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2022 Acura NSX Type S Track Drive | One lap of Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Stadium lights shine their bright white glow on the tarmac as I power out of the infield and up to the banking of NASCAR 1 at Daytona International Speedway in the 2022 Acura NSX Type S. The force of gravity quickly changes from normal to feeling like IÂ’m being shoved down by a compactor. I gingerly arc down from the top of DaytonaÂ’s steep 31-degree incline and settle into the middle, right pedal down and holding the wheel steady. That last part, I quickly learn, is unnecessary, as the banking holds the car in place without needing to exert much steering force. An immersive and sonorous note trumpets through the cabin as I stay in the throttle out of NASCAR 2. The Bus Stop Chicane (just renamed the Le Mans Chicane for this yearÂ’s Rolex 24) arrives quickly and with little warning when you have 600 horsepower hustling you there, and itÂ’s perhaps the worst-lit corner on the track — ironic, considering youÂ’re going as fast as anywhere at Daytona before having to apply the brakes. A loud, brap, brap, brap accompanies the slowdown. I smash over the rumble strips while exiting the chicane, and head back onto the oval for another go in the compactor for NASCAR 3 and 4. And then that's it, my one flying lap in the one-year-only NSX Type S is over. Rolling back into pit lane, IÂ’m attempting to process what just happened, but am reduced to one-word exclamations from the adrenaline rush. Piloting anything on-track at the Daytona road course at night is a bucket list, dream-come-true moment for a racing enthusiast, and I had just done it in AcuraÂ’s mid-engine supercar. Turns out, those hundreds of hours playing Gran Turismo and dreaming finally came in handy. This brief and high-speed track drive is our first go at the new-for-2022 NSX Type S. Acura says that more seat time is coming in the future, but weÂ’re to make do with this quick taste for the time being. That said, even if you wanted to at this point, the chances of buying a new NSX Type S are next to zero. The NSX swan song — yes, this is the NSXÂ’s last model year — sold out in mere minutes, and all thatÂ’s left is a waiting list. Acura is building 350 total, and 300 are allocated for the United States. There will be no “standard” NSXs for 2022 either, so itÂ’s either the $171,495 Type S or nothing. Despite the rarity and short life, it's surprising how much effort Acura put into enhancing the NSX's complex engine and three-motor hybrid system.

Junkyard Gem: 2001 Acura MDX

The point of the Junkyard Gems series is to share automotive history, and the period of the middle 1990s through early 2000s is a very interesting one for U.S.-market new vehicles. The SUV revolution went into high gear with the introduction of the 1991 Ford Explorer and 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and sales of sedans, hatchbacks, and minivans began their steady decline. The Detroit companies were in good shape to cash in on the commuter-truck craze, with plenty of additional models ready for a quick slathering of luxury features. Toyota, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Isuzu were ready as well … but Honda was completely unprepared for the Next Big Thing at that point. With American sales absolutely critical to Honda (which has never held much market share for four-wheeled vehicles in its home country), a deal was made to rebadge the Isuzu Trooper as the Acura SLX and the Isuzu Rodeo as the Honda Passport while an all-Honda big SUV could be developed. That SUV was the Acura MDX, which debuted for the 2001 model year. Here's one of those first-year MDXs, a huge turning point in Honda history, found in a Denver-area self-service boneyard recently. Oh, sure, Honda began selling the CR-V over here in 1997 and so wasn't completely out of the SUV game during the 1990s, but that little Civic-based machine was never going to lure away many Explorer or even Montero shoppers. The MDX was a proper three-row crossover SUV, despite being based on the same platform as the not-so-imposing Accord, and a Honda-badged version (the Pilot) followed two years later. Here's that third row, which looks quite cramped, but so what? MDX sales started out respectable and stayed that way. Every 2001-2013 MDX ever sold here came with a VTEC-equipped V6, automatic transmission, and all-wheel-drive (some later MDXs could be bought with front-wheel-drive). This engine is a 3.5-liter DOHC plant rated at 240 horsepower and 245 pound-feet, decent enough for a truck that tipped the scales at well beyond two tons. The MSRP on this truck was $34,370, which amounts to around $58,260 in inflation-adjusted 2022 dollars. The base '01 Ford Explorer started at just $25,210, but the swankified Eddie Bauer Edition was better-suited to the Acura-shopper demographic and listed at $32,025. You could buy a new Montero XLS and do some serious off-roading for $31,397 that year, but it had warlord-grade ride to go with its warlord-grade abilities in the bundoks.

Honda marks 20 million vehicles made in the USA

Japanese automakers manufacturing in the United States is nothing new. But it was in November of 1982 when the first Honda Accord rolled off the assembly line in Marysville, OH. It was the first Japanese vehicle assembled in the US, and in the nearly 32 years since, Honda has made 10 million Accords here for a total of 20 million cars manufactured in America - enough to span from New York to San Francisco twenty times. It's that double landmark which Honda is now celebrating.
Honda has come a long way in those three decades, keeping that original plant in Marysville on line while expanding to three more - in East Liberty, OH; Lincoln, AL; and Greensburg, IN - with a fifth plant (the Performance Manufacturing Center) opening on the same site in Marysville to build the Acura NSX next year. It also builds engines in Lincoln and in Anna, OH, and automatic transmissions at Russells Point, OH, and Tallapoosa, GA.
Between those seven sites, Honda produces 11 different models, including the Accord, Civic, Crosstour, CR-V, Pilot, Odyssey and Ridgeline as well as the Acura ILX, TL, RDX and MDX. Production keeps on ramping up as Honda produced a record 1.3 million vehicles in the US last year, 95 percent of which are sold in the US. Scope out the details in the press release below and click the image above to see it all laid out in a handy infographic.