Acura NSX Concept

When we bring up the topic of the biggest and most popular Japanese sports cars, there are three names that always come up; the Toyota Supra, Nissan Skyline, and the Acura NSX.  

These cars were (and still are) major contenders in the auto industry, giving other major sports car manufacturers a run for their money back in the '90's.  The Acura NSX was the "super car" that came out in the 1990's and put a lot of pressure on sports car manufacturers like Ferrari, wondering how a small Japanese sports car could outpace their Ferrari's around a circuit, that cost five times less.  Acura/Honda produced the NSX worldwide until 2005 when they halted production because of the declining economy and rising production costs.  

This is now the second coming of the legendary NSX.  Acura unveiled the 2012 Acura NSX Concept at the North American Auto Show in December of 2011.  This second coming of the NSX has some of the same concepts and design features that the original NSX had, but Acura plans more futuristic features for the new super car.  It will still remain a 2 door sports car, retaining its mid-mounted 6 cylinder engine, but thats where Acura starts to write the NSX's new future.  Instead of it being a rear-wheel driven car, it will now have Acura's SH-AWD system similarly found in the TL and other Acura models.  Planted to this redesigned AWD system will be an all-new hybrid V6 engine, that will utilize the extra electric motors to power the 4 wheels, creating more instant torque and power.  

WAIT!? Did you say its a hybrid super car?  Is that even possible to say in the same sentence??? It is.  Many different auto manufacturers are working towards a future of where their high-performance super cars rely on gasoline and electric motors to worktogether to create an enormous amount of horsepower, yet be super efficient and have great gas milage.  


There are many out there who love and live for the screaming sound of 10 cylinder engines, and may think that hybrid sports cars are sacrilege and blasphemy, but if auto manufacturers want to stay innovative and keep up with government emission's regulations, they need to start developing a hybrid sports cars system to keep up withcompetition.  I am all for having high powered cars, that still are very efficient and environmentally friendly; it is best of both worlds.  And seeing some of the recent concepts from companies like Porsche and Acura, hopefully we'll see more of these high performance hybrids in the near future .