2016 Acura NSX Dissected: Powertrain, Chassis, and More – Feature – Car and Driver

Acura clearly wants to get this thing right. The original aluminum-intensive 1991 NSX was a stunner, a sunrise of engineering inspiration that chased away the darkness in the realm of sports cars and laid bare the multitude of sins being committed there. For the first time, a large automaker that took quality seriously had applied itself to a segment rampant with all manner of pop-riveted, glued-up, hammered-down, and wiggy-wired silliness. In the presence of the $60,000 NSX, the self-important air-puffed mediocrities of the eroti-car industry scurried for cover.

It didn’t last. Everybody else got better, with newer and faster cars, while the NSX mainly just got more expensive, chained as it was to the rapidly inflating yen. The final targa-topped NSX went off the line in 2005, and hardly anybody noticed. Since then, Acura has launched, scrubbed, relaunched, rescrubbed, and re-relaunched projects intended to replace it. In the first two tries, the car got as far as a fully styled and drivable prototype, which in NASA parlance is 30 feet above the moon, before Acura aborted.

There was that coupe with the V-10 in its big schnoz screaming around the Nürburgring in 2008. Corporate canned it later that year, figuring out something that To­yota never did during development of the Lexus LFA: An interstellar unicorn that is seriously into six figures will do little for a brand that sells most of its vehicles for less than $50,000. The next attempt was a Porsche 911 fighter. It was a mid-transverse hybrid that plucked the parts bin for a version of Honda’s ubiquitous 3.5-liter V-6. Concept cars were shown, Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld made a Super Bowl ad for one of them, and a fully clothed prototype circled Mid-Ohio in August 2013 in front of thousands of IndyCar fans.

But even as NSX version 3.0 made its first glory laps, Acura had already decided to scrap major elements of the design. According to NSX project leader Ted Klaus—notably not a Japanese citizen, for this project is U.S.-based—it was in mid-2012 that “the performance targets were changed.” Meaning upped considerably, to confront an era in which Nissan GT-Rs have more than 500 horsepower and a Dodge Charger can make more than 700. According to Klaus, the transverse, single-cam 3.5 was maxed out trying to make just so-so power, which didn’t give the NSX any room to grow. So it was back to the CAD stations for changes.

Out went the shared 3.5 and in went an all-new, longitudinally mounted, dry-sump, twin-turbo, four-cam, 75-degree 3.5-liter V-6 with exactly nothing major in common with any other Honda production engine. Not even bore centers are shared. A new, nine-speed dual-clutch gearbox integrated with an electric motor drives the rear wheels and collaborates with two electric motors that power the front wheels. Total output is a secret, but plan on more than 550 horsepower. The NSX is back to stalking Ferraris again.

The upside of the engine swap is more power; the downsides are huge increases in cost and complexity, plus a decentralizing of the powertrain mass.

The car’s styling has also morphed, the changes including another radiator opening up front and much larger corner and side ducts, plus a couple of hood vents, all to service 10 separate cooling circuits with airflow. Undoubtedly, curb weight is up as well, probably to around 3700 pounds, though the final figure is still guarded.

Indeed, Acura is drip-dripping the details on this car, but we know that the 2016 “New Sports eXperience” is considerably wider than the original while sur­prisingly not much longer, given its new north-south powertrain. Its 103.5-inch wheelbase is just a 3.9-inch stretch from the 2005 NSX, while overall length grows by only 1.8 inches, providing a trunk roomy enough for a set of golf clubs. However, the spec Klaus is perhaps most proud of is the center of gravity, said to be more than an inch lower than the original NSX’s.

The new space-frame structure, joined by self-piercing rivets, flow-drill screws, welding, and lots of adhesive, is described as aluminum-intensive. That means there’s also high-strength steel in the superthin A-pillars (another point of pride for the NSX team) and a carbon-fiber floor panel. Acura uses a supposedly novel—also undisclosed—aluminum-casting technology for part of the rear subframe, providing ample stiffness with low weight. The hood and doors are aluminum while the fenders are SMC (sheet molding compound, a common form of fiberglass). Buyers have the option of an aluminum or carbon-fiber roof.

Acura describes the suspension as “­conventional multilinks” enhanced with magnetorheological self-adjusting dampers. Buyers can opt for carbon-ceramic brakes, though four-wheel steering has been left off, we’re told, in the ­interest of low mass. Continental Conti­­Sport­Contact 5P tires, sized 235/45 up front and 295/30 in back, will mount on 19- and 20-inch wheels, respectively.

In principle, the NSX operates like a Porsche 918 Spyder, able to drive electrically or on engine torque alone, though the first mode is mainly a gimmick. One big electric motor located at the front of the transaxle can power the car up to 50 mph for a few miles in a quiet mode. The lithium-ion battery pack behind the seats is too small to supply more. On the front axle, the “Twin Motor Unit” drives each wheel separately through planetary gearsets that allow the motors to provide torque-vectoring capability in concert with the brakes at the rear. Four driver-selectable modes—quiet, sport, sport-plus, and track—progressively ratchet up the car’s aggression level.

Lots of money and effort was flushed in the pursuit of what Klaus calls “a human-centered supercar,” but the end result, designed and built in Marysville, Ohio, will be a technical thunderclap destined to reach customers before the end of the year. This latest iteration, let’s call it version 3.5, shows who won the marketing struggle over where to drop the marker: the guys originally proposing the Amex Centurion NSX. The ’16 NSX will start around $150,000 and probably sell closer to $170,000 or $180,000 with options. An even hotter version (a Type R, perhaps?) will arrive later and perhaps break the $200,000 mark. Sitting right beside this new NSX in Acura showrooms will be the brand’s next-most-expensive car, the RLX sedan, with a current base price of $49,370.

Will Acura be able to put enough of these assuredly fabulous NSXs on the road to in any way help the brand’s sleepy image? That may be the next big challenge.

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