2006 Acura Rsx Base Coupe 2-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Honda CEO says we shouldn't expect any new sports cars

It wasn't so long ago that Honda was known for its sporty two-door models, with models ranging from the Civic del Sol to the Prelude and from the Acura Integra and RSX to the Honda S2000. But look at its range today and all you'll see are the Civic and Accord coupes. Honda has essentially let competitors like the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ and Nissan 370Z take the place it once claimed as its own. But if you were hoping Honda would fight back with a new coupe or convertible of its own, we're afraid you're going to have to downgrade those hopes to pipe dreams.
While in Japan ahead of the Tokyo Motor Show, Autoblog had a chance to sit down with American Honda CEO Tetsuo Iwamura (pictured at right). When we asked about the potential for a new sports coupe or convertible in the Honda or Acura lineup, he pointed to the current Civic and Accord coupes - not to mention the upcoming new NSX - but said that Honda has no replacement for any of the aforementioned models (or a rival for the FR-S or 370Z) in the pipeline, saying only that the company is monitoring potential demand.
What Iwamura-san did note was that he's a personal fan of the new S660 roadster (pictured above) set to be unveiled tomorrow, and he is pushing (or at least hoping) that it will come to North America. Given that he's head of both Honda's American office and its global automobile operations, one might think that the only person he would have to persuade is himself (well... himself, and potential buyers), but the sporty droptop looks to be about kei-sized, which sadly suggests that it may be too small for American tastes and perhaps not designed with US crash-test standards in mind anyway.

Reliving the Acura NSX debut, 25 years later

The Acura NSX might be one of the most important Japanese cars ever created. The Land of the Rising Sun had already established that it could make very competent performance vehicles when the NSX debuted in 1989, but Honda's two-seater was the first one that looked to the world like a true contender against Ferrari and Porsche, thanks to its cutting-edge technology. The Acura had an all-aluminum monocoque chassis, a beautifully low-slung body and a quick-revving V6 with an 8,000-rpm redline. This quintessential Japanese sports coupe celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and Autoweek recognizes it in a fantastic piece chronicling the model's US launch.
The story begins in February 1989 at the Chicago Motor Show where the car debuted. The day before the show opened, the concept still didn't have a name. The Japanese development team referred to it as New Sports, and the American Acura executives decided to add eXperimental to the end. The moniker NSX just stuck afterwards.
The article paints a fantastic portrait of the car and the company at the time. Honda had something to prove with the NSX. To succeed, the coupe had to be the best, and when the American press finally got a hold of it, they drowned it in accolades. Of course, Acura has a new American-built NSX on the way, and it has colossal legacy to live up to. This piece is definitely worth reading to understand why.

Acura NSX #001 sells for $1.2 million

When the new Acura NSX hits showrooms in the Spring, it will cost at least $156,000 in "base" spec, or as much as $205k fully loaded. But at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale Saturday, one notable buyer paid a record $1.2 million for the privilege of ordering the very first one. That works out to a good six or seven times the list price, but fortunately it's all going to a good cause. The winning bid for the very first production example of the new Acura NSX was placed by none other than Rick Hendrick, a man best known for his NASCAR team but also for other projects like the modified Jeeps his company is pitching to the US Army. His $1.2 million will allow him to order the first one off the line, to his specifications. Proceeds are earmarked towards the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation and Camp Southern Ground in Georgia, which focuses on at-risk kids, children of military families, and those with neurobehavioral disorders. Hendrick's winning bid marks the highest price that Barrett-Jackson has ever recorded for a VIN 001 vehicle. And make no mistake about it: it has handled a lot of them. This weekend alone also saw the first new Chevy COPO Camaro raise $300,000 for United Way, and Jay Leno's 2006 Ford F-150 Harley-Davidson edition (also the first of its kind) bring in $200k for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Related Video: FIRST 2017 ACURA NSX SCORES RECORD AUCTION PRICE OF $1.2 MILLION AT BARRETT-JACKSON - Final hammer price of $1.2 million sets record auction price for a designated VIN 001 vehicle - All proceeds go to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation and Camp Southern Ground Jan 29, 2016 - SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- At the auctioneer's final call, the next-generation 2017 Acura NSX supercar tonight smashed the record for a vehicle auction at Barrett-Jackson for the highest-selling designated vehicle identification number (VIN) 001 with the final hammer price set at $1.2 million. Winning bidder Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports and founder of Hendrick Automotive Group, has earned the right to custom order the first production model of Acura's highly anticipated NSX, which comes to market this spring. All proceeds of the auction will go to the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation, based in North Carolina, and Camp Southern Ground in Georgia, the passion project of Grammy® Award-winning music artist Zac Brown.