New NSX Confirmed

HONDA has announced that it will finally replace the NSX.

A press release published on Monday night from its US luxury car division Acura states that it is developing a "sports car to succeed the award-winning NSX supercar".

It also says that Honda is "...committed to having an ultra high-performance vehicle in the Acura line-up in the future" and that "...the all-new model will be just as groundbreaking as the 1991 NSX".

No other information about the replacement for the $245,100 mid-engine rear-drive two-seater coupe was forthcoming.

However it is believed that the 2003 Honda HSC concept car (High-performance Sports Concept) might point to the direction of the supercar’s final design.

Reportedly it is one of three styling proposals considered.

October’s Tokyo motor show may feature the final production model, although Honda is not saying.

The HSC features a 225kW-plus 3.5-litre lightweight mid-mounted V6 powerplant over a four-wheel double wishbone suspension set-up and clothed in a composite carbon-fibre body on an aluminium unit body frame.

The current NSX (left), of which more than 18,000 have been built, is still available by special order but will soon cease production "...due to the extensive retooling necessary to meet stringent 2006 emissions and equipment regulations for the U.S., Europe and Asia".

Unveiled at the Chicago motor show in February 1989 as the "New Sports car eXperimental" (hence the name NSX), the hand-built (at Tochigi in Japan) Ferrari rival revolutionised the supercar segment by being usable and comfortable as well as seriously fast and dynamic.

Developed during Japan’s pre-bust balloon-economy heyday of the 1980s, Honda says it designed the original NSX as a "technological and performance showcase.

Proof of that is it being the first production vehicle to feature an all-aluminium body, chassis and suspension.

Launched locally in early 1991 – just six months after its U.S. debut – in 188kW 3.0-litre V6 guise, the NSX jointly won the Wheels Car of the Year award with Nissan’s N14 Pulsar.

In May 1995 a slightly heavier targa-topped model referred to as the NSX-T was offered.

Two years later the five-speed manual 3.0 V6 gave way to a 206kW (the ‘official’ power limit agreed to by Japan’s manufacturers at the time) 3.2-litre version mated to a six-speed manual gearbox, while the four-speed auto 3.0 NSX continued.

A revised nose featuring fixed rather than pop-up headlights arrived with a general facelift in March 2002, but otherwise the NSX has remained much the same throughout its 15-year lifecycle.