SELF IMPROVEMENT

Another thing a majority awaits for the final release of a new sports luxury car. The Advanced Sports Car Concept was reinforced mainly to launch Acura’s recently open design center in Pasadena, California. The parent company Honda wanted their premium brands to have a separate visual identity; this is what made them open two separate studios and talent demos the weird Advanced Sports Sedan Concept and the ASCC.. While Acura says the ASCC design assumes a front-mounted V10 engine and all-wheel drive, the construct was only a “pushmobile” with no running gear, so a production model could end up being entirely different.

Acura Nsx

Indeed, despite the “Sports Car” moniker, the concept’s size, shape and position suggest a high-speed luxury coupe, non a driving-focused machine like the original NSX with its jackanapes aluminum spaceframe, revvy amidship V6 and Chevrolet Corvette.

On the other hand, racy newcomers from two homeland rivals–the just-released 2008 Nissan GT-R and Toyota’s high-power 2009 Lexus sports coupe–are doubtlessly goading Honda to respond. Honda may find it easy being green, but it still wants to be seen as a performance power second to none.

There’s also the question of whether Honda would take the trouble of building the Advanced Sports Car Concept and then do nothing with it. Sure, most concept designs go no further than an auto-show turntable, but Honda isn’t known for indulging in dead-end ego trips.

Since that time, there has been a definite decline in aggressive automotive design at Honda/Acura that has hardly been filled by the likes of the S2000.  So it is easy to get excited about news that the NEW NSX is being put through testing at the Nurburgring in Germany in preparation of a tentative 2011 release.  With so much success in its past, and so many changes planned for the future, the biggest question may be how much “NSX-ness” is left?