By: Dave Abrahams
Torrance, California - Finally, after a gestation period that would have been more suited to one of the Seven Wonders, the production version of Honda's Acura NSX mid-engined hybrid sports coupé will make its world debut at the 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit on 12 January.
It's been a long time coming; after a slew of leaks, rumours and an early appearance in an Iron Man film, the first NSX concept was shown to the public at the Detroit motor show in January 2012.
Almost 20 months later, the second-generation NSX ran in public for the first time when a pale blue prototype lapped the Mid-Ohio circuit in Lexington, Ohio before the start of a Honda-sponsored sports-car race.
Since then, nada. Zip. Silence, until yesterday's announcement.
The show car, Honda says, will reflect the production design and specification of the new NSX; note that this is not a production car, but a pre-production prototype of the car that is scheduled to go into production sometime in 2015 in a new Honda plant at Marysville, Ohio.
When customers will begin to receive delivery of the cars they paid for as far back as April 2013 (that's how long the NSX order book has been open) is still classified.
WOTTIZUT?
Honda persists in referring to the new Acura NSX as a supercar, without in any way backing up that statement with performance figures.
We are told it will have a mid-mounted twin-turbo, direct-injection, 3.5-litre V6 of unknown output, driving the rear wheels via a dual-clutch gearbox containing an unknown number of ratios, with a platter-shaped electric motor of unknown power sandwiched between the two in a similar fashion to that of Honda's cheeky little CR-Z coupé.
But this is where it gets tricky: There's another electric motor of unknown dimensions inboard of each front wheel, operating independently of each other and the main powertrain.
When the car is going flat out in a straight line, all three will contribute towards motorvation - for as long as the battery lasts, anyway. Then the NSX reverts to being a conventional if somewhat overweight rear-wheel drive 3.5-litre sports car.
VARIABLE TORQUE
But, and this is a very big but, when it comes to cornering, the NSX's electronic stability module and traction control systems will vary the torque to each front wheel - including applying negative torque (that's electronic braking to you, Cyril) to the inside front wheel if necessary - to keep the car going in the direction towards which it is pointed.
It's a telling example of Honda's corporate ethos of never using one component when three will do, but Honda is also the world champion at making complexity work, and work reliably, so we expect that the new NSX will demonstrate astonishing road-holding via a somewhat remote but impressively stable chassis.
As for whether it's a supercar, we'll take that under advisement until somebody takes a production version around the Nordschleife; stopwatches don't lie, or exaggerate.