NSX fans counting days until launch
HONDA KEEPS NSX PRICE ON ICE UNTIL MAY LAUNCH, WRITES COLIN SMITH
Production of the new Honda NSX hybrid supercar in right-handdrive form began at the company’s Performance Manufacturing Centre in Marysville, Ohio back in August 2016.
Honda Australia launched the second-generation NSX in October the same year as a strictly limited volume car sold through five selected dealerships — one each in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, West Australia and South Australia.
With Australian Luxury Car Tax (LCT) the launch price was A$420,000 with many of the carbon fibre interior and exterior components offered as options in the US being standard including the carbon fibre roof, aerodynamics package and carbon ceramic brake discs.
Like all cars in the high-price brackets, the NSX should be significantly less expensive in New Zealand where a LCT doesn’t apply. But Honda New Zealand still isn’t saying how much and where enthusiasts will be able to buy one just yet.
Back in early 2015 Honda NZ announced the new NSX would go on sale here during 2016 but the local introduction has been pushed back on at least two occasions. However the car is finally coming to New Zealand with an early May launch date being announced last week by Honda New Zealand. We asked the question of Honda NZ but it is keeping the pricing, sales strategy and detailed specification under wraps till the launch.
But that’s about the only things we don’t already know about Honda’s all-new flagship and the successor to the original NSX that shifted many of the benchmarks in the design and production of supercars when it was introduced 1989.
The centrepiece of the new NSX is its highly advanced Honda Sport Hybrid SH-AWD powertrain.
At the rear, a direct drive electric motor is housed between the
3.5-litre V6 twin turbocharged engine and the nine-speed dual clutch transmission. In addition, the front wheels of the NSX are powered independently by two parallel high-performance electric motors.
The NSX utilises the frontmounted Twin Motor hybrid electric motors to provide electronic torque vectoring that achieves dynamic, instantaneous and continuous distribution of electric motor torque to enhance the precision of handling and cornering performance in all driving situations.
Honda’s V6 turbocharged petrol engine develops 373kW from
6500-7000rpm and has 550Nm of torque from 2000-6000rpm. The total combined output of the hybrid system is estimated to be
427kW with 646Nm of torque. The new NSX is produced exclusively at the Performance Manufacturing Centre in Marysville, Ohio with the car sold under Honda and Acura branding. The NSX engine is manufactured at the Anna, Ohio engine plant.