The new Honda Acura NSX

Honda's supercar, the popular Acura NSX, has a new version due out this year!

Not merely a concept car like the Carbon Ferrari, the 2008 NSX, was already in road trials.

Honda today unveiled the Acura Advanced Sports Car Concept, a preview of the design direction for the successor to the Acura NSX. The concept is designed to incorporate a powerful front-mounted, V-10 engine and a new high-performance, rear-wheel-drive based version of Acura's 'Super Handling All-Wheel Drive' (SH-AWD).

"Our intention was to design an exotic sports car that gracefully combines advanced technology and strong emotion," said Jon Ikeda, principal designer, Acura Design Center. "The technical, machined surfaces and keen-edge design are balanced with sweeping curves and dramatic lines, all of which results in the ultimate exotic sports car."

But it took some time and a lot of work before the problems were ironed out.

The long-overdue next NSX is not yet a done deal, as Honda struggles to define what kind of car it should be and how it should look. The mid-engine Honda HSC concept (above) from the 2003 Tokyo show no longer points the way toward the next NSX, which will be front-engine, not mid-engine, mainly for packaging: American Honda insists that it be able to carry two sets of golf clubs. Honda Motor CEO Takeo Fukui has decreed a ten-cylinder engine, frustrating employees from Japan to California to Ohio, who would like to develop a V-8 that could be used across a wider product range, such as a proper flagship sedan for Acura. Honda insiders also hint of continued design hiccups. We'll see it in 2008, if we're lucky.