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2021 Acura TLX to revive Type S, get turbocharged V6

The 2021 Acura TLX will revive the sporty Type S model after a 10-year moratorium, and this time around, it's getting a turbocharged V6, further setting it apart from other sedans in the Honda corporate family.  Acura says the new TLX will draw heavily upon the styling shown on two of its recent concepts: the Precision, which was shown in 2016, and the Type S, which was shown last year. The evolution of the styling is obvious even from Acura's darkened teaser image, which depicts a slightly more curvaceous take on 2019's Type S while retaining most of the same key design elements, including the quad-outlet exhaust and pronounced underbody diffuser. Acura's announcement was otherwise very light on details, saying only that the 2021 TLX will be "...the quickest, best-handling and most well-appointed sport sedan in Acura history, with the Type S being the model’s performance pinnacle." Apart from the displacement (3.0 liters), we don't yet know anything about the turbocharged V6 that will be utilized in the Type S. It will be unique to this model at launch, however Acura's announcement describes this as the "first" implementation of this engine, implying that it will likely make its way under the hood of other Acura models down the line.  Autoblog reached out to inquire as to whether a manual transmission is under consideration for the Type S model; an Acura representative said only that the company is not yet ready to get into specifics on the 2021 TLX's features.  Acura will debut the new TLX online at its dedicated microsite on May 28 at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT). 

Honda recalling 405K vehicles over airbag issue

Honda is in hot water due to an airbag glitch that is causing it to recall 405,400 vehicles. According to the campaign, the supplemental restraints might fire for no apparent reason. 342,000 of the affected vehicles are 2003 and 2004 Odyssey minivans, which gels with a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigation we reported on in June.
Joining the Odyssey in the recall is the Acura MDX, with 63,400 units covered from the 2003 model year. Unlike the van, though, the MDX's recall covers Japan and Australia, in addition to the US and Canada. Both vehicles are suffering from an airbag control unit that is prone to malfunction when exposed to electrical noise, a condition that can cause the airbags to deploy without warning. Although no crashes have been reported in such scenarios, there have been some injuries typical of airbag deployment - abrasions and such.
Honda will be mailing recall notices to owners near the end of October, asking them to bring their vehicles into the dealership for installation of an electrical noise filter. The repair will take about an hour and be free of charge. Scroll down for the official announcement from Honda.

2020 Acura NSX Suspension Deep Dive

The Acura NSX has been a special car as long as I’ve been in the business. The first one came out in 1990, the same year I started my career in automotive engineering. I vividly remember driving one briefly back then when we brought one in for benchmarking. I'd drive it again 22 years later when my previous employer bought a used 1991 example for a long-term test. Reader interest was sky-high and the car was still gorgeous, but the march of time and automotive engineering had clearly left it behind. Then, in 2016, a second-generation NSX emerged, and it was packed with bleeding-edge thinking. It has a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6, but this new NSX is a hybrid with an electric motor-generator sandwiched between the engine and its nine-speed DCT transmission. Two more electric motors – one for each wheel – power the front axle. There they can add traction, regenerate electricity under braking and dole out hyper-accurate levels of torque vectoring. The carÂ’s tire package was changed from Continental SportContact 5 to SportContact 6 tires in 2019, and numerous suspension re-tuning tweaks came along with them. The result is a lively and well-balanced car that is relentless when driven hard and a pussycat around town. LetÂ’s see what theyÂ’ve got going on under there.   At first glance the 2020 Acura NSX appears to have dual wishbone front suspension. But we canÂ’t tell for sure because that big two-piece brake rotor is in the way. The coil-over shock looks obvious, but a few odd details are apparent even from here.   This view also seems to indicate double wishbone suspension. But the pivot axis (green arrow) between the upper and lower ball joints looks wrong – itÂ’s far too vertical. WeÂ’re missing something. But I would be remiss if I failed to point out a few other things before we moved on. For one, the front drive axle confirms this to be an all-wheel-drive machine. Second, the forged aluminum damper mounting fork (yellow) that envelops the axle is mounted to the lower arm about 75% out from the armÂ’s inner pivot. The spring and damper motion ratio would be 0.75-to-1 relative to wheel movement, with a tiny reduction due to its lean angle. Lastly, just look at the huge cast aluminum upright (white). Beautiful. Normally these are called hub carriers or steering knuckles, and I use the terms interchangeably. But the motorsports-derived term upright is normally applied when the piece is tall and, well, upright like this one.   This explains everything.