2019 Acura Nsx on 2040-cars

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2019 Acura NSX inner workings revealed in Shin Yoshikawa cutaway drawing

Artist Shin Yoshikawa is known for his intricate drawings of cars, which show every little detail under the metal skin in a cutaway fashion. The hand-drawn, pointillist pencil work re-creates the cars in immense detail, and Yoshikawa's work has been celebrated for years. Some time ago, Yoshikawa was featured on "Jay Leno's Garage," talking about his art and just how much work it is to draw the cars like he does. Now, Yoshikawa has been asked to draw the Acura NSX, and the result is fantastically good, showing everything that makes a new NSX tick — including its SH-AWD power unit. Yoshikawa says the powertrain made the NSX a real challenge to re-create on paper. "The NSX's innovative power unit was extremely challenging to draw, making the second-generation NSX the most difficult vehicle I have sketched," Yoshikawa said. "Everything comes down to the details. If you don't understand the technology that goes into building vehicles, you won't be able to build them, and you certainly can't draw them." It took Yoshikawa months of work and background research to be able to draw the final result. The amazing thing is that the car was "largely" drawn from notes and memory, showing how deeply Yoshikawa gets into his work. The NSX was also updated for 2019, after two model years. For next year it gets a new exterior color, Thermal Orange, and some structural improvements to make it stiffer and more responsive, says Acura.Related Video: Driving Iron Man's Favorite Supercar, The Acura NSX | Translogic 215

Hondata's 2019 Acura RDX tune brings the mid-range torque

One of the big advantages to the era of turbo Hondas is that there's plenty of horsepower and torque left on the table for tuners to take advantage of. One of those companies is Hondata, and following its upgrades for the Civic and Accord, it's now tuning the Acura RDX luxury crossover. The RDX uses a turbocharged 2.0-liter engine similar to those in the Accord and the Civic Type R. In stock form, it makes 272 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque. With Hondata's Stage 1 tune, the company says that horsepower increases by about 10 across the rev band. Looking at the dyno graph, it also appears that peak horsepower increases by about 5 horsepower, and peak torque is up by about 15 pound-feet. Peak torque also appears to arrive sooner, and most of the torque curve seems to be up by 10 to 15 pound-feet. The increases in power and torque are available in all four of the RDX's drive modes. The Stage 2 tune increases power torque even more in Sport and Sport+ modes, and keeps Snow and Comfort modes at Stage 1 settings. Peak horsepower looks to be up about 10 over stock, but the mid-range sees as much as a 28-hp increase. Peak torque sees a huge jump of about 45 lb-ft over stock based on the dyno chart, and it's available even lower than the Stage 1's peak torque. If this all sounds good to you, you can order up a Hondata FlashPro computer for your RDX right now. It costs $695 and comes with the handheld computer for uploading or removing tunes. RDX owners in California should note that neither tune is currently CARB legal. Related Video:

2014 Honda Ridgeline keeps on truckin' with new special edition model

Like many smaller trucks, the Honda Ridgeline has been left to stagnate on the market for far too many years. With production of the current model reportedly winding down later next year before production of the next-gen model picks up in 2016, Honda is sending the 2014 Ridgeline out with some style courtesy of a new Special Edition trim level.
The new Ridgeline SE essentially adds cues from the Ridgeline Sport to the luxurious RTL trim level. The means features like black-trimmed 18-inch alloys and matching interior trim arrives as a no-cost option. This new model carries the same starting price as the RTL at $37,505 (*not including $830 for destination), and all other trim level pricing is carried over unchanged from the 2013 model year. The new SE model won't be available until November, and it is not pictured in the image galleries (all of which seem to be identical to previous model years).
Speaking of carryover products, Honda has also released pricing for the unchanged 2014 Pilot and 2014 Acura TL, which will continue to be priced from $29,670 and $36,030, respectively (Acura's destination charge is $890). Scroll down for press releases on the 2014 Ridgeline, Pilot and TL.