According to motortrend magazine, the company is still at work creating a successor to the famous sportscar. We can expect the next generation to use a six cylinder engine, this time in the form of a hybrid.
According to the magazine's sources, Honda's new sports coupe "can be driven with either a clutch and an engine only, the engine and motor only, or the motor only." It will also have a manual transmission as optional.
Apparently, the new sports coupe will be based on the Accord platform and will be powered by either the 2.4-liter four-cylinder or the 3.5-liter V6. Using the front-wheel-drive Accord platform as a base should help cut research and development costs. It does not sound like the vehicle will be a very serious proposition for the sportscar market though.
Honda hopes the new model will help relaunch its image as a performance carmaker. Despite the recent success of the CR-Z, the company has not been able to keep the S2000 relevant. While a lot of fun, its 9000 rpm engines don’t deliver the same fuel economy as turbocharged contenders like the Audi TT or the VW Scirocco.
Honda will use technology from the NSX concept, fitting the rear-drive-based SH-AWD setup that enabled the test mule to lap the Nurburgring in 7 minutes, 37 seconds two years ago. It's hard to imagine an AWD, hybrid Acura NSX. We can only wait and see what the Japanese company will come up with.
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