According to Automotive News, Honda Motor Company president, Takanobu Ito, said the new car won't feature the V10 engine that had been planned for the next incarnation when the company scrapped this project back in 2008.
The official also said that the car will be both entertaining to drive and efficient, which likely means buyers can expect to be met with the familiar gas-electric hybrid drivetrain combo, when the supercar launches. “That's the kind of sports car we want to make. We are working very hard on it,” Ito was quoted as saying.
Ito's predecessor Takeo Fukui killed plans for an NSX replacement as one of several cost-saving cutbacks at the start of the financial crisis in 2008. At the time, the car was envisioned as a front-engined vehicles with a big V10 offering at least 500 hp. The 5.5-liter was briefly used in the HSV-010 GT racecar, the racing variant of the NSX V10 that never saw production, after which it was replaced by a smaller 3.4-liter V8 built by Mugen. This would have followed the first-gen NSX, which had a mid-mounted V6 and went out of production in 2005 after 14 years of loyalty.
The Honda official didn't offer additional details on the sports car or a timeline for its launch, adding that the engineers “are working very hard on it.”
While we are glad the NSX is coming back, the hybridization process is not to our liking. We have to imagine that fans of Honda performance feel the same way.
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