The big bucks sports car is back: faster, lighter, more efficient, and swoopier, thanks to technology. Ford and Acura made the biggest splashes at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show with a new Ford GT and a gas-electric Acura NSX. They make do with six- not eight-cylinder engines, recognizing that $2-a-gallon gasoline isn’t a forever thing.
Performance cars highlighted the Detroit auto show, along with the self-driving cars shown last week at CES 2015. Here’s our take on the top tech cars of the Detroit show, which runs through January 25, 2015.
Acura NSX: $150,000, 150 mph super-hybrid two-seater
The Acura NSX has two seats and three electric motors along with a twin-turbo V6 engine mounted just behind the seats and a nine-speed double-clutch transmission. The engine and an electric motor provide power to the rear wheels; two more electric motors drive the front wheels. Electric front drive eliminates the bulk of a mechanical driveshaft to the front and makes possible Acura’s super-handling all-wheel-drive with torque vectoring.
The orginal Acura NSX of 1992-2005 was the first all-aluminum production car. Acura says the 2016 NSX uses “world’s-first materials”: The NSX comprises an “aluminum-intensive” space frame, a carbon fiber floor anchoring the vehicle, and an all-aluminum suspension. The “sport hybrid” battery pack lets the NSX go a few miles on battery alone, which provides entrée to some of the world’s megacities that give preferred access to cars that can get through the city gates on battery power. Tromp the throttle and the electric motors serve as additional turbochargers, providing the most power at startup, when combustion engines are still gathering power.
The NSX will cost about $150,000 and be built in Marysville, Ohio. The original NSX was originally ridiculed for having only six cylinders but Acura was too far ahead of its time. While Acura suggests the next NSX competes against Ferrari, Lamborghini and the like (it does, just for less money), the closest spiritual competitor is the carbon-fiber BMW i8, a supercar plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).
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