The second-generation Honda NSX (marketed as the Acura NSX in North America, China and Kuwait) is a two-seater sports car which was developed and manufactured by Honda. It is a two-door coupe with a rear mid-engine, all-wheel-drive layout and a gasoline-electric hybrid drivetrain. The car was developed in collaboration between the company's divisions in Japan and the United States, and all models were hand-built at a dedicated factory in Ohio. Production began in 2016 and ended in 2022 with the Type S variant. It succeeds the first-generation NSX that was produced in Japan from 1990 to 2005. The development team aimed to make the car suit a wide range of driving conditions, from high-performance driving on winding roads and racetracks to more relaxed street driving.

The car is powered by a bespoke 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6 engine producing , supplemented by three electric motors to bring the total power output to . Two of these electric motors are mounted on the front wheels and the remaining one powers the rear wheels, allowing torque vectoring for improved cornering performance, torque fill for improved acceleration, and instant torque for improved response. The NC1 NSX was among the first sports cars and the first car in its performance segment to use hybrid technology. The car received an updated version in 2019, with minor changes to the chassis and styling. For its final model year in 2022, a limited-production Type S model was introduced, with an increase in power to , various tweaks to the chassis and transmission, and aerodynamic and styling upgrades. A total of 2,908 cars were produced, including 350 Type S models.

The second-generation NSX has been used in motorsports, with a GT500 class Super GT model competing between 2014 and 2023 and a production-based GT3 racing version debuting in 2017. It also won multiple awards, including 2017 Performance Car of the Year by Road & Track magazine.

Development

2008 and prior In July 2005, Honda's North American luxury brand Acura announced that a successor to the first-generation NSX was in development, with the original being discontinued at the end of the year. Over two years later in December 2007, Honda America's CEO, Tetsuo Iwamura, confirmed to the automotive press that the new sports car would be powered by a V10 engine and make its debut to the market by 2010. Potential styling of the car was previewed by the Acura ASCC (Advanced Sports Car Concept) introduced at the 2007 North American International Auto Show. Prototypes of the vehicle were seen testing on the Nürburgring in June 2008, with Honda's CEO Takeo Fukui challenging the developers to make the car faster than the Nissan GT-R around the track. On December 17, 2008, Fukui announced during a speech about Honda's revised financial forecasts that, due to poor economic conditions, all plans for a next-generation of the NSX had been cancelled; the company's profits fell by 81% due to the 2008 financial crisis.

Although the road car project was cancelled, the company used the vehicle as a base model for a racing car named Honda HSV-010 GT, which they entered in the Japanese Super GT Series from 2010 to 2013. Honda was able to enter the HSV-010 GT on the basis that the base model was "production-ready", even though most cars in the series had to be based on production cars. As mandated by the class regulations, that car had a front-engined, rear-wheel drive layout, powered by a 3.4-liter V8, rated over .

2011 onwards

In late 2010 and early 2011, reports from various automotive magazines began to emerge that Honda was again planning to make a new sports car to be a successor to the original NSX, and that it could use electric motors in addition to a petrol engine. Honda CEO Takanobu Ito confirmed in September 2011 that the company had begun development of a new sports car, and by the end of the year in December, Acura announced that they would unveil the next generation of the NSX in concept form at the 2012 North American International Auto Show. On January 9, 2012, Acura unveiled the mid-engined 2012 NSX Concept to the general public, confirming that its SH-AWD system incorporates two electric motors on the front wheels and one on the rear wheels to augment the combustion engine, thus forming a hybrid setup. This setup was chosen to take advantage of the torque vectoring capabilities, instant torque, added power and improved efficiency the electric motors would bring. The concept of a hybrid sports car was new at the time, with other such cars like the Porsche 918, LaFerrari, McLaren P1 and BMW i8 still yet to be released. At the following year's show, a more refined 2013 NSX Concept was revealed with styling closer to the production car.

The new NSX would be developed in collaboration between Honda's divisions in Japan and the United States. Initial planning was done in Japan, before a joint Japanese-American development team was established. Development of the engine, hybrid system and transmission would be done at Honda's Automobile R&D Center facility in Tochigi, Japan, while development of the rest of the vehicle was concentrated at the Honda R&D Americas development center in Ohio, United States. Ted Klaus, a Honda engineer since 1990 and future president of Honda Performance Development, was chosen as the global large project leader of the project, while Ryoji Tsukamoto was the large project leader in Japan. Many of the engineers who worked on the car had previously worked on Honda's various motorsport programs.

Early on, the car's core development team met the creators of the original NSX to understand the philosophy behind it on a deeper level. The first-generation model's development team also shared memories, diagrams and schematics from its development, helping the new team establish their vision of what the new car should be like: not a newer version of the original model, but rather a completely new car that maintained the core values of the original. The original NSX's development leaders had encouraged the new team to not directly copy what they did, and the large project leader of the original NSX, Shigeru Uehara, himself had expressed that everything they wanted to do with the first-generation NSX was ultimately accomplished, and as such he wished that the new NSX's development team be given full freedom to design a new car. In terms of the core NSX values, the team felt the car should have performance that would be accessible to less experienced drivers, yet the car should "come alive" with a skillful driver behind the wheel. Everyday usability as well as strong visibility and ergonomics were also deemed as essential values of the NSX. Although the car would use various technologies, the team still wanted it to retain a "real analogue 'sports car' feeling". The team also opted to focus more on the driving feel of the car rather than purely trying to obtain certain performance figures, with Klaus stating: "The NSX has never been about a set of figures on a piece of paper. As with the original, the eventual power figure won't grab headlines, for instance, but the qualities that you can't write down, such as driver involvement and pleasure, are the ones that will matter."

The car was initially set to have a transversely-mounted, naturally-aspirated, 60-degree 3471 cc SOHC V6 engine taken from the Acura RLX/Honda Legend, but in 2013 or earlier, the team came to the conclusion that this engine was not powerful enough to meet the car's performance targets. The team therefore commissioned Honda's R&D Center in Tochigi, Japan to develop a brand-new engine specifically for the NSX with significantly higher performance. A twin-turbocharged, 75-degree 3493 cc DOHC V6 with dry-sump lubrication was chosen, and unlike the previous engine, it would be mounted longitudinally. This change of engine orientation and the space required by the turbochargers and added cooling meant that the rear of the car had to redesigned mid-way through development to accommodate these changes.

The development team tested, benchmarked and examined various cars from rival manufacturers, including the Ferrari 458 Italia, Audi R8 V10, Porsche 911 Turbo, Nissan GT-R and McLaren 12C. The NSX was extensively tested on various racetracks and test facilities, with primary venues including Honda's Takasu test track and Suzuka Circuit in Japan, the Nürburgring Nordschleife in Germany, and the Virginia International Raceway and Transportation Research Center in the United States. Numerous road tests were also conducted, including on the mountain passes in the European Alps. During these sessions, the team was able to fine-tune the car and its systems, with some changes being able to be made on the spot, and others, such as software modifications, through conference calls to Japan. To ensure the car would be reliable in hot weather, the team carried out tests in hot conditions at racecourses like Sebring, as well as long road tests in the UAE. A number of Honda-affiliated racing drivers contributed to the car's development and gave feedback, including Indianapolis 500 winners Dario Franchitti and Takuma Sato and 24 Hours of Daytona winner Graham Rahal.

After the production version was launched, development of future variants of the NSX was moved fully to Japan and Satoshi Mizukami assumed the role of large project leader.

Official launch and production

Debut

On December 27, 2014, Honda announced that the second-generation of the NSX flagship sports car would debut at the 2015 North American International Auto Show, where the car was revealed on January 12, 2015. Honda began taking orders for the NSX in summer 2015, and deliveries in late 2015. In December 2015, the North American pricing was announced with a starting price of .

At the same time, Honda announced the European debut for the NSX at the 85th Geneva Motor Show, alongside the FK2 Civic Type R.

The first production vehicle with VIN #001 was auctioned off by Barrett Jackson on January 29, 2016. NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick won the auction with a bid for million. The entire proceeds from the auction were donated to the charities Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation and Camp Southern Ground. The first NSX rolled off the production line in Ohio on May 24, 2016.

Production

Production of the second generation NSX commenced in 2015 at Honda's Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC), a new US $70 million plant in Marysville, Ohio, built specifically for assembly of the NSX. It is housed inside Honda's former North American Logistics facility, in the midst of their existing research and development (R&D) and production engineering operations. The powertrain is separately assembled by Honda associates at its engine plant in Anna, Ohio.

In February 2017, Honda offered a factory tour, exclusively for the 2017 through 2022 model years U.S. market NSX buyers, called the "NSX Insider Experience". The tour featured the NSX assembly at the PMC facility, a museum visit at the Honda Heritage Center, and racetrack driving at Honda's test track there. Also, owners of the non-delivered NSX could track their personal NSX being assembled and tested, and could place the Acura badge on the just assembled NSX. This factory tour was offered with packages from US $2,000 through up to $6,000 and each participant was guided by an Acura host in an Acura MDX.

Discontinuation In 2020, Honda stopped producing the NSX for Japan, Australia and Europe including the United Kingdom due to its poor sales, and announced that it is no longer available in the respective areas for sale. In 2019 and 2020, the NSX had sold only 3 units, and none in Australia. Also, in Japan, only 9 units were sold in January 2020. At the end of 2021, Honda stopped producing the NSX for all other markets and stated that only a limited run Type S variant will be produced in 2022. Honda has sold 2,908 units worldwide (including Type S models).

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