Acura NSX, Ford GT, and the other top tech cars of the 2015 Detroit auto show

The big bucks sports car is back: faster, lighter, more efficient, and swoopier, thanks to technology. Ford and Acura made the biggest splashes at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show with a new Ford GT and a gas-electric Acura NSX. They make do with six- not eight-cylinder engines, recognizing that $2-a-gallon gasoline isn’t a forever thing.
Performance cars highlighted the Detroit auto show, along with the self-driving cars shown last week at CES 2015. Here’s our take on the top tech cars of the Detroit show, which runs through January 25, 2015.

Acura NSX: $150,000, 150 mph super-hybrid two-seater

The Acura NSX has two seats and three electric motors along with a twin-turbo V6 engine mounted just behind the seats and a nine-speed double-clutch transmission. The engine and an electric motor provide power to the rear wheels; two more electric motors drive the front wheels. Electric front drive eliminates the bulk of a mechanical driveshaft to the front and makes possible Acura’s super-handling all-wheel-drive with torque vectoring.
The orginal Acura NSX of 1992-2005 was the first all-aluminum production car. Acura says the 2016 NSX uses “world’s-first materials”: The NSX comprises an “aluminum-intensive” space frame, a carbon fiber floor anchoring the vehicle, and an all-aluminum suspension. The “sport hybrid” battery pack lets the NSX go a few miles on battery alone, which provides entrée to some of the world’s megacities that give preferred access to cars that can get through the city gates on battery power. Tromp the throttle and the electric motors serve as additional turbochargers, providing the most power at startup, when combustion engines are still gathering power.
The NSX will cost about $150,000 and be built in Marysville, Ohio. The original NSX was originally ridiculed for having only six cylinders but Acura was too far ahead of its time. While Acura suggests the next NSX competes against Ferrari, Lamborghini and the like (it does, just for less money), the closest spiritual competitor is the carbon-fiber BMW i8, a supercar plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).

Ford GT: LeMans winner resurrected 50 years later

In 1964, the Ford GT shocked Ferrari and the rest of the racing world by winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race. A decade ago, the company built another Ford GT as homage to the original. Now comes the 2016 or 2017 Ford GT, the swoopiest and fastest one yet. The engine produces more than 600 horsepower. No longer a V8, this is a V6 with turbocharging, or EcoBoost in Ford parlance, mated to a seven-speed double clutch transmission. The driver seat is fixed and the steering wheel and pedals move to meet the driver’s hands and feet. The bodywork is carbon fiber. The shape is dictated equally by designers and engineers, with lots of ducting for airflow over, under and through (brakes, radiators) the car.
The NSX and BMW i8 are the supercars you drive every day. The GT will likely be too brutal for daily driving. But as a track day car for the wealthy, it can’t be beat. Price hasn’t been set but it’s almost immaterial if it’s $150,000 or $500,000. Ford will sell whatever limited quantity it chooses to build, after setting aside a bunch for Ford’s likely return to endurance racing. Ford said deliveries will begin in the second half of 2016.

Chevrolet Bolt and Volt show GM’s commitment to EVs, plug-in hybrids

GM exanded its electrified offerings with the Chevrolet Bolt, a electric-only vehicle with a range of up to 200 miles and a pricetag somewhere in the low thirties. Since Bolt is small and tall, it is more a competitor to the pending Tesla Model 3 than to the big, swoopy Tesla Model S. But it could ship first. Next up from Tesla is the SUV-like Model X that has been repeatedly delayed, followed by the mass market Model 3. Volt could be the first pure EV to sell in quantity if the price doesn’t creep up. The current best-seller is the Nissan Leaf, which hit 30,000 sales in 2014. The problem with pure EVs is range anxiety: Automakers talk a lot about how it’s not an issue because would-be buyers know it is. A 200-mile EV plus ready access to combustion engine cars for weekend or vacation travel would do the trick for a lot of buyers.