2018 Acura Rdx W/advance on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2013 Acura ILX Hybrid

This Is Not The Acura You're Looking For
Mid-level luxury brands have always had to do a bit of leg work to distance themselves from their more common cousins. Thanks to generation after generation of pervasive badge engineering (much of it from the Big Three), buyers can't be blamed for looking at brands like Buick, Lincoln, Infiniti, Lexus and yes, Acura as tarted up versions of Chevrolet, Ford, Nissan, Toyota and Honda products. For much of its lifetime in the automotive landscape, however, Acura has excelled at putting distance between its offerings and that of its parent company thanks to cars with superior driving dynamics, quieter cabins and clean, attractive aesthetics.
Yes, outliers and dull spots can be found in the company's recent track record, but by and large, Acura products remain situated well above the Honda rabble. When the brand announced it was getting serious about the luxury small car game with the ILX, those of us with a set of the company's keys in our past couldn't help but envision an honest successor to the long-dead Integra. Turns out, that wasn't what Acura had in mind.

Acura heading to SEMA with... a '93 Legend?

Acura is gearing up for SEMA this year, and it'll be showing a 1993 Legend, the second-generation version of the sedan that had launched the brand in the first place. You read that right. The vehicle just happens to belong to one Christopher Bridges, better known to some as Ludacris and to others as Tej from the Fast and Furious movies. The Legend is the rapper-turned-actor's cherished possession, having appeared on the cover of his ninth studio album Ludaversal. It was involved in a collision recently, but is being painstakingly repaired, restored, and modified by Acura and will be on display at the Vegas tuner expo. Of course that's not all that Honda's premium division has in store for the show. It's also teaming up again with Galpin Auto Sports to customize a TLX and an ILX – the latter inspired by the aforementioned Ludacris project. Galpin may be better known for working on Fords, but did a custom TLX for last year's SEMA show as well. Joining the Legend and the Galpin customs will be a new NSX and an ILX fitted with several factory-backed accessories. Acura to Showcase Legendary Performance Heritage and Personalization at 2015 SEMA Show Oct 12, 2015 - TORRANCE, Calif. - Acura to unveil rapper, actor Ludacris' custom-restored 1993 Legend - Highly modified 2016 ILX by Galpin Auto Sports will also debut at SEMA during the Acura press conference on Nov. 3 Acura's 2015 SEMA showcase will be highlighted by a custom-restored 1993 Acura Legend sedan owned by actor and rap artist Ludacris. Stepping up its game from the 2014 SEMA Show – where the performance-oriented Galpin Auto Sports Acura TLX was unveiled – the luxury brand will also feature a wide variety of vehicles showcasing its performance heritage and its products' customization potential at the 2015 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Following a collision that severely damaged Ludacris' cherished 1993 Legend, Team Acura set about to artfully restore and modify the vehicle under the guidance of Acura Design Studio in Los Angeles and under the watchful eye of Acura Global Creative Director, Dave Marek. Fans can follow the build progress leading up to SEMA on Acura (@Acura) and Ludacris' (@Ludacris) social media channels and by using the hashtag #LegendaryDuo. "Working with a real car guy and a passionate Acura owner like Ludacris has made the processes of bringing his Legend back to its original glory a fun and unique experience," said Marek.

Honda celebrates 30th anniversary of the NSX with a look back at how it began

In 1989, the baseball-loving Japanese dipped their bats in pine tar and came to the U.S. to take gigundous swings. That single year launched five legends: Lexus LS400, Infiniti Q45, Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo, Mazda MX-5 Miata, and Acura NS-X concept. The Chicago Auto Show (!) hosted the global debuts of the Mazda and the Acura. While Mazda celebrates the bygones with the 30th Anniversary Miata, Acura's reminiscing with a look at how the NSX — a car Motor Trend described in 1990 as, "[The] best sports car the world has ever produced. Any time. Any place. Any price ..." — came to be. The development yearbook opened in 1984, a year after Honda returned to Formula One as an engine supplier for the Spirit team, and for the second Williams chassis in the last race of the season. For the first time in the automaker's history, Honda wanted to build a production car with the engine behind the cabin, one that would demonstrate Honda's engineering prowess and "deeply rooted racing spirit." The sports car would also serve as a halo for the not-yet-launched Acura brand. The engineering team built the first test vehicle in February 1984 on the bones of a first-generation Honda Jazz. After four years of formal development, Honda parked the NS-X Concept in a conference room at Chicago's Drake Hotel in February 1989. This is where the media would meet the red wonder before the public show-stand debut. The F-16 Fighting Falcon-inspired coupe was built on the world's first all-aluminum monocoque, and its SOHC V6 ran with titanium connecting rods. Before the press conference, then-Honda president Tadashi Kume got in the NS-X, started the engine, and revved to the 8,000-rpm redline — a noise felt by everyone in the adjacent conference room attending a Ford press conference. Honda's PR man at the time yelled, "Mr. Kume, stop it! They're gonna hear this!" When Kume got out, he asked Honda engineers present why they didn't put their new VTEC technology in the NS-X. (What's Japanese for, "Why didn't the VTEC kick in, yo?!") They told him VTEC had been created for four-cylinder engines. Kume told them to work on a V6 application. More suggestions came from journos who drove the early prototypes at Honda's Tochigi R&D Center, who said the NS-X "could use more power." The development team had grabbed the SOHC V6 from the Acura Legend for the NS-X concept, and it put out 160 horsepower in the luxury sedan.