#HondaNSX

Spy photos taken at the set of the upcoming Avengers movie is providing us with a glimpse of a future Acura sports car, driven by Robert Downey Junior who plays Iron Man, Tony Stark.

It’s been rumored, confirmed, re-confirmed, axed and revived. If jaded skepticism about not just the car, but the Honda brand hasn’t gotten to you yet, then rejoice in this latest blissful report that the NSX will return.

Many a Honda fanboy is under the impression that the brand has lost its way, putting too much of a focus on green technology and not enough on driving enjoyment and performance. But Honda is looking to restore faith in the company by merging the two ideas says President Takanobu Ito, confirming that it is working ‘very hard’ on a spiritual successor to the car.

Now that Acura has confirmed that they’ve resumed development of a next-generation NSX, it’s always a treat to revisit just how amazing Acura’s first and only exotic is – and maybe remind Honda so they don’t deliver a dud.

The famed Tsukuba Circuit in Japan is similar to Nurburgring in the sense that it’s used as a gauge by which automakers and tuners rank just how good their cars are. Sub 1-minute Tsukuba times are respected, while anything faster than 57-seconds is considered impressive.

While there are cars such as HKS’ Turbocharged Mitsubishi EVO that has lapped Tsukuba in 54.739 seconds, watching a naturally aspirated NSX do it in 56.959 is equally entertaining.

Check out the video after the break and make sure to turn up the volume!

[Source: Farm of Minds]

Acura may have officially begun its quest back to relevance. Then again, maybe not. According to a recent report out of Japan, Honda CEO Takashi Ito made known to reporters that the automaker is once-again revisiting plans to build a sports car.

Rumors have been tossed around for years that Honda is debating whether or not to bring the NSX back to the research and development stage, possibly releasing a true successor to one of Japan’s most exotic cars. When the HSV-010 GT race car was announced, belief was that Honda would be resurrecting the NSX’s development following its shelving back in 2008.

The Acura (or Honda) NSX has been out of production since 2005, but icons are always worth revisiting. That, apparently, is the thought behind the new Sports Modulo NSX.

Honda is currently working to bring to market a new sports car that will serve as a successor to the famed NSX. According to a new report Honda never gave up on its plans for an NSX, but rather put a hold on development during the economic downturn.

While we continue to anxiously await a possible NSX successor for the street, Honda has been out at Twin Ring Motegi in Japan testing an NSX Hybrid for the upcoming 2012 Super GT season. The 2012 season will allow teams to equip and utilize a hybrid system on their race cars in the series.

Made by Zytech (the company that handled McLaren’s Formula 1 KERS system), the hybrid drive has 40kw of output power and can be used to power the car in pit lane (full electric).

The battery can be fully charged in just one lap on a course and has about 20 seconds of use when the driver opts to turn on the overtake button. The system adds another 220 lbs or so to the race car and to determine just how big of a difference it makes Honda enlisted the driving expertise of Katsutomo Kaneishi.

Kaneishi was able to lap Twin Ring Motegi in 1 minute, 49.468 seconds. It was 4.453 seconds behind the fastest lap time recorded in that session. Development of these hybrid systems for Super GT will continue for the next year and change, so we’ll anxiously await the results and how it’ll impact the Super GT race series.

Now if Honda could pair a powerful KERS system with a high-output version of one of its V6 engines and drop it in the HSV-010 GT race car chassis and make it street legal … now we’re talking!

[Source: 7Tune]

Check out more pics of the NSX Hybrid in action after the jump:

According to a new report by the reputable German outlet Autobild, Honda will resurrect the NSX after all. That’s right, the article suggests Honda will put its HSV-010 GT race car into production in 2011. The car’s track would be reduced some, with minimal changes to the bodywork and the absence of a GT-car wing. As for power, it will come from a 500-ish horsepower 5.0-liter V8 engine rather than the race car’s 3.4-liter racing unit.

Honda Racing has officially announced the HSV-010 GT will join Japan’s Super GT racing series this year, releasing a huge selection of photos for those who just can’t get enough of the car. Based on the discontinued NSX replacement (yup, we’re still crying about it too), the HSV-010 is powered by a 3.4-liter V8 that makes 500-ish horsepower and 289 ft-lbs of torque. While the road car was expected to be powered by a V10 and get AWD, this race car is RWD and the V8 engine is thought to be a version of the V8 found in the Acura ARX ALMS cars.

It’s here at last… sort of. Above is a lone photo of the replacement to the Honda/Acura NSX – at least in race car trim. Called the HSV-10 GT, or Velocity Sports Honda, this track only exotic is built to run in the GT500 class of Japan’s Super GT series. As cars in that class are limited to around 500-hp, we can safely assume the HSV-10 GT makes exactly that.