More interesting tidbits/rumors ahead. Although mentioned somewhere else before, this comes from a recent March 2001 issue of a Japanese auto mag.
Hybrid NSX: The March 26th, 2001 issue of the Japanese publication Best Car Magazine reported that the next version of the Honda NSX (badged the Acura NSX in North America) will be a lot more similar to the Insight that previously expected. In October, 2001, similar information was published in U.K. magazine Auto Express.
The NSX is Honda's high performance mid-engine super car; the closest thing anyone with $84,000 USD can come to driving a Honda Formula 1 race car.
The NSX is produced at the same low-volume factory in Tochigi, Japan where the Insight is produced. Like the Insight, the NSX is one of a few all-aluminum bodied cars that are on the market today (others being the Audi A2, Audi A8 and Chrysler's Prowler). It was in fact partially Honda's experience building the all-aluminum NSX that made it possible to build the all-aluminum Insight in production numbers.
Despite previous rumors to the contrary, Best Car Magazine now claims that the next version of the NSX will continue to have an all-aluminum body.
More interestingly, they also report that it will use Honda's IMA hybrid technology. Here, though, the focus wouldn't be on energy & fuel efficiency, but on boosting performance to an even higher level. Nonetheless, it would also allow for an improvement in fuel efficiency, an area where the NSX already stands well above similar exotic automobiles.
Auto Express describes the new NSX as a 400bhp version of the Insight, though the hybrid layout they describe is quite different. They describe the new NSX as keeping the mid-mounted ICE (3.5L V6), but adding an electric motor to drive the front wheels, making the car a 4WD. Auto Express also reports that testing of the new NSX is already underway at Honda's Japanese research and development center. It is reported that the new NSX is to be available in 2004.
