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2021 Acura TLX Type S officially goes on sale tomorrow

The 2021 Acura TLX Type S is arriving at Acura dealerships tomorrow. After over a decade hiatus here, we’ll have an Acura with a Type S badge available to buy once again. It wonÂ’t be too much longer until the MDX Type S joins the TLX, too. You can read everything there is to know about the TLX Type S in our first drive review. ItÂ’s the high-performance model of the four-door sedan, featuring a new 3.0-liter turbocharged V6, sport-tuned suspension and AcuraÂ’s excellent SH-AWD system. Power is rated at 355 horsepower and 354 pound-feet of torque. Acura dropped a video (you can watch below) with todayÂ’s on-sale announcement to dive into some of the nitty gritty details of this new V6.  One item the video misses is the TLXÂ’s new active exhaust system, though. ItÂ’s a new exhaust that is passed down from the NSX. As active exhausts go, this one is fairly standard. There are butterfly valves within the system that open depending on your throttle position or selected mode. Sport+ mode leaves them open 100% of the time, and theyÂ’ll even open in Comfort mode if you rev beyond 4,000 rpm. Acura says the exhaust is 5-7 decibels louder when the valves are open versus closed. If you want a new TLX Type S, the starting price is $53,325. Tack on the High Performance Wheel & Tire Package, and the price goes up to $54,125. YouÂ’ll probably want the wheel and tire package, too. The standard tires are Pirelli Cinturato P7 all-season tires, whereas the upgrade rubber gives you Pirelli P Zero summer tires. Those P Zeros are wrapping lighter wheels that save 5.8 pounds at each corner. The design is also inspired by the five-spoke wheels on the Acura NSX, so youÂ’ll be going faster and looking cooler. We have a feeling that itÂ’s $800 well spent. Related video:

Snapshots from Acura NSX prototype run at Mid-Ohio

Acura's achingly slow showing of the new, hybrid NSX saw yet another step yesterday, as we reported late last week. A powder-blue prototype ran ahead of the open-wheelers at the Honda Indy 200 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Why show the NSX Prototype at Mid-Ohio? Honda's Ohio research and development center, which has taken the lead on NSX development, is just 60 miles from the track. And as race sponsor, Honda must have figured it would give the spectators a glimpse of the new supercar it's been teasing for the better part of a decade.
With a planned launch in 2015 (special emphasis on the "planned" part, considering the NSX's history), the NSX Prototype shown here sports graphics that "speak to Acura's intention to go racing with the new NSX." That's great news for fans of endurance racing, although it remains to be seen when a motorsports program for the new NSX will get off the ground.
Take a look at the fresh gallery of images, and be sure to head over to our original Mid-Ohio post for the video footage of the NSX Prototype on track.

New 2022 Acura MDX platform to underpin future Hondas

The 2022 Acura MDX introduces a new platform to the Acura and Honda lineup called the Global Light Truck Platform, and it's currently exclusive to the MDX. The new 2021 Acura TLX is also built on a totally new platform that isn’t shared with any other Honda or Acura. Going further back, when the redesigned 2019 RDX debuted, Acura said that model was built on “a new-from-the-ground-up, Acura-exclusive platform." ThatÂ’s three totally-new and Acura-exclusive platforms in a short time period, and it got us thinking. What is Acura up to here?  Most manufacturers these days are increasingly going in the exact opposite direction. VolkswagenÂ’s MQB architecture underpins everything from the hot hatch GTI to the gigantic Atlas. ToyotaÂ’s TNGA platform has multiple sizes/versions, but Toyota still considers them related and will tell you that TNGA is the basis of cars from the Corolla on up to the Highlander, plus the Lexus UX and ES. You can find similar stories all across the industry, in both luxury and non-luxury brands. Acura, on the other hand, appears to be taking a totally different approach. To get some clarity on strategy, we reached out to Acura. The answers are multifaceted, but Acura says it's spending money where it pays dividends for performance — but there's also more sharing between models than it might look like on the surface. “The definition of what constitutes a 'common platform' varies by automaker,” Acura exclusively told Autoblog during a wide-ranging e-mail interview involving the input of numerous engineers and product planners. “For us, the most fundamental value is to maintain the same carry points throughout production and enable us to produce different vehicles in the same manufacturing environment.” As an example, the TLX and RDX feature similar carry points in the chassis to enable their production on the same line, but thatÂ’s where the two diverge. “The TLX is different in that it has a bespoke platform that is not shared with any other Acura or Honda vehicle,” Acura says.