Oddly, Honda embraces V-10
A Honda V-8 may be dead in the water. But a V-10? That's another matter, Automotive News Reports.
TOKYO--A Honda V-8 may be dead in the water. But a V-10? That's another matter.
Honda wants 10 cylinders for the company's upcoming super sports car, the NSX, says Executive Vice President Koichi Kondo.
"This sort of discussion was made between the American Honda people and R&D people, and some people were questioning whether it's really necessary to have a V-10," Kondo says. "But sports is a special category. We said if we're going to do it, we're going to go to the extreme."
But high performance won't mean high volume.
Kondo expects to sell just 1,000 units a year of the NSX in the United States, where Honda plans to launch the sports car first. The NSX is expected to debut for the 2011 model year.
The car will be priced higher than Nissan Motor Co.'s GT-R but also have better performance, Kondo says. The GT-R starts at around $70,000 and has a turbocharged, 3.8-liter V-6.
The last NSX incarnation had a V-6 midengine layout when it was dropped in 2005.
(Via: Automotive News)