This might sound like bad news for all Honda/Acura fans, as Takeo Fukui confirmed shortly after the withdrawal from F1, Honda will be axing the development of the NSX, which was said to be a 560hp 5.0ltr V10 screamer, with the engine mounted up front, and driven with the rear wheels. A super GT a la Aston Martin DB9 as to speak. Now everyone must be thinking this is such a huge loss for the Japan supercar arena, which with the development and now put on hold Lexus LF-A, the kingpin Nissan GTR, and the successor to the original NSX, which has been spotted in rigorous testing and development for the past few months; to revive the era of Japanese supercar dominance which started in the early 90s, where Toyota's Supra, Mazda RX-7, Nissan Skyline GTR, Honda NSX etc, all had their fair share of terrorizing European thoroughbred marques.However, we're happy that the NSX was cancelled. Because simply, this is not the NSX. NSX is a mid engine rear wheel drive driver's heaven. This 5.0ltr V10 behemoth is far from it, moreover the layout of FR is far from what was regarded as a successor to the NSX. Another undeniable fact is, during the 90s, the Supra, NSX and GTR were all neck to neck in terms of performance, however with Lexus' LF-A not being able to surpass what the R35 GTR achieved, they have to seriously consider the proposition, the 'WoW' factor it could garner. This happens to development of the NSX as well, if Honda is able to surpass GTR's performance, then its worthwhile doing so, for if not, these low production volume supercars had no tangible benefits either to the balance sheets, or the brand. Thus we're actually happy that Toyota and Honda could see this and avoid further wastage of development funds.
In our humblest opinions, forget about killing the GTR, a mid engine 3.5ltr V6 with 480hp powering the rear wheels, a snug, tight cockpit with a 1200kg body shell will be wonderful. Especially if its sold through Honda dealers instead of trying to be some 'prestige' Acura brand.
