Two generations of the Acura NSX took on the mountain at the 2015 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb – a 1991 NSX race car and the all-new, pre-production NSX that served as the pace car for the event.
The 1991 Acura NSX driven by James Robinson in the Open class was originally built as a Le Mans racer, but was rescued and re-purposed for the hill climb. The car makes about 500 horsepower from its turbocharged V-6 at sea level, which drops to 400 horsepower at the start and 350 horsepower at the 14,110 foot peak.
Robinson’s time up the hill was 10:37, which was good enough for second place in the Open class.
The NSX pace car is a development prototype that is not exactly what will be put into production. It has a 75-degree, twin-turbocharged V-6 with three electric motors – one in the back and one at each front wheel. The front motors can provide torque vectoring to the front wheels to further aid in handling.
Sage Marie, American Honda Motor Company senior manager of public relations and Pikes Peak veteran, drove the new NSX up the mountain. He said that the car’s all wheel drive system, especially the torque vectoring, is perfectly suited for carving up canyon roads.
TFLcar provided exclusive coverage of the Honda team at Pikes Peak and captured the two Acuras as they made their runs.
The first video highlights the cars and the drivers and gives a glimpse into what it’s like to race up Pikes Peak. The second video shows Robinson’s run up the hill to give a glimpse of how dangerous the route is. Once past the tree line, the video shows just how harrowing the drop-offs are, most of which don’t have guardrails to stop cars from flying off the road.
Check out both TFLcar videos below:
