It was a popular “sleeper” car in the early 90′s. Honda produced it, Americans only saw the Acura variant. It disappeared at the turn of the century. The NSX is back, supposedly.

“We need a halo car,” Honda’s design manager Yoshikazu Kigoshi told UK TV series TopGear, “and this is a decision that’s come from Ito-san down. A new S2000 is a difficult car for us to do, because of its front-engined, rear-drive platform. But we are definitely looking at the EV-ster and a new NSX.”

NSX will get the auto maker’s new SH-AWD torque vectoring system. This set up uses independent electric motors on its rear wheels to optimize cornering.

Source: Top Gear

Originally cast under the Honda name, NSX was conceptualized in the late 1980′s and came to life as an Acura in 1990. NSX sports a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout and was powered by an all-aluminum V6. It was one of the more popular carriers of VTEC: “variable valve timing and lift electronic control.”

One of the first magazine articles showed the lightweight 3.0L 270 bhp NSX producing a best 0-60 mph time of 5.03 seconds and 13.47 seconds for the quarter mile. Also on a Ferrari 348 to NSX comparison, a 0-60 mph time of 5.2 seconds was recorded for the 1991 NSX. Not bad, and with a redline of 8000 rpm you’d expect no less. NSX grew in popularity so fast that Wheels magazine in Australia awarded the Honda NSX the 1991 Car of the Year award, and the Acura-badged car was Automobile Magazine’s Automobile of the Year that same year.

NSX gathered a wide range of fans and buyers globally, but as engines advanced to be more “green” NSX began to grow elderly. By 2005, NSX unit sales amounted to a few hundred vehicles per year worldwide. Honda deemed continuation of the NSX was not economically viable, considering the very high cost of manufacturing the NSX along with the company’s growing interest in producing a new model with a V10 engine and performance on par with the most modern high performance sports cars. Thus the final year of Acura NSX came and went, but it still flourishes at car shows and on race courses world wide.