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- 16 November 2009
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[h=1]The Hypercar Blueprint[/h] [h=2]How did four automakers with legendary racing pedigrees all arrive at the same formula for the next-generation hypercar?
[/h]
By: Benson Kong Ohio, United States
Base Price: $140,000
Weight to power: 6.0lb/hp
0-62 mph: 3.2 sec
Every driving enthusiast knows the 1991-2005 Acura/Honda NSX's legacy is large and legendary. That legacy is inescapable if you're tasked with bringing the next NSX to market. Now imagine you're Ted Klaus, a 22-year Acura/Honda veteran with tremendous experience working on chassis and vehicle dynamics, stability control, and all-wheel-drive integration. He's been named the Large Project Leader (essentially chief engineer) for the new-generation NSX, and his American engineering and assembly team have orders to give the revived supercar an AWD hybrid powertrain. The purists' outrage is palpable. What's a guy like Ted going to do? 
"The 1st thing you do is you go and talk to the people that were there and developed [the original NSX]," Klaus says. "I went and took the entire development team, and we met and spoke with Uehara-san [Shigeru Uehara, the first NSX's LPL] and some of his colleagues in Motegi, at their annual [NSX] fiesta. You learn what was on their mind. You learn about what NSX means and how to carry that on. To get to the essence of what the NSX was, and should always be, was really critical to me." So it won't be exactly the same as the 1991 car, but the underlying spirit remains. NSX, as Klaus asserts, "didn't stand for aluminum-bodied, mid-engined V-6. It's an experimental interpretation of what a sports car should be."
The possibilities are fascinating. Within 2 years, the labors of Klaus, associate chief engineer Clement D'Souza, and the development and assembly team should bear fruit. The high-performance two-seater will be fitted with a mid-mounted V-6, likely twin-turbocharged in light of Honda's decision to rejoin the Formula 1 fraternity as a turbo engine supplier in 2015, spinning the rear wheels with help from three electric motors -- one coupled to the seven-speed twin-clutch automatic transmission and one powering each front wheel. The combined system should produce an estimated 560 hp. Ensuring the car elicits a "vivid response" from the driver, and being extra mindful of the human-to-machine connection, are top priorities. Given Klaus' background in AWD integration, he is understandably enthusiastic about the Sport Hybrid Super Handling-All Wheel Drive. "It can be proactive and it can predictively respond," he notes, admitting that the challenge is making that response feel natural. "We feel with our experience with SH-AWD, we can meet the challenge to have it be direct and linear." Sounds like the original NSX.
How did Acura, Ferrari, McLaren, and Porsche arrive at a similar conclusion of what a hypercar should be? "All carmakers who want to deliver what we call 'timeless sports car values' at a very high level are seeking a new way to deliver those values -- to deliver a new driving experience. So certainly, I don't know how they've arrived at them all at similar times, but inside Honda, NSX stands for New Sports eXperimental. So this is our method to deliver this new sports car experience. " - Ted Klaus, Acura NSX large project leader
[h=3]The New NSX's Long, Tortuous Journey[/h] July 2005
After 15 model years, Honda schedules NSX production to conclude at year's end. Eventual total U.S. NSX sales: 8999 units. January 2007
Acura's Advanced Sports Car Concept debuts at the Detroit auto show. The front-engine, V-10-powered coupe (with SH-AWD) was hailed as the new NSX. December 2008
NSX project is cancelled because of global economic conditions. December 2009
Honda declares the ASCC-based HSV-010 GT will campaign in the Super GT racing series with a V-8 and RWD. September 2011
Mystery Acura convertible sports car is spotted on "The Avengers" movie set. December 2011
After months of rumors, an NSX concept is revealed to journalists in Las Vegas. January 2012
NSX concept 1.0 unveiled at Detroit auto show. January 2013
NSX concept 2.0 -- wider, lower, and finally with an interior -- makes an appearance at the Detroit auto show. May 2013
$70-million Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio, is announced as future NSX home site.
[/h]
In Biology 101, the wings of bats and birds and the eyes of humans and squid often are used as examples of convergent evolution -- essentially, when organisms arrive at the same result via different developmental paths. In the realm of hypercars—those rarefied vehicles that exist in the plane above mere supercars -- we are at a particularly interesting point of convergence. By 2015, hypercars from Acura, Ferrari, McLaren, and Porsche should be roaming the roads and racetracks of this world, redefining what we consider fast and efficient. These vehicles will do so using a very similar formula: a gas/electric hybrid powertrain mid-mounted in a chassis composed of exotic materials, driving the wheels through a dual-clutch transmission. How did we all converge upon this point in time?
Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/features/performance/1308_hypercar_blueprint/viewall.html#ixzz2WZWzidJr
[h=3]2015 Acura NSX[/h][h=3][/h] Ohio's Crown Jewel: honda's halo Moves from Suzuka to…the Buckeye State? Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/features/performance/1308_hypercar_blueprint/viewall.html#ixzz2WZWzidJr
By: Benson Kong Ohio, United States
Base Price: $140,000
Weight to power: 6.0lb/hp
0-62 mph: 3.2 sec
Every driving enthusiast knows the 1991-2005 Acura/Honda NSX's legacy is large and legendary. That legacy is inescapable if you're tasked with bringing the next NSX to market. Now imagine you're Ted Klaus, a 22-year Acura/Honda veteran with tremendous experience working on chassis and vehicle dynamics, stability control, and all-wheel-drive integration. He's been named the Large Project Leader (essentially chief engineer) for the new-generation NSX, and his American engineering and assembly team have orders to give the revived supercar an AWD hybrid powertrain. The purists' outrage is palpable. What's a guy like Ted going to do? "The 1st thing you do is you go and talk to the people that were there and developed [the original NSX]," Klaus says. "I went and took the entire development team, and we met and spoke with Uehara-san [Shigeru Uehara, the first NSX's LPL] and some of his colleagues in Motegi, at their annual [NSX] fiesta. You learn what was on their mind. You learn about what NSX means and how to carry that on. To get to the essence of what the NSX was, and should always be, was really critical to me." So it won't be exactly the same as the 1991 car, but the underlying spirit remains. NSX, as Klaus asserts, "didn't stand for aluminum-bodied, mid-engined V-6. It's an experimental interpretation of what a sports car should be." 
The possibilities are fascinating. Within 2 years, the labors of Klaus, associate chief engineer Clement D'Souza, and the development and assembly team should bear fruit. The high-performance two-seater will be fitted with a mid-mounted V-6, likely twin-turbocharged in light of Honda's decision to rejoin the Formula 1 fraternity as a turbo engine supplier in 2015, spinning the rear wheels with help from three electric motors -- one coupled to the seven-speed twin-clutch automatic transmission and one powering each front wheel. The combined system should produce an estimated 560 hp. Ensuring the car elicits a "vivid response" from the driver, and being extra mindful of the human-to-machine connection, are top priorities. Given Klaus' background in AWD integration, he is understandably enthusiastic about the Sport Hybrid Super Handling-All Wheel Drive. "It can be proactive and it can predictively respond," he notes, admitting that the challenge is making that response feel natural. "We feel with our experience with SH-AWD, we can meet the challenge to have it be direct and linear." Sounds like the original NSX.
How did Acura, Ferrari, McLaren, and Porsche arrive at a similar conclusion of what a hypercar should be? "All carmakers who want to deliver what we call 'timeless sports car values' at a very high level are seeking a new way to deliver those values -- to deliver a new driving experience. So certainly, I don't know how they've arrived at them all at similar times, but inside Honda, NSX stands for New Sports eXperimental. So this is our method to deliver this new sports car experience. " - Ted Klaus, Acura NSX large project leader [h=3]The New NSX's Long, Tortuous Journey[/h] July 2005
After 15 model years, Honda schedules NSX production to conclude at year's end. Eventual total U.S. NSX sales: 8999 units. January 2007
Acura's Advanced Sports Car Concept debuts at the Detroit auto show. The front-engine, V-10-powered coupe (with SH-AWD) was hailed as the new NSX. December 2008
NSX project is cancelled because of global economic conditions. December 2009
Honda declares the ASCC-based HSV-010 GT will campaign in the Super GT racing series with a V-8 and RWD. September 2011
Mystery Acura convertible sports car is spotted on "The Avengers" movie set. December 2011
After months of rumors, an NSX concept is revealed to journalists in Las Vegas. January 2012
NSX concept 1.0 unveiled at Detroit auto show. January 2013
NSX concept 2.0 -- wider, lower, and finally with an interior -- makes an appearance at the Detroit auto show. May 2013
$70-million Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio, is announced as future NSX home site.
