Final assembly: On the Ohio line with the last Acura NSX Type S supercar

Posted by Talbot Payne on November 17, 2022

Marysville, Ohio — There are two supercars made in the United States: the Chevrolet Corvette in Bowling Green, Kentucky and the Acura NSX in Marysville. The latter comes to an end this week.

An engineering marvel, NSX packages state-of-the-art hybrid, all-wheel-drive and mixed-materials technologies into a gorgeous, $170K mid-engine supercar that can vault from 0-60 mph in just 2.9 seconds before popping neck vertebrae through high-speed corners.

Just as magnificent is the manufacturing process that put the NSX’s jigsaw puzzle together.

In a country full of sprawling mega-volume auto plants stuffed with endless cages of robots and a mouse maze of overhead assembly tracks, the NSX’s Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio, is a rare, intimate facility featuring modern assembly techniques on a human scale.

More: Payne: Wicked 600-hp Acura NSX Type S saves the best for last

After five years, the second-generation NSX’s production is coming to an end. As the last 350 special-edition $171,495 NSX Type-S cyborgs rolled through PMC just three hours south of Detroit in the cornfields of Ohio, The Detroit News got an up-close look at how a modern masterpiece is assembled.

Robots put finishing spot welds on an Acura NSX Type S chassis.

Type S chassis #350, the last of the breed, was birthed like every other NSX before it: as a collection of aluminum pieces welded together by a robot in the southwest quadrant of PMC’s single-floor, 206,000 square-foot building just off U.S. 33.

The robot spun the aluminum space frame this way and that, securing a joint here — another joint there — in a shower of sparks.

Each piece was stamped with a part number and QR code so that employees could track chassis as they move in a clockwise direction around the facility. After the robot spit out a finished subframe, it was loaded on a cart and rolled to another robot welding station.

A technician inspects the welds on an Acura NSX Type S chassis.

Jon Ikeda, Acura marketing chief, took snapshots of the process just like the media pool. A car enthusiast from a young age, he was wowed by the first generation mid-engine NSX as a designer. Acura brought him to Japan’s epic Suzuka race track in 1989 to watch McLaren-Honda teammates Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost do battle for the Formula One world championship. Ikeda was sold.

“Coming out of design school in Pasadena, seeing the NSX was really something. That vehicle caught my eye and was very special. That’s what NSX does for company — it’s the showcase for what we can do,” said Ikeda near PMC’s lobby where an original 1984 NSX is displayed alongside the frame of a current model.

Since its inception, NSX has been track-focused with the original car racing at the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans. The second-gen model has raced in GT3 series all over the world — recently winning the GTD class at Road Atlanta’s grueling Petit Le Mans 10-hour in October.

Every racing chassis was built at PMC right alongside the production mules.

An Acura NSX Type S chassis gets a zirconium bath at the Performance Manufacturing Center.

By the end of the welding process, all the aluminum pieces — chassis, doors, hatchback — migrated together for inspection. The frame was then sent to the rear of the plant, where it was immersed in a succession of baths to chemically protect it from corrosion against harsh climates — whether salty Midwest roads or salty coastlines.

In large plants like nearby East Liberty, which cranks out 950 CR-V SUVs a day, the baths are enormous football-field long assembly lines, with chassis submerging continuously through baths.

In intimate, low-volume PMC, each chassis was carried individually along an overhead trellis, then dipped in sequential baths beginning with zirconium treatment and finishing with a black e-coat. The e-coated weld joints were then swabbed with a flesh-colored sealant in each joint for added protection.

At PMC, Acura NSX Type S get a black e-coat before moving into component assembly.

Raw body parts emerged from welding on a parallel track to the chassis baths where they’d been painted. The paint booth was a glass house so that audiences (like ours) could watch giant robots perform their twin-coat painting dance.

Across the aisle — the plant’s northeast quadrant — the black chassis was met by employees like Scott Ernest, 52. He locked the chassis upright on a trellis like a painter addressing his canvas — then installed brake lines, water lines and a steering rack arranged on a rolling cart.

Scott Ernest, 52, locks the Acura NSX Type S chassis upright on a trellis like a painter addressing his canvas – then installs brake lines, water lines, and steering rack.

A pair of Acura team members took it from there. They crawled all over the cabin installing brake and accelerator pedals — then the hybrid power train’s small 1.7 kW battery in the firewall directly behind the driver.

At the next station, Gene Bowshier, 52, and Jon Osler, 52, lifted the NSX’s formidable, 3.5-liter twin-turbo V-6 — which had arrived fully assembled from Honda’s Anna, Ohio, plant — into the engine bay. They each secured 17 engine mounts (34 total) to keep the 600-horsepower beast in place.

PMC was designed to showcase NSX, Acura’s first hybrid supercar. Like the first-gen NSX, which offered supercar thrills at half the price of a comparable mid-engine Ferrari, NSX was a production study in how to create a hybrid supercar like the $1 million Porsche 918 — but for less than $200,000.

The Acura wowed with its technology, but — facing stiff competition from Porsche 911 GT3, Audi R8 and McLarens 650 in the same segment — it was a sales disappointment, selling just 2,548 cars globally to 18,000 by its predecessor.

Separated since the weld department, the chassis and painted doors were reunited as the NSX snaked onto the hand-assembly line.

“We put the lipstick on it here,” smiled Jenny Purtee, 52, as she applied yellow doors and fenders to an Acura NSX Type S at PMC.

“We put the lipstick on it here,” smiled Jenny Purtee, 52, (was everyone in the plant born in 1970?), as she applied yellow doors and fenders. A 25-year Honda veteran, she was chosen as one of the company’s finest for the PMC line.

With each body panel, the skeleton of the Acura started to look like its sleek, runway-model self. The 350 Type S models have a different front end than other NSXs giving it a more-menacing, shark-like appearance.

Acura hasn’t said what vehicle will occupy PMC after the NSX, but the supercar hasn’t been the only vehicle to pass through the hands of Purtee & colleagues. The line has produced special performance variants of other Acuras.

The TLX sedan PMC Edition (360 units) and RDX SUV PMC Edition (330 units) have also passed through here. And any NSX or NSX GT3 race car that has suffered extreme damage returns here as well.

PMC was surprisingly laid back. Without the pressure to spit out 100 vehicles a day like its neighboring East Liberty and Marysville mega-plants, the facility is spacious with small hives of human and robot activity. The last hive on the assembly line jacked NSX into the air so that a Acura team member could make final suspension tweaks.

The Acura NSX Type S goes through its final engine test. Note the blast shield behind the tailpipes.

From the first weld to when the NSX rolled out of PMC’s womb, an NSX was built every 25 days. The last stop in NSX’s U-shaped journey through PMC was the Validation Department, where the thoroughbred was fueled and run through a series of tests.

A yellow NSX Type S drove onto a pair of rollers in PMC’s southeast corner — directly opposite the welding department. A blast shield rose behind it like a Navy F-14 fighter jet preparing to launch off the end of an aircraft carrier.

NSX’s twin-turbo V-6 roared as a test driver accelerated through the gears — the Pirelli summer tires spinning on the rollers, the car never moving. Satisfied, the driver rolled his steed into another stall were it was shaken relentlessly to check for loose fittings.

The first, final-edition, Gotham Gray Matte Type S was auctioned to Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports chief, for $1 million.

It will be an instant collector’s item.

Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.

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