The NSX prototype had graphics that indicate Acura’s plan to race the new two-seater.
A prototype Acura NSX lapped the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington before the running of the Honda Indy 200. The debut was a deliberate attempt to garner publicity in the state where the NSX is being developed and will be produced. Production is slated for 2015 for Acura’s next-generation, mid-engine sports car.
It is also hoped that the supercar will bring some attention to Acura’s luxury line of automobiles, which although it pioneered the luxury segment in the U.S. has trailed Toyota’s Lexus brand – the perennial sales leader and Nissan’s Infiniti at Number Two in sales for decades.
The Acura NSX prototype lapped the 2.4-mile winding road course, driven by a member of the Ohio-based engineering development team. The NSX prototype had graphics that indicate Acura’s plan to race the new two-seater.
“With leadership from our R&D and manufacturing teams here in Ohio, we are developing a next generation sports car that will be equally at home on the street and on the race track, so it is natural for us to showcase the prototype vehicle here at Mid-Ohio,” said Ted Klaus, chief engineer of Honda R&D Americas, Inc.
Acura announced in 2012 that the NSX would be powered by a mid-mounted, direct-injected V6 engine and a Sport Hybrid SH-AWD (Super Handling All-Wheel Drive in marketing babble) system.
SHAWD is an all-new, three-motor high-performance hybrid system that combines torque vectoring all-wheel drive – one motor integrated with the V6 engine and its dual-clutch transmission that drives the rear wheels, and two independent motors driving the front wheels. The system enables instant delivery of negative or positive torque to the front wheels during cornering to achieve a new level of driving performance unparalleled by current AWD systems.
