Honda scrapped a V10 supercar, then returned with a hybrid
By 2008 Honda had a V10-powered successor to its NSX lapping the Nürburgring, with orders to beat Nissan's GT-R. Then the financial crisis hit, profits sank 81 percent, and the car was cancelled. When the NSX finally returned in 2016, it had been reborn as something almost nobody sold yet: a hybrid supercar built in Ohio.
The abandoned V10 did not vanish entirely. Honda argued the design was production-ready and raced a version of it, the HSV-010 GT, in Japan's Super GT series from 2010 to 2013, fitted with a V8 as class rules required. Talk of a proper successor resurfaced in 2011, and a concept shown at Detroit in January 2012 revealed the plan: a mid-mounted petrol engine plus three electric motors, two driving the front wheels and one the rear. Porsche's 918, the LaFerrari and McLaren's P1 were all still to come.
Development was split across the Pacific. Engine, hybrid system and gearbox were engineered in Tochigi, Japan, while the rest of the car took shape at Honda's research centre in Ohio under project leader Ted Klaus. The new team met the original NSX engineers, and Shigeru Uehara, who had led the first car, urged them not to copy it but to design freely. Klaus insisted the car should be judged on driver involvement, not on figures that would grab headlines.
Plans shifted mid-course. The first engine choice, a naturally aspirated V6 borrowed from a saloon, proved too weak, so Tochigi built a bespoke twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre V6 mounted lengthwise, forcing a redesign of the car's rear. Combined output reached 573 horsepower, and the front motors could vary torque between wheels to sharpen cornering. Prototypes were tested on Alpine passes, at Sebring and on long drives through the heat of the UAE.
Every car was hand-assembled at a dedicated 70-million-dollar plant in Marysville. The first one off the line was auctioned for 1.2 million dollars, with all proceeds going to charity. Sales, though, were thin. In 2019 and 2020 only 3 were sold in the UK and Europe combined, and Honda withdrew it from several markets in 2020. Production ended in 2022 after a run-out Type S, with 2,908 built in all.
Source: Honda NSX (second generation)
