Pretty red car gets update

The 1991-'05 Acura NSX is nothing new, obviously, but it certainly is special. They still get plenty of attention on the street today, if you can actually find one, but when the TV ads began to roll out in the fall of 1990, my eyes practically fell out of their sockets.

Pretty red car. Pretty red car with the engine in the back. Pretty red car with the engine in the back and two seats in front. Pretty red car with hundreds of new patents, aluminum construction and the first use of VTEC variable valve timing. Pretty red car that then Formula One champion Ayrton Senna helped develop, and the pretty red car from Japan that spanked the Ferrari 348.

Revolutionary. Groundbreaking. Heart-stopping. And then it all sort of fizzled. Nearly 15 years later it was largely the same car with some new styling bits and a hefty price tag with the last power train upgrade already eight years in the rearview mirror. For whatever reason, the showcase of how progressive the Japanese had become was, in the end, not very progressive at all. And rather than come out of the box with another groundbreaking car as production of the first-gen NSX came to a close after the 2005 model year, there was just ... silence.

A couple of years later, Acura teased us with a concept or two, but the company remained vague, aloof and noncommittal, confusing fans and jading the media.

So, what a surprise to see a new NSX concept appear at January's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The cover was lifted amid the kind of applause reserved for pop stars. Even after all these years, it seems the NSX legend is still fresh in everyone's mind. But can Acura truly recapture the benchmark magic? Hmmm ...

Times have changed. A lot. There are already a number of Japanese supercars on the market, such as the megabuck V-10-powered Lexus LF-A and the king of the zero-to-60-mph-stopwatch Nissan GT-R. The domestics are no slouch either with a Ford Mustang GT500 -- a Mustang -- capable of 200 mph.

Back in 1991, the Corvette couldn't hold a candle to the NSX's build quality, reliability, driving dynamics or sheer sex appeal. Today, though, the Corvette Z06 and ZR1 are wicked good fun and have spent plenty of time being raced by parent General Motors.

Ah, and then there's Ferrari. Since the NSX, there has been rapid development. The F355, which came after the 348, was as good as the NSX although insanely expensive to maintain, the 360 Modena was better, the F430 was notch above that and the current 458 Italia is quite possibly the world's best all-around supercar for the money. For anyone counting, that's four successive Ferraris. NSX? What NSX?

Which brings me to this little wrinkle: In today's incredibly competitive environment where daily progress and technical change seems the norm, what will the NSX be up against during the next three years while development is finalized? With its V-6 engine in the back and two electric motors up front, will it be obsolete before it ever hits the street? Perhaps that depends on price, just like it did back in 1991 when it was better, cheaper and more reliable than Ferrari.

But back in the fall of 1990, the NSX stood for something great. It changed opinions and attitudes. No matter how good the new NSX is, that kind of magic in this day and age will be tough, if not impossible to duplicate.

That leads one to wonder what the point or the purpose really is after all these years. I'm not sure that it matters, even, because Acura needs a halo car -- a brand builder -- and new blood, so much so that two other new models were introduced alongside the NSX concept. It will likely be impossible for the NSX to stand out like it once did and it won't be the outright symbol of Japanese ingenuity, either. But if it keeps a spotlight on Acura to pick up sales, then perhaps that's a new mission worth having.

Pretty silver car.

Rhonda Wheeler is a journalist with Wheelbase Media, a worldwide supplier of automotive news, features and reviews. You can email her by logging onto www.wheelbasemedia.com and clicking the contact link.