2008 Acura Rdx Turbo- Awd on 2040-cars

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Autoblog Podcast #407

Episode #407 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, and Sebastian Blanco talk about the Michelin Challenge Bibendum, the Toyota Mirai, and the BMW 3 Series falling off the Car and Driver 10Best list. We start with what's in the Autoblog Garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the rundown below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #407: The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience. Topics: Challenge Bibendum Toyota Mirai fuel cell 3 Series falls off Car and Driver 10Best list In The Autoblog Garage: 2015 Acura TLX 2015 Dodge Charger 392 Audi Prologue Concept Hosts: Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, Sebastian Blanco Runtime: 01:07:55 Rundown: Intro and Garage - 00:00 Challenge Bibendum - 18:32 Toyota Mirai - 28:20 C/D 10Best - 44:52 Q&A - 53:52 Get the podcast: [UStream] Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream [iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes [RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Feedback: Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Podcasts Acura Audi BMW Dodge Toyota toyota mirai challenge bibendum

Precision Concept previews the future of Acura design [w/video]

When we drove the 2014 Acura RLX Sport Hybrid two years ago we celebrated its massive handling and carped on its milquetoast styling. We'd have done backflips if the internals of the brand's flagship sedan had been wrapped in the sheetmetal of the Acura Precision Concept. Don't get us wrong, we still have some questions about the front end of the car in these images, but we're all-in on the side view and, more importantly, we applaud Acura for making a bold design statement. Acura says the Precision concept "literally will shape the direction of all future Acura products," bringing a "bolder, more distinctive future for Acura vehicle design." Hallelujah. As if you couldn't tell, this is the product of the Acura Design Studio in California, where Acura NSX veteran Michelle Christensen led the exterior work and NSX veteran John Norman led the interior design. Up front is what's called a Diamond Pentagon grille, which looks fussy here but we won't make final judgments until we see it on the Detroit Auto Show floor later today. Come around to the side and the low-slung, rear-wheel-drive proportions on 22-inch wheels are the last thing we'd expect from a design study for an Acura sedan. It is about two inches shorter than the 2016 BMW 750i with a wheelbase that is 4.4 inches shorter, and sits six inches lower. Intensely sculpted surfaces flow from the exterior into the cabin, like the CHMSL that breaks the rear backlight to roll into the rear headrests. Interior elements thrust like geologic formations, popping with mixed materials, floating rear seats, a small steering wheel and floating gauge locked onto a tiered instrument panel. The wide, curved screen atop the center console experiments with a floating touchpad to control a concept human-machine interface. Acura says everything about the Precision concept is an expression of the company's "Precision Crafted Performance DNA." We have no idea how Acura plans to integrate this into its product line; put the Precision on a showroom floor right now and every other current Acura model save the NSX would squeal away and hide. But we welcome the attempt. We can't wait to see what happens. Acura Precision Concept Points to Bold Future for Acura Design DETROIT, January 12, 2016 – The Acura Precision Concept model made its world debut at the 2016 North American International Auto Show today, pointing toward a bolder, more distinctive future for Acura vehicle design.

The original Acura NSX: Development history and driving the icon

The original NSX, introduced in production form in 1990 by Honda and to the United States market under the Acura brand in 1991, is now officially 25 plus years old. Generations of car enthusiasts grew to love the original NSX over the 15 years it was in production and beyond, but as an fan and owner, I think it's important to fully realize just how monumental a shift the introduction of the NSX was in the art of making cars. So, retold 25 years later, this is the abridged story of the NSX, Honda's supercar. The Idea The NSX was an extremely risky project for Honda, a company that in the late 1980's was nowhere near the corporate juggernaut that it is today. Honda's eponymous founder, Soichiro Honda, was still involved in decision-making at the company during this time under the role of "Supreme Advisor," and it is debatable whether the NSX project in its infancy would have gone forward at all had he not still been pushing the company towards the spirit of technical achievement it had been known for in the prior decades. Mr. Honda was still so involved during this period, in fact, that when the first batch of 300 production NSXs were made with a version of the Acura badge he didn't like, he ordered all of the cars stopped at port in the USA, the new badges applied, and the offending incorrect badges sent back to Japan to be systematically destroyed. This was clearly a man who paid attention to the details, but I digress. Honda as a company devoted $140 million dollars to the NSX project ($250 million in today's money), half of which would go to developing the car, and the remainder of which would go to building a new state-of-the-art factory to assemble it. Honda's own goals for the NSX were actually exactly as most media stories portray the car today: to build a bona-fide exotic supercar, but one without the ergonomic and reliability penalties associated with that type of car. They didn't want to sacrifice the needs of the driver to the supposed demands of performance, demands that they felt didn't have to be there in making a truly top-level performance machine. The R&D team wanted a car that could hang with heavyweight exotics in a straight line, play with smaller and more lightweight sports cars in the curves, and cruise in serenity on the freeway. Essentially, they wanted it all, and the brief was to have a car that could do everything without compromise.