Acura Details NSX Supercar Technologies

Honda Motor Co.'s Acura unit presented new technical details about the design and production of its upcoming NSX supercar during this week's SAE World Congress in Detroit. The car is expected to launch at a special manufacturing facility in Ohio later this year.

The car's multi-material spaceframe construction will feature sheet aluminum, ultra-high-strength steel and carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic. Honda says the architecture results in the most rigid body in the NSX's class.

Key structural nodes will be made of ablation cast aluminum, a process new to the auto industry. The casting technique results in components that marry the strength and rigidity of traditional casting with the ductility needed to absorb crash energy. Honda says the resulting parts overcome the brittle nature of conventional aluminum casting, thus enabling such components to be used within the vehicle's crush zone.

The NSX's hybrid engine, traction motors and gearbox will be cooled by an array of 10 heat exchangers. Three radiators one in front and one each on the sides of the vehicle will provide thermal management for the car's all-new twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6 engine. Two intercoolers in the car's side intakes will be used to lower intake air temperature.

Another pair of heat exchangers ahead of the front engine radiator will cool the condenser and power drive units. The front twin-motor assembly gets its own radiator in front of the right-side engine sub-radiator. The car's 9-speed dual-clutch transmission is cooled by a separate pair of radiators, one ahead of the left-hand engine sub-radiator and one in the engine compartment.

Honda says its engineers minimized aerodynamic drag and maximized airflow through the radiators via wind tunnel tests using ultra-detailed 40% scale models.