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Tokyo
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ROCHESTER, MI – Car enthusiasts eager for a look at Honda Motor Co. Ltd.’s next-generation Acura NSX supercar will have to wait a little longer.
John Mendel, executive vice president-automobile operations for American Honda Motor Co. Inc., says a second supercar concept will be unveiled at October’s Tokyo auto show, not a production model as Honda CEO Takeo Fukui promised last January in Detroit, where the Acura Advanced Sports Car Concept (AASC) was shown.
“You’ll see another concept (in Tokyo),” Mendel tells Ward’s here during an Acura media event. “You’ll see a more refined concept design toward the direction of the successor of the next NSX.”
The ASCC was Honda’s first display of what a future NSX might look like, but the auto maker is rumored to have been unhappy with the public’s lukewarm response to the vehicle.
In July, Honda announced it would delay the rollout of the mid-luxury Acura brand in Japan by at least two years from the original fall 2008 target.
It had been thought the debut of Acura in Honda’s home country would coincide with the launch of the new NSX, which the auto maker said will sport a new V-10 engine and a rear-drive version of Acura’s Super-Handling-All-Wheel Drive.
But Mendel says the NSX launch there will “not necessarily” coincide with Acura’s debut, although he can’t say if NSX will roll out before Acura in Japan. And if that happens, the car will remain a Honda in the local market.
The next NSX was due as an ’09 model, but timing now appears less certain.
“I don’t believe we’ve announced the timing of when Japan will launch (the NSX) or when the successor to the next NSX will launch (in the U.S.),” Mendel says.
