Acura NSX “Too High A Halo”; Honda Planning Scaled-Down Version: Report

ACCORDING TO company insiders, Honda's plans for the new Acura NSX supercar were too ambitious, leading to the project being cancelled late last year amid the global financial downturn.

The V10-powered supercar was originally intended to go head-to-head with the Nissan GT-R and be the successor to the much-loved NSX of the 1990s. Unfortunately, economic uncertainty and the car's positioning within the Acura/Honda line-up led to its axing.

Acura’s Senior Manager of Product Development John Watts said the NSX was "too high a halo" for Acura, and would have looked out of place in the Acura stable because of its high price and supercar-shaming levels of performance.

Consequently, Acura's parent company Honda is reportedly moving ahead with a more down-to-earth replacement for the NSX, which will be cheaper, less powerful and possibly built upon an existing platform.

It's still much too early to speculate on powertrain and drivetrain details for the replacement car, but a RWD chassis based upon the current Honda S2000's platform is a possibility.

As for the NSX's V10? Don't count on seeing that fitted to a production car any time soon.