Editor-in-Chief | Zhang Kehuan
Edit | Zhang Li
Author | Steamy Jun
Reports from The GreatAuto
December 12, 2021, is bound to be a day that will go down in history for Honda. On this day, the 2021 season of the Formula World Championship in Formula 1 came to an end in Abu Dhabi, with Verstappen, driving a Red Bull F1 car, winning the race and the 2021 championship with the last lap of the Jedi Strike Back.
The F1 car driven by Verstappen, whose engine supplier is Honda. This time, the victory belongs to Verstappen and Red Bull, and the victory also belongs to Honda!
In fact, Honda doesn't just have a high profile in F1. In the field of luxury cars, Honda's Acura brand has also established a unique concept of "sports luxury". Today, we will talk about what kind of luxurious posture is presented in acura, a niche luxury brand.
Design luxury is not easy to perceive
But there are still heartbeat moments
In this era of "looking at faces" when everything is bought, Acura still retains the stubbornness of the "car industry polytechnic man", and does not seem to pay much attention to the design level of appearance and interior.
At present, including the new Integral, Acura has a total of eight models worldwide. They are the ILX, TLX and CDX, RDX and MDX of the SUV family, respectively, and there is also an NSX supercar. In addition to the NSX supercar, no matter what kind of car it is, the design system of the Acura family is very similar.
The grille shape of the diamond element and the radical body angular lines basically constitute the exterior elements of the Acura family. In the interior setting, Acura's entire spectrum of models follows the old-school Japanese + American design style, and the overall texture is not as exquisite as that of European luxury brands.
It is undeniable that although the interior design of Acura's model is more old-fashioned, Acura's designers like to enhance the luxurious texture of the vehicle through some detail optimizations. Taking Acura RDX as an example, the overall interior material of this car is not top-notch, but it can also give a softer texture to the interior of the vehicle, thereby enhancing the overall luxury.
At the level of NVH tuning, Acura's engineers not only start from the materials science aspect, but also improve the quietness of the vehicle through the optimization of detailed parts; at the same time, they also realize the improvement of the quiet level of the vehicle through the anC active noise reduction and other scientific and technological means. In fact, if you sit inside a car such as the Acura RDX and close your eyes to feel it, it will definitely allow you to experience all the enjoyment of luxury brands.
Of course, more consumers in China are actually more willing to perceive "visible luxury" rather than "luxury in the hidden place". Such market recognition also makes Acura in a relatively niche position in China for a long time. In fact, Acura's "invisible luxury" is more profoundly reflected in the mechanical level.
The combination of materials science and new technologies
The chassis of Acura is a work of art
Some luxury brands like to show their "artistic achievements" on an intuitive level through design. Acura from Honda prefers to sculpt "mechanical art". From the chassis onwards, Acura's luxurious character began to truly manifest.
Recently, a new generation of Acura Integra has become popular on the Internet. And this "street car" through the LSD limited-slip differential, giving the chassis a strong enough strength. If fast and furious starts shooting a few years later, I believe there will be no Mitsubishi eclipse too much, and the Acura Integra will be the first choice for front-drive street running.
Even in higher-class cars or SUVs, Acura is willing to give the chassis a stronger sports foundation.
The TLX-L, a mid-to-high-end sedan that has been discontinued in China, has a very advanced chassis system. The sedan, which once sold for more than 370,000 yuan, has a set of P-AWS four-wheel steering technology, which can be seen as the inheritance and upgrade of Honda's rear wheel steering technology in the 90s. Unlike other brands of rear wheel active steering technology, Acura P-AWS four-wheel steering technology can independently control the steering angle of the left and right rear wheels through the control unit.
For example, when the vehicle is fast cornering, the steering angle of the outer rear wheel is greater than that of the inner rear wheel. This change not only improves the overall agility of the body, but also allows the rear of the car to have more accurate tracking when cornering. In actual driving, although the length of the Acura TLX-L is close to 5 meters, the actual cornering experience is like driving a compact sports car.
Among the models that are still sold in China, acura RDX as an SUV, its chassis is also a very sporty existence.
Although this car uses a seemingly ordinary suspension structure such as front McPherson + rear multi-link, a large number of aluminum alloy lightweight materials are used in it. And in the position of the front cantilever control arm, more advanced hydraulic bearings are used, which makes the filtering and support of the whole vehicle more outstanding.
In addition, the SH-AWD four-wheel drive system equipped with Acura RDX is also the strongest four-wheel drive system on the transverse platform at present, and even reaches the height of the Mitsubishi Lancer EVO four-wheel drive system.
Acura's SH-AWD system can be seen as a combination of timely four-wheel drive and full-time four-wheel drive.
The four-wheel drive system does not have a central differential device for four-wheel drive combination/separation through a multi-piece clutch, and a drive shaft directly transmits power to the rear axle, and the power transmission is achieved through the limited slip device on both sides of the rear axle. In addition, the limiting slip device located on both sides of the rear axle adopts the structure of planetary gear + multi-plate clutch, which realizes the independent power output of the two sides and can effectively avoid the overheating of the multi-plate clutch.
Through the unique structure of the SH-AWD all-wheel drive system, the four-wheel drive control of models such as the Acura RDX is also more intelligent. For example, when cornering, the left and right rear wheels of the vehicle can output different power. When the vehicle turns left, the left rear wheel receives less power and the right rear wheel outputs more power, which also achieves more accurate rear tracking, making this medium-sized SUV very agile and fun to drive.
Power technology derived from Type R
It is also the essence of Acura
Once upon a time, Acura, as a luxury brand, was also good at using large-displacement self-priming engines. Today, Honda continues to break its own record in F1 racing, and its power technology is becoming more and more perfect. Many of the power technologies that once appeared only on F1 models are now being delegated to civilian models.
The unique K20 2.0T+10AT is a testament to this.
Here, what I want to discuss with you is not only that this K20 engine has a power reserve of 195 kW and 380 N·m. This engine, which originated from the Type R, is actually the most fantastic model among Honda's civilian cars. When the engine reaches 6500 rpm, it still runs within the red line, accompanied by a high-pitched roar, enough to make you feel what the real VTEC is.
Not only that, the world's first horizontal 10AT gearbox can also pass a shift speed comparable to that of a dual clutch, so that you will not be disappointed in every shift.
Although the 10AT transmission has eliminated the parallel shaft design in favor of a planetary tooth design, the transmission can still deliver excellent gear shift performance through more compact design and logic optimization. For example, when the engine is in a large throttle opening, the gearbox will only use about 5 gears even if the speed is close to 160Kph, and will never randomly upgrade gears; and in the state of small opening throttle, the speed is about 100kph per hour, and the gearbox will enter 10 gears. This gearbox shift mode leaves a lot of room for the driver to operate.
In addition, the gearbox also allows jump shifting, which Honda refers to as "4-speed flying". There is no doubt that this series of settings has brought full pleasure to this power system.
Plus, if you still miss the parallel shaft, the CDX's 8-speed dual-clutch transmission is still a great way to experience the old days. Compared with the former AT-type parallel shaft, the dual-clutch parallel-shaft transmission only replaces the hydraulic torque converter with a dual-clutch to achieve power connection, which can still bring a handling experience comparable to that of a manual transmission. After using this 8-speed dual-clutch transmission, the CDX equipped with a 1.5T engine can complete zero hundred acceleration in 8.6 seconds, still has a rapid acceleration performance.
Conclusion:
In fact, for the entire luxury car market, luxury forms are diverse. Some luxury is intuitive design, materials, so that users can perceive. Luxury brands such as Acura use a more unique driving sense to give value enhancement. In fact, there is a saying that is very good, understand the nature of understanding, in China, the current car play atmosphere, car culture is actively being built. I believe that after a period of time, more users will discover the value of Acura and truly love driving through this brand.
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