2004 Acura Tl Base Sedan 4-door 3.2l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Acura builds 345-horsepower RDX A-Spec for SEMA

The 2019 Acura RDX is great — a return to form for the sporty compact luxury crossover. So there's no real harm in giving one the SEMA treatment, especially since it entails a real motorsport tie-in and some legitimate performance parts. As for the giant graphics, well, it's SEMA after all. Graham Rahal races for Honda in the IndyCar series, and he also has his own performance parts company — named, sensibly enough, Graham Rahal Performance — which he started in 2017. They sell some private-label bits manufactured by other companies to their spec, some off-the-shelf parts, and they do tuning and installation work on customer cars. Acura gave the job of building the SEMA RDX to Rahal. There's a fair bit going on under the hood to get the RDX to 345 horsepower from the factory 272 ponies. The 2.0-liter turbo engine gets a bunch of enhancements. The turbo, intake, exhaust manifolds, downpipe, and cat-back (a GRP design) are all aftermarket. There's a customer intercooler, too. KTuning did the ECU with a custom map. On the handling front, the RDX wears Eibach springs, StopTech brakes, HRE wheels at 21 inches, and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. The RDX started life as an A-Spec model in Apex Blue Pearl, and from there GRP applied carbon fiber garnish to the mirrors, grille accents, and lower fascia. Troy Lee Designs did the exterior graphics, and inside there's more carbon fiber and a custom steering wheel (courtesy of Max Papis's MPI Innovations shop). The RDX will be on the show floor if you'd like to check out the Rahal shop's handiwork. Related Video:

Vehicles awarded IIHS Top Safety Pick awards skyrockets for 2015 [w/video]

By practically every measure, passenger vehicles in the US are continuing to get safer. With the year rapidly coming to an end, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is releasing its annual list tallying of the scores for the latest vehicles to see how they compare to last year. Judging by the agency's evaluations, the numbers look quite positive. According to the institute, 71 vehicles earned either the Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ rating so far in its testing for 2015. Among the latest winners, there have been 33 TSP+ awards and 38 TSP medalists. That's a healthy increase over the 22 TSP+ and 17 TSP grades in 2014. The figures appear even more impressive when you consider that it keeps getting harder to earn the + designation. In the latest round of testing, a vehicle must offer some form of front crash prevention automatic braking to get the mark. Previously, just a warning to drivers was necessary. This list also illustrates the ways that automakers adapt to new testing procedures. In 2013 there were 117 TSP ratings and 13 TSP+ awards. Then, the IIHS mandated that to be a safety pick, a model had to score Good in the institute's four crash tests, plus a Good or Acceptable in the small overlap front test. That brought a plunge in 2014 to just 17 TSP grades. With the numbers climbing again, companies apparently have deciphered how to perform better. Some brands especially stood out on this year's list. The IIHS praised Volvo, Mercedes-Benz and Acura for offering standard front crash prevention systems on some models. Subaru received at least one of the awards for all seven of its models. Toyota also had seven, and the Honda brand did too – though the institute counts the two- and four-door versions of the Civic and Accord separately. Check out the full announcement below and a video about this year's winners. The full list can be viewed, here. Safety gains ground: More vehicles earn top honors from IIHS The number of vehicles earning either of the Institute's two awards has jumped to 71 from 39 this time last year, giving consumers more choices for optimum protection in crashes. The number of winners in the top tier - TOP SAFETY PICK+ - has increased by 11 for 2015, despite a tougher standard for front crash prevention. "This is the third year in a row that we are giving automakers a tougher challenge to meet," says IIHS President Adrian Lund.

2014 Acura MDX ad campaign the most expensive in brand's history

Realizing that it must spend more marketing dollars to compete with the more established luxury automakers, Acura is preparing to launch its most expensive ad campaign ever for its redesigned 2014 MDX. At $78 million, according to Advertising Age, the new "Made for Mankind" campaign that kicks off next month is exactly double what Acura spent on the 2013 RDX launch last year. It's also the brand's first cooperation with its new agency, Boston- and Los-Angeles-based Mullen Advertising. Thanks to its bigger budget, we'll be seeing ads for the MDX pop up just about everywhere from television commercials, cinemas and billboards to videos focused on computers and mobile devices.
The first such video is entitled "Human Race," and it enunciates Acura's recent tagline highlight, the synergy between man and machine. More interestingly, the 2014 MDX, which went on sale this month, doesn't make an appearance in the 60-second spot until close to the end. This video is posted below as well as a press release from Acura along with images of various ads we should start soon.