Archive for the ‘Acura’ Category

Almost a decade ago, Acura introduced the world’s first all-aluminum, mid-engine sports car, the Acura NSX to the public. For 1999, Acura is taking the exotic NSX up a notch with the ultra-exclusive Alex Zanardi Edition.

Named after two-time CART open-wheel racing championship driver Alex Zanardi, Acura will hand-build only 50 models at its Takanazawa facility in Tochigi, Japan. Cars numbered two through 49 of these yet-to-be-priced models will go on sale in March, while Alex Zanardi himself will take delivery of vehicle number one in the series. Read the rest of this entry »

Belize City, Belize: Although it’s been designed for America’s urban jungles, Acura took its all-new MDX to the steaming Savannah’s and rain forest of Belize for a comparative shakedown. Pitting its performance and power against the Mercedes ML320, the Lexus RX300 and BMW’s X-5, Honda’s luxury division claims its first light-duty truck offers “best in class” acceleration and braking, aerodynamics, cargo-carrying ability and fuel economy. Tailored for more performance and prestige, the MDX replaces the SLX, a re-badged Isuzu. Read the rest of this entry »

As we wound our way through the Los Padres National Forest toward Pine Mountain Summit, the ominous gray clouds spit water down on the windshield. Although the sky had yet to clear, it seemed the heavy rains of the night before had passed through the mountains and were likely wreaking havoc in communities to the east. It would be many days before the effects of the winter storm that had battered Southern California would be cleared from this roadway, however. Fist-sized rocks were mounded neatly at the road’s edge, pushed there with giant, orange snowplows, which worked continuously to keep the pavement clear of rock slides. Read the rest of this entry »

A blacktop back route, barely wide enough for two passing cars, rolled across lesser bumps of California’s Santa Rosa Mountains in rugged outlands stretched between San Diego and Palm Springs. With scant traffic and an array of corkscrew curves, the course gave an assertive driver the excuse to play with a new kind of sports coupe. Read the rest of this entry »

Providing cushy perks of an ultimate imported luxury sedan but for sticker figures that approach the realm of affordability becomes the apparent concept behind a new sedan by Acura, Honda’s upscale brand.

This 1996 model, bearing an alphanumeric designation as harbinger for a switch in name styles for all Acura labels, goes by the initials of TL, which stands for Touring Luxury. A base edition, dubbed 2.5TL, draws from a 2.5-liter in-line 5-cylinder engine, while the more powerful 3.2TL stocks a 3.2-liter V6. Read the rest of this entry »

The guy who showed me to my room at the Biltmore was right in the zone for the preferred Acura coupe customer . . . late 20s, in an upwardly mobile job . . . but he already had an Acura coupe. He had inherited his parent’s Legend coupe, and while he wasn’t ready to run to the dealer, his family’s excellent experience and the sexier styling of the CL sharpened his interest. The combination of track record and appealing styling may keep him out of the ranks of European car buyers, and that is the main objective of Acura. Read the rest of this entry »

MOUNT IDA, Ark. — The narrow road, squiggly Arkansas 27 whipping across the rugged Ouachita Mountains, follows contours of the steep slopes on blacktop that pitches and rolls through an endless series of snaky hard corners and broad sweepers.

Isolated in the pine-studded Ouachita National Forest with only hamlets like Rover and Onyx notched between Danville in the north and Mount Ida to the south, this curlicue route with sparse traffic works as an impromptu test track to sample the expressive spirit of a raucous two-door sports coupe by Acura, the brand of luxury and performance vehicles derived from Honda of Japan.

Our tester — the RSX Type-S — is a two-door coupe with hatchback styling that fits into the compact class and carries the muscular rendition of an all-aluminum 2.0-liter Honda engine coupled to a six-speed manual transmission with close ratios and a short-throw stick off the console.

It’s relatively light in weight (2778 pounds), long in strength (up to 200 hp) and tall in the rev department (the redline rises to 7900 rpm).

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JOPLIN, Mo. — It’s raining in the Ozark Mountains, a soppy shower of springtime that fuels flowering dogwood and wild plum blossoms but deposits a film of water on the winding two-lane road and makes tire traction on blacktop unpredictable and, if you’re not alert, dangerous.

Yet we’re not concerned because we’re steering a fortified version of Acura’s unconventional sport-utility wagon, the MDX.

Now in its third year of production, the MDX for 2003 packs a stronger V6 engine teamed to a new five-speed automatic transmission, with a permanently installed four-wheel-drive (4WD) system aboard to maintain constant tire traction plus a new vehicle stability assist (VSA) device that automatically checks lateral wheel slippage.

So it glides smoothly around each tight kink of the curvy mountain road as big front tires claw the course while the rear treads follow in line without slipping or sliding.

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The big curve on the big hill of Cantrell Road, a four-lane blacktop route that descends a steep bluff overlooking the Arkansas River in western reaches of Little Rock, challenges every vehicle that runs the road at speed.

A quarter-mile chute leads down to the curve, which wraps to the right around a sheer cliff for half of a circle before throwing in a tight left at the bottom of the sluice. Increasing the pace on the straightaway at the top sets up a tricky situation in the curve because inevitably you’ll carry too much momentum to stay on track and the laws of physics will force tires to drift away from the bend, which then creates a potentially dangerous slide into other cars on the road.

Only a handful of vehicles in one tester’s experience have been able to navigate this dicey path successfully at speed with tires rooted to the pavement without slipping out of the traffic lane — and two of the best happen to be machines branded by Acura, the performance brand from Honda of Japan.

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2002 Acura RSX Type-S

People who want superior performance at an attractive price know to look at Acura Type-S models, with their powerful engines and reasonable cost. The all-new RSX Type-S, the smallest and less expensive Acura is no exception to this rule. In addition, the RSX features styling sure to please younger buyers, who are exactly the target audience for this car.

The Type-S version of the RSX, which is the old Integra with a new name, has a couple of numbers that stand out: 200 horsepower and a reasonable price. Throw in the easy-shifting six-manual transmission, and the RSX delivers loads of fun for driving enthusiasts.

The 2.0-liter Type-S engine is rated to 200 horsepower and 143 pound-feet of torque. Despite the low torque output, the engine still delivers great performance through the entire spectrum when revving. The standard RSX features the same engine but rated only to 160 horsepower.
Adding to the driving experience is the responsive steering and taut suspension. The RSX features a variable assist rack-and-pinion power steering system that delivers accurate, tight steering around corners and when changing lanes.

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