1991 Acura Nsx Base Coupe 2-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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How I was reunited with my Acura TSX after 16 years

Back in 2006, I did a very unusual thing: I ordered an Acura. While ordering your car is always unusual in this country, doing so for an Acura (or Honda) is even stranger given how few combinations of color and options there are. The chances of finding what you want at a dealer are high. Despite the odds, though, I needed to order my 2006 Acura TSX with the combination of Arctic Blue paint, touchscreen navigation and, crucially, the six-speed manual transmission. Three months later, it was in the driveway. Fifteen months later, however, it was out of the driveway. I had just got my dream job as an automotive journalist and no longer needed to own a daily driver. The TSX would just be collecting dust and depreciation down in a garage, I hadn’t exactly grown attached to it after so little time, and it certainly didnÂ’t seem like a collectible car to hang onto for posterity. After months of trying to sell it (turns out all those dealers were on to something with their inventory builds), a nice young man named Chanc flew to Los Angeles with a check in hand. I took off my RIZ plates, he slid that manual transmission into first, and off my TSX went to its new home in Utah never to be heard or seen from again. Until Christmas Eve of last year. While enjoying an egg nog, I pulled out my phone to find I was tagged in the below Instagram post by someone named Tyson Hugie. It took me a second to process what I was seeing: somebody handing over keys to an Arctic Blue Acura TSX with a red bow on top. “Wait, what?” I exclaimed.           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Tyson Hugie (@tysonhugie)   “IÂ’m an Acura brand aficionado, some call me an addict,” Hugie explained to me on an episode of the Autoblog Podcast recorded in the TSX itself. ThatÂ’s putting it lightly, and itÂ’s an addiction thatÂ’s resulted in quite the following on Instagram and YouTube, where he documents his collection/projects. “IÂ’ve been a fan of Honda and Acura products since the late ‘90s. Whenever I come across a particularly rare model, it kind of stays with me a long time.” His collecting started back in 2011 after Acura threw a red-carpet party for him, and more notably, the Acura Legend he owned that rolled over 500,000 miles. It has since crested 585,400. Nearly 30 other Acuras and Hondas have come, gone and stayed alongside it in HugieÂ’s garage since then.

Honda sending two NSX racers and new EV concept to Pikes Peak

Honda is always good for a few interesting Pikes Peak entries. In 2015, Acura supplied a 2017 NSX prototype for pace-car duty. This time around, two NSXes will compete alongside a reconfigured version of the company's four-motor electric racecar. Those aren't the 2016 entries above. The one on the right is last year's pace car and the one on the left is a first-gen NSX that did the hillclimb the past few years. The 2016 cars haven't been unveiled yet, but we know that one will be in the Time Attack 2 Production class, which is mostly stock with the addition of items like a roll cage, and the other will be in Time Attack 1. TA 1 allows modifications to the powertrain, additional aero aids, suspension changes, and other tweaks, so expect to see a lot more power and a big wing on the back. The cars will be driven by James and Nick Robinson, brothers who work for Honda R&D in Ohio. Honda will use a version of the four-motor electric powertrain from its 2015 CR-Z Exhibition class entry in a new EV. (We got to drive a non-race tune of this setup in Japan last year.) The 2016 version, which will wear a different body, moves to the Electric - Electric Modified class of last year's frontrunners. We're told this car is aiming for an overall win at the 2016 race; the CR-Z took 11th place overall in 2015. The EV will again be driven by Tetsuya Yamano, a Japanese Super GT driver. Oh, and there will of course be a factory entry or two from Honda's Powersports division. Honda engineer Keith Steidl will ride a 2015 TRX1000 ATV in the Pikes Peak Challenge - Exhibition Powersport class. In the past, Honda has fielded plenty of other neat stuff in the Race to the Clouds. In 2012, it ran an NSX fitted with a twin-turbo V6 from an LMP2 car, and the 2013 race saw the very practical 532-horsepower turbocharged Odyssey minivan join the Exhibition class. The 2016 race marks the Pikes Peak hillclimb's 100th anniversary (but not the 101st running since competition took some breaks back in wartime). We're looking forward to June already. Related Video: Image Credit: Honda Green Motorsports Acura Honda Electric Hybrid Racing Vehicles pikes peak exclusive

Acura preps ILX for endurance racing challenge

Acura has used the occasion of this year's SEMA show to unveil a 2013 ILX that is remarkably different from the road-going car that we are familiar with. A far distance from the rather mildly performing street car, this ILX Endurance Racer is actually prepped to race at the grueling 25 Hours of Thunderhill in Willows, California.
The ILX racers (Team Honda Research has prepped two of them for the race) have actually each been constructed using two donor ILX sedans: one body-in-white chassis and one full production-spec car that donates powertrain, interior and electronic components. Overall, increasing the performance of the car was done mostly through extensive weight reduction rather than bumps in power. No figures have been given for the output of the ILX's K24Z7 engine, though we are told that a custom intake and exhaust have been fitted, as well as a racing flywheel.
A prominent LED lighting system dominates the front fascia of the ILX, along with a huge front splitter, while a massive wing speaks to the intentions of the car.