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Honda NSX May Arrive as a Hybrid Supercar

With Honda president, Takeo Fukui, announcing at the end of 2008 they will abandon the NSX Super sports car development, rumors swarm now about a possible revival of the famed NSX. After its world-wide success and 15 year-long domination of the Japanese supercar segment, the NSX was dropped by Honda in order to redirect the company's strategy towards more environmentally friendly products.

That plan came 6 months ago in a time of turbulent economic climate and apocalyptic crisis scenarios. Now the company seems to be rethinking its strategy in the light of new consumer demand and global political encouragement of low emission vehicles.

The initially presumed 5.5 liter V10 may be ditched for an improved version of the 3.5 liter V6 with a next generation “valveless throttle” system. If this turns out to be true, that means the future NSX will no longer be in the GT-R league, but in that of the probable Toyota FT-HS, the Audi RS 5 and the BMW 3.

That means the next generation supersport hybrid will be considerably heavier due to the added weight of the batteries and other hybrid components. The rumors suggest the future NSX will most likely boast an aluminum platform intended for higher body rigidity and over all weight reduction.

The car is said to take advantage of a specially tuned version of the Japanese car manufacturer's SH-AWD (Super Handling - All-Wheel Drive) system.

With no release date being mentioned, but keeping in mind the company had plans to launch the original V10 NSX in 2010, we can expect for the hybrid version to place itself in a similar time frame.
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