When Honda came out with the original NSX, you could hear jaws drop, hitting the floor in awe. “How is it possible to make a supercar that you can daily?” The second coming wasn’t as impressive because the Ford Motor Company took center stage at the Detroit Auto Show with three performance models. As a brief refresher, the NSX played second fiddle to the Shelby GT350, F-150 Raptor, and GT.
Jerry Seinfeld, one of the first people to order and drive the second-generation NSX, sold his car in 2019. Resale value isn’t exactly great, and in regard to new vehicle sales, Acura’s NSX isn’t doing great either.
As opposed to the MDX and RDX, the NSX is the worst-selling Acura in the United States. Only 238 examples of the breed were delivered in 2019, which is better than the 170 from 2018 but worse compared to the historical maximum of 1,940 units in 1991. Considering how much money went into the research and development of the hybrid mid-engined supercar, there’s no denying that Acura isn’t making too big of a profit off the NSX Gen 2.
It’s because the NSX finds itself in a slump that Acura commissioned the marketing department to make a feature about the twin-turbo V6 located behind the driver’s ears, a 3.5-liter blunderbuss assisted by an electric motor at the rear and two electric motors at the front axle. As a side note, General Motors appears to have taken inspiration from the NSX with the electrified front axle of the hybridized ‘Vette.
Turning our attention back to the engine, there’s no denying that a lot of passion and attention to detail go into manufacturing and assembly. Mechanical artisans hand-assemble the V6 in Anna, Ohio. Piece by piece, the car takes shape at the Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville.
You could say the NSX has morphed from a Japanese specialty to an American-made supercar, and you wouldn’t be wrong. “The development leaders of the original NSX told us not to copy what they did,” said Ted Klaus, former head of development for the NSX program and current president of Honda Performance Development. “The core thing is that it’s not technology for technology’s sake – it’s technology in service to our customers.”
Impressive as it is, the second-generation NSX still hasn’t welcomed the Type R performance variant we’ve been hearing about since eons ago. At one point last year, Acura discounted the 2019 NSX by up to $20,000 to stimulate sales, and to a certain degree, those discounts worked.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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