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Marysville. Ohio\u00a0<\/em>\u2014\u00a0Driving down rural Ohio Route 739 northwest of Columbus, it is not uncommon to see cows, farm equipment and \u2014\u00a0FOOM!<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 a wicked, 573-horsepower\u00a0Japanese supercar<\/a>\u00a0on a test run.<\/p>\n Twenty-six years after Honda\u2019s luxury Acura decision wowed the world with the high-performance NSX, the long-awaited sequel will hit dealer showrooms later this year. The sleek hybrid-electric\u00a0all-wheel drive 2017 model<\/a>\u00a0is a showcase for the latest sports car technology.<\/p>\n The NSX<\/a>\u00a0is also a showcase for how integral Honda has become to the U.S. Midwest.<\/p>\n In a purpose-built factory just three hours south of Detroit, Acura\u2019s flagship is only one of two exotic, mid-engine supercars built in North America. The other,\u00a0Ford\u2019s $400,000 GT<\/a>, is outsourced to\u00a0Multimatic<\/a>, a specialty coach maker in Ontario. Similar entries from Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren and Audi are all developed overseas by elite engineers near their home headquarters.<\/p>\n \u201cThe NSX\u2019s biggest market is going to be North America,\u201d says Frank Paluch, president of Honda R&D Americas. \u201cTo make it successful for this market, Honda gave us the responsibility to develop it. The magic here is taking the best in Japan and then putting it together to what we know of this market.\u201d<\/p>\n Kelley Blue Book analyst Karl Brauer calls the decision extraordinary. \u201cYou see foreign automakers like Toyota, BMW and Mercedes more and more commit 100 percent of development of U.S. vehicles to North America. But the unique thing about Honda is this is their very top-end car. Their commitment to the U.S. is really stronger than any other automaker.\u201d<\/p>\n The original NSX was made entirely in Japan in 1990.<\/p>\n A lot has changed. The second-gen NSX will be manufactured exclusively in Ohio. Its chief engineer, Ted Klaus, and designer, Michelle Christensen, are Americans. Designed in Los Angeles and engineered at Marysville\u2019s Research and Development Center, the NSX is all-American but for its Japan-developed hybrid powertrain.<\/p>\n Like its predecessor, the NSX is Honda\u2019s state-of-the-art. It is benchmarked to the Ferrari 458, the supercar standard. Yet, in keeping with Acura\u2019s \u201caffordable\u201d luxury brand, it delivers Ferrari performance for some $90,000 below the Italian Stallion\u2019s $240,000 base price.<\/p>\n The Performance Manufacturing Center, where the low-production NSX will be handmade, is in the shadow of Honda\u2019s massive, 4-million-square-foot Marysville final assembly facility.<\/p>\n Opened in 1982, the plant produces the Honda Accord \u2014 the best-selling retail U.S. sedan \u2014 alongside the Acura ILX and TLX, the luxury brand\u2019s top-selling sedan. Eight miles away, the East Liberty plant churns out America\u2019s top-selling crossover in America, the Honda CR-V and its sister Acura, the RDX.<\/p>\n All told, Honda\u2019s northwest Columbus empire employs 8,100 people over 8,000 acres, pumping out a staggering 680,000 vehicles a year. Another 3,900 work at the nearby engine plant in Anna and the transmission facilities in Russells Point.<\/p>\n Honda\u2019s reach extends into Michigan, where it did $1.9 billion in supplier purchasing last year \u2014 in addition to $9.4 billion in Ohio and $2.4 billion in Indiana.<\/p>\n There\u2019s more on the way. MDX production is moving from Alabama to East Liberty. \u201cWe\u2019ll basically have all of our Acura manufacturing right here in one location \u2014 with us leading development hand-in-hand so we can start leap-frogging technologies,\u201d says Paluch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Marysville. Ohio\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Driving down rural Ohio Route 739 northwest of Columbus, it is not uncommon to see cows, farm equipment and \u2014\u00a0FOOM!\u00a0\u2014 a wicked, 573-horsepower\u00a0Japanese supercar\u00a0on a test run. Twenty-six years after Honda\u2019s luxury Acura decision wowed the world with the high-performance NSX, the long-awaited sequel will hit dealer showrooms later this year. The sleek hybrid-electric\u00a0all-wheel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18092,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18091\/revisions\/18092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}