Having recently revived the Type S moniker for its performance products, Acura is keen to get the label on the famed NSX before it’s discontinued. The mid-engine, hybrid-electric sports car will be leaving us next year. But not before the Honda Motor Company attempts to build the finest example ever to grace the pavement.
Acura has said the vehicle will be produced in limited quantities, with a scant 350 units being the outside envelope. However 300 of those are supposed to be reserved for United States, where take rates are higher and consumers appreciate salt-of-the-earth supercars that don’t need to have Italian roots or cars to be manufactured in places with long, European-sounding names. The NSX is assembled at Acura’s Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio, where the town motto happens to be “Where the Grass is Greener.”
That could double as the slogan for the NSX, which was originally conceptualized as a vehicle that could match the performance of high-end, European supercars while offer superior reliability at a lower cost. While the current-generation NSX abandoned many of the traits of its predecessor, the model retained its off-kilter attitude by offering cutting edge technologies (when it debuted in 2015) in a package that still costs less than its chief rivals. But it never seem to garner the same reverence as the original, despite winning a slew of awards.
While your author has only ever experienced the bottom rungs of the supercar segment first hand, the NSX compares favorably to just about everything near its price — provided you’re willing to sacrifice a bit of speed for a vehicle that you could happily spend the rest of your life driving and exclude the Porsche 911. The NSX is a softer experience overall, providing oodles of speed in a package that’s shockingly comfortable. The car can even be operated in electric mode if you want to mosey silently through your residential neighborhood. But it still possesses many of the shortcomings associated with supercars, which poses a problem for those shopping for something with the best spec sheet that will still grab people’s attention.
The Type S will help address that, as Acura has confirmed that the car’s twin-turbocharged V6 and the Sport Hybrid SH-AWD system have both been upgraded. On the standard NSX, you get a 3.5-liter gas burner mated to a trio of electric motors resulting in a combined 573 horsepower. But that’s supposed to come up substantially on the Type S. We’re also under the impression that Honda/Acura will be giving the suspension a minor overhaul and likely be adding some visual features to denote the vehicle as extra special. None of that’s been confirmed yet but fancier wheels (visible in the teaser), brakes, and an exhaust upgrade make a lot of sense when the whole point is to build a meaner version of the original.
Full details will be released on August 12th, with Acura stating that it will be ready to begin accepting orders.
[Images: Acura]
