The NSX was a seminal car for Honda. It has the first all-aluminum space frame chassis, the first use of variable valve timing (V-Tech) in a production car and so on. This was a car that really showed just how bad Italian and British exotics could be once you got past the performance and looks. Unlike those cars, the NSX provided all those things while still being reliable, easy to live with and easy to drive. Its chassis had been refined and redesigned countless times until Formula-1 legend Ayrton Senna put his final stamp of approval on it.
With a high-strung, naturally-aspirated V6 putting out almost 300-hp at nearly 8,500 rpm’s, the NSX could be a real rush too, but it always had a docile side. It really was the everyday supercar! When Honda announced it was stopping production of the NSX, you could hear a collective sigh of disappointment from sports car enthusiasts the world over. Honda was going to stop making the one car that is first and foremost the symbol of a company. Yet eventually those sighs turned to cries of excitement when rumors started flooding in that Honda was preparing a successor to the NSX.
Could it be? Was Honda really going to do it? The rumors died down though once a few years went by and nothing materialized. Still, I knew that Honda had something up its sleeve and I had a feeling it was something special. What started trickling out of the rumor mills startled many at first.
At first, it was confirmed that the new NSX would not be mid-engine, but rather front engined. This came across as sacrilege to some who thought the NSX had to be mid-engined. Then came the rumors of the powerplant. No one was complaining now as the rumor suggested that the engine in this new halo car was going to be a naturally-aspirated V10 with between 4.5 and 5.0 liters of displacement and at least 500-hp. Chances are it could feature Honda’s awesome SH-AWD system, but there is still a chance it might just be rear-wheel drive.
Though it is heavily camouflaged, it is easy to see at least that this will be a front-engined car. The long sloping hood has to hold something quite large, a V10 maybe. Besides all the regular prototype testing going on, there were several drivers directly testing the NSX mule against a new Nissan GT-R. There is no way that the NSX cannot be faster than the GT-R when it comes out.
One engineer said, "We know what lap time we have to beat. Now it’s just a matter of making a car that will beat that time."
From the looks of it, they are well on their way of accomplishing this goal. The rumors from those who’ve seen the real car lapping is that it is mighty fast and it sounds awesome. An all-new, 500-hp V10 NSX? Sounds awesome to me!
Source: Road and Track
Photos: KGP Photography for Road and Track
