Acura News Archives - Page 2 of 2

Takata Airbag News: Fed directs 300,000 Honda owners to ‘park it’ until it’s repaired

Winter_Honda_Civic — Your 2000 Accord may hold a funky, potentially deadline airbag system.

Although the occasion of “death from airbag” is rare, it does happen, and in the view of Honda Motor Company and the U.S. Federal National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) once is too often.

Saturday’s Honda News found yet another Takata airbag related warning from the U.S. federal government. According to the source 300,000 high risk turn of the century Honda drivers, those specifically living in wet, hot and humid area’s, have failed to heed Honda’s Takata Airbag recall — a process that’s been in place since 2008, and on hyper drive for the past 24 months. Read the full story here.

8 million Takata airbag systems replaced or repaired in 2015

While that’s a big number, its been estimated by the Fed that 20% of all cars on the road today in the U.S., that’s 50+ million cars and light trucks, have in the past or now carry a defective, possibly life threatening airbag unit.

Why take a chance? The repair, while an inconvenience is free to you the car owner, And in the long run, could save yours or the next owner’s life in a collision. Also, the day will come (soon) that if your vehicle is not recall compliant, it won’t be transferable at time of sale or trade in.

The models identified by NHTSA include: 2001-2002 Honda Civic, 2001-2002 Honda Accord, 2002-2003 Acura TL, 2002 Honda CR-V, 2002 Honda Odyssey, 2003 Acura CL, 2003 Honda Pilot.

Honda and Acura racing dominates Pikes Peak and PWC in June

Acura_EV_4-Motor_Concept — **2017 Acura NSX EV Concept**

In recapping Honda and Acura news for June 2016, besides the market roll out of several 2017 Honda and Acura car, light truck and crossover models, RACING was the buzz in Honda news.

Coming off of an unprecedented winning streak for Honda powered Indycar, the co-sponsor and safety arm of the 100th running of the Broadmoor Pikes Peak Hill Climb classic came to the annual race to the clouds with three 2017 Acura NSX supercar variants. Catch my latest Acura racing article here.

From what I read

One 4-motor electric and torque monster modified NSX platform racer running in “Electric Modified,” one near stock NSX running in “Time Attack 2,” and the third? I can’t find any news on it. Here’s my read on Pikes Peak.

The short story here is that 2017 Acura NSX in its first official competition of any kind, drove away with a first place finish in its class, as did the all electric modified NSX.

Getting real with Realtime Racing

In other news we find our friends at “RealTime Racing” taking the podium in Pirelli World Challenge round 12 and 13 at Road America in owner Peter Cunningham’s home state of Wisconsin.

With driver of the #43 TLX-GT car Ryan Eversley taking 1st place in both races and Peter #42

taking 2nd and 4th place respectively, Acura, Honda Performance Development and RealTime Racing just ran their best race in 2 years. Love it! Catch my latest article on Acura racing here. Wishing you a safe and sane 4th of July weekend.

Acura returns to North American Grand Prix with 2017 NSX GT3 car

As reported Wednesday by (HPD) Honda Performance Development president Mr. Art St Cyr, Acura will return to North American Grand Prix racing in 2017 — for the first time since 2009 — in a factory built and modified 2017 NSX supercar, sans the hybrid drive train.

No big surprise here for those of us that have followed the decade-long unfolding saga of the “next” generation Honda/Acura NSX. We knew a race ready version of Acura’s halo car was in the works from day one, confirmed by track testing in Japan and Europe. I reported on the 2015 Acura NSX Pikes Peak Hill Climb Pace Car here.

Sitting before us on Acura’s stage at the New York International Auto Show is the culmination of a multi-national design, engineering and track tested effort. According to Art St Cyr: The balance of track preparation and testing for the North America specification GT3 car will be completed by a state-side team, and built by the same folks that bring us the production NSX in Marysville, Ohio.

I recently had the pleasure of touring the Honda Performance Development Center, and the Honda Heritage Museum in Marysville, while speaking with the NSX development team. — my experience there was life changing.

2017_Acura_NSX_ McCAnts — 2017 Acura NSX is North America’s only hand-built hybrid supercar.

I walked away with not only a greater understanding of the complexity of today’s automotive engineering, but a true appreciation of what “personal accountability” brings to the mostly hand crafted one-off supercar that is 2017 NSX.

Looking to the NSX GT3 car sitting next to a production model, it becomes apparent that in practice, Acura NSX technology s not only derived from the disciplines of aeronautic and automotive engineering, but in fact comes straight off of the race track. When Acura tells you that NSX will roll off of the factory race ready, they’re not exaggerating.

No hybrid technology for Acura NSX GT3

As learned on the track by Acura Real Time Racing, it doesn’t always pay to push the boundary of race classification guidelines when it comes to racing. In the case of NSX GT3, there will be no hybrid drive train. Instead, Acura has opted for an extreme high output 600 horsepower twin turbocharged 3.5 Liter V6, as found on the Acura TLX GT and Honda Ridgeline Baja Race Truck.

As with the Acura TLX GT, torque will be transferred to track via a rear live axle. As of the posting Acura is not sharing specifications, date of launch or the team chosen to pilot 2017 NSX GT. My money is on Real Time Racing. Only time will tell.

2017 Acura NSX Supercar VIN#001 to be auctioned for charity

Die hard Acura NSX enthusiasts will have the opportunity to place bids on 2017 Acura NSX, VIN # 001, at Barrett Jackson Classic Car Auction Scottsdale, Arizona, January 29, 2016. The bid competition will be fierce.

The winner will drive away with Acura’s most technically advanced offering since the Honda Luxury Car division launch in 1986. According to our contact at Acura, all proceeds from the sale go to 2 – children’s charities, to be announced at a latter date.

The second generation NSX is arguably the most unique gasoline/ electric hybrid on the market today, for several reasons, one being the price-point. You may read the expanded Honda-Torque News article here.

Looking to the competition, BMW 8 series, Mclaren, Porsche and the soon to arrive Ford G.T., NSX will arrive to market with technologies not available on the aforementioned, at a relatively bargain price of MSRP $156,000 to $205,700+ sales tax, registration and applicable fees. You will find full specifications here.

With Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld showing interest in NSX # 001, there’s no telling how high the bid will go. Acura will announce the buyer of the car, as well as the winning bid amount the night of January 29.

Pricey_CAr — Priciest America auction car ever! Photo: RM Auctions, Thank you.

On a side note, we discovered that a close cousin to Acura NSX’s arch nemeses holds the record for the most expensive American car to ever exchange hands. That title goes to the one of 3 built 1968 Ford GT40 Le-Mans super lights. The final bid? $11,000,000. We don’t anticipate 2017 NSX surpassing the $1,000,000 mark, but you never know.