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Honda celebrates 30th anniversary of the NSX with a look back at how it began

In 1989, the baseball-loving Japanese dipped their bats in pine tar and came to the U.S. to take gigundous swings. That single year launched five legends: Lexus LS400, Infiniti Q45, Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo, Mazda MX-5 Miata, and Acura NS-X concept. The Chicago Auto Show (!) hosted the global debuts of the Mazda and the Acura. While Mazda celebrates the bygones with the 30th Anniversary Miata, Acura's reminiscing with a look at how the NSX — a car Motor Trend described in 1990 as, "[The] best sports car the world has ever produced. Any time. Any place. Any price ..." — came to be. The development yearbook opened in 1984, a year after Honda returned to Formula One as an engine supplier for the Spirit team, and for the second Williams chassis in the last race of the season. For the first time in the automaker's history, Honda wanted to build a production car with the engine behind the cabin, one that would demonstrate Honda's engineering prowess and "deeply rooted racing spirit." The sports car would also serve as a halo for the not-yet-launched Acura brand. The engineering team built the first test vehicle in February 1984 on the bones of a first-generation Honda Jazz. After four years of formal development, Honda parked the NS-X Concept in a conference room at Chicago's Drake Hotel in February 1989. This is where the media would meet the red wonder before the public show-stand debut. The F-16 Fighting Falcon-inspired coupe was built on the world's first all-aluminum monocoque, and its SOHC V6 ran with titanium connecting rods. Before the press conference, then-Honda president Tadashi Kume got in the NS-X, started the engine, and revved to the 8,000-rpm redline — a noise felt by everyone in the adjacent conference room attending a Ford press conference. Honda's PR man at the time yelled, "Mr. Kume, stop it! They're gonna hear this!" When Kume got out, he asked Honda engineers present why they didn't put their new VTEC technology in the NS-X. (What's Japanese for, "Why didn't the VTEC kick in, yo?!") They told him VTEC had been created for four-cylinder engines. Kume told them to work on a V6 application. More suggestions came from journos who drove the early prototypes at Honda's Tochigi R&D Center, who said the NS-X "could use more power." The development team had grabbed the SOHC V6 from the Acura Legend for the NS-X concept, and it put out 160 horsepower in the luxury sedan.

2022 Acura MDX spy photos show more athletic, TLX-inspired body

Acura's first in-house crossover/SUV is finally ready for another full redesign, and these latest spy photos give us our best look yet. This 2022 Acura MDX was caught by one of our spy photographers with bare minimum vinyl wrap camouflage. As such, we can tell that the new model will be quite a bit more athletic and share many styling cues with the recently revealed TLX sedan. Starting from the front, the MDX features the pentagonal grille from the TLX. While the outgoing version has a similar grille, this one is wider and flatter. It also has headlights that fit with the grille better, adopting a more angular, slimmer shape compared to the old MDX. The grille and headlights sit higher in the front fascia, too. Combined with what looks like a longer nose, the new MDX has a more proud, upright look versus the slumped, slightly minivan-esque design of the current model. Moving around the MDX, we can make out beefier fenders that give the new crossover a wide, sporty stance. The roofline looks a bit lower than the current MDX, furthering the sportier appearance. The rear quarter window also sweeps upward now. This echoes the window line of the TLX. The rear of the MDX is the least interesting, but it still borrows from the TLX. The taillights and the squared-off exhaust tips look just like those of the sedan. Otherwise, the MDX has a fairly generic hatch. Considering how close to production this prototype is, and a leaked Acura product road map, we're expecting the MDX to be fully revealed during this year's auto show season (whatever that may be), so sometime in the fall or winter. We suspect its powertrain lineup will mirror that of the TLX with a 272-horsepower turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder as the base engine, and a Type S version (confirmed by the aforementioned road map) will get a turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 making 355 horsepower. A hybrid model will probably be available eventually, too, but possibly not at launch. Versions powering the front or all four wheels will certainly be available, with the latter using the SH-AWD system Acura has become known for. Related Video:

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Answering The $30,000 Entry-Level Luxury Question
Twenty years ago, a comparison between an entry-level Buick and Acura would have matched a Skylark against an Integra.
Twenty years ago, a comparison between an entry-level Buick and its Acura equivalent would have matched a Skylark against an Integra. The unfair battle would have resulted in the compact American's defeat in nearly every measurable category, as the Japanese competitor was arguably at the height of its powers.