Remember, I'm not a horsepower fanatic. But I know that people who buy supercars usually are, and with vehicles such as the 500-horsepower 2006 Corvette Z06 coming to market this fall with a sticker price thousands of dollars lower than that of the NSX, the maximum 290 horsepower of the NSX might seem a bit low. And at 290 hp., it's really hard to continue calling the NSX a supercar, when most supercars have nearly twice that much power.
There is no word yet from Acura as to when the NSX successor will arrive, what will power it, or how much it might cost. But Honda has no V-8 engines in its stable, let alone any V-10 or V-12s. One would have to be developed (an expensive proposition for a niche vehicle) or purchased from another manufacturer (a more-affordable scenario). Recent reports indicate, however, that Honda just might develop a V-10 for its NSX replacement. And the company apparently also is looking at designing a V-8 for some of its higher-end vehicles, perhaps even for a larger pickup to join the compact V-6-powered Ridgeline.
“We are committed to having an ultra high-performance vehicle in the Acura lineup in the future,” John Mendel, Acura's senior vice president for automobile operations, said in announcing the pending demise of the NSX. “It's too early to comment on specifics, but the all-new model will be just as groundbreaking as the 1991 NSX.”
Acura noted that during the car's 15 years on the market, it garned quite a few honors, including, Automobile Magazine's “Automobile of the Year” and “Design of the Year” awards, inclusion on Popular Science's “Best of What's New,” Road & Track's “Ten Best Cars in the World,” and Motor Trend's “Top 10 Performance Cars” lists. Motor Trend even once called the NSX “the best sports car ever built.”
The NSX, Acura says, was the first production car to feature an all-aluminum body, chassis, and suspension and to use titanium connecting rods in the engine.
There actually are two V-6 engines offered in the car: the aforementioned aluminum 3.2 liter, 24-valve, 90-degree V-6 engine, turning out 290 horsepower and 224 foot-pounds of torque, connected to a close-ratio six-speed manual gearbox; and a 3.0-liter, 24-valve V-6 engine with a four-speed “Sequential SportShift” automatic transmission that boasts 252 horsepower and 210 foot-pounds of torque.
Both NSX engines have Acura's patented variable valve timing system, as well as a variable-volume induction system, direct ignition, and programmed fuel injection. The engines have titanium connecting rods, which Acura says are stronger and lighter than comparable steel rods.
The all-aluminum unibody, which combines body and chassis into one, is 40 percent lighter that a comparably sized steel body would be, but Acura says it still “has the rigidity of a steel structure”
Giving the car its nimble handling is a four-wheel independent double-wishbone suspension with aluminum-alloy control arms and hub carriers that minimize unsprung weight, Acura says.
The brakes are supercar quality, as well: They include large-diameter, ventilated discs and an advanced four-channel antilock system. Traction control is standard, but probably not welcomed by most performance drivers.
The 2005 model comes with a removable roof panel that almost turns the car into a convertible.
G. Chambers Williams III is staff automotive columnist for the San Antonio Express-News and former transportation writer for the Star-Telegram. His automotive columns have appeared regularly in the Star-Telegram since 1995. Contact him at (210) 250-3236; [email protected].
