Type S concept leads Acura's design revival

MONTEREY, Calif. — Acura marked a milestone in its transformation back to its performance roots at Monterey Car Week with the presentation of its stylish Type S concept, which sat on the lawn at the Pebble Beach Lodge next to far-out hypercars and other design exercises.

Unlike those big-dollar exotics and fanciful future EVs, however, the Acura will be a real car soon. The coming second-generation TLX midsize sedan will be heavily influenced by the concept, as will the next MDX crossover and ILX compact sedan.

The Type S concept was there to show off the new design language as well as to herald the return of the Type S performance variant that once was a staple of the Japanese luxury brand before it drifted into more of a value proposition than a sporting one. The brand's return to its roots started about four years ago with the debut of the second-generation NSX supercar.

The Type S variants were last seen on Acura products in the early 2000s, starting with the 3.2CL Type S coupe in 2001 and ending with the TL Type S sedan in 2008.

Acura showed the next phase of its design revival three years ago with the Precision Concept. The redesigned RDX crossover took its styling language from that vehicle. The newer concept shown at Monterey is an evolution closer to a production-spec vehicle. It's designed to bring some NSX swagger into the core lineup.

It's not all show, however. Acura is developing a turbocharged V-6 engine exclusive to the brand. Executives haven't said specifically where the new engine will find a home, but Type S vehicles are obviously a good bet — in both sedans and crossovers.

Art St. Cyr, vice president of automobile operations for American Honda Motor Co., spoke with Staff Reporter Laurence Iliff at the event this month along the Monterey Bay. Here are edited excerpts.

Q: What should we be looking for in the next couple of years? When do you feel like you're going to have a full lineup of redesigned vehicles?

A: The new Acura really started with the NSX. That's kind of the epitome of what we call our "Precision Crafted Performance" model. So, all the vehicles that come after that really are to fulfill that Precision Crafted Performance mantra that we have. The Type S was the one missing piece that kind of links the base model to the NSX. You'll see us rolling this out as we do the model changes and that type of stuff. To say when it's going to be finished, it's never really finished. It's always a work in progress. You'll start seeing vehicles with this Type S design language coming out in the pretty near future, and in the next two years, you'll see a couple of these things out there.

When you say that this concept is going to heavily influence the next TLX, does that mean it's going to look a lot like this?

I think it's pretty safe to say that you'll see this type of language. This is obviously a sedan-based vehicle. Much like our 2016 Precision Concept, where you saw a lot of the design elements of that on the RDX when that came out, you'll see a lot of these styling features, proportions, this design language on our vehicles as they start rolling out — whether they be sedans or SUVs.

So are you looking for that niche of performance where maybe you get more male, affluent buyers?

Yeah, but I'd challenge you on "niche." Acura is 30 years old, and we're here to show that we are a performance brand. Performance is our luxury. We have 30 years of heritage in making performance vehicles, and this is the culmination of all that activity, with our technology, with our all-wheel-drive system, with our engines, with the way that we design these vehicles, with our proportions, with the styling cues of our vehicles. This is 30 years of Acura right here.

Does just focusing on four core models allow you to keep the sedans, since two sedans is not a lot, even in this market?

Actually, I might say that it's quite a bit of sedans in this market, as a lot of companies are getting out of the sedan market. The sedans are where we find people are still coming into our brand. So, you look at the ILX: ILX has the highest percentage of millennials and first-time luxury buyers in the segment. Actually, in luxury.

It's absolutely a gateway, and we think that cars still matter in that respect, of how to get people interested in the Acura brand.

How do you balance the value equation with the performance equation, because performance costs money?

I think it's the same thing. Performance is value. Acura is about performance, and it's about value, and it's about luxury. It's all of those combined into one big mosh of a great-looking car. We want to make it so it's an accessible car, but it's got to be a desirable car — or SUV — at the start. And the pricing and the market will define what the value is ultimately.

The RDX shows you that when you make the right vehicle, sales go up. But on the sedan side, the battle is just keeping the numbers where they are, right?

I don't necessarily agree to that, per se, because like I said, there's a whole wave of millennials that are entering the car market, the luxury car market, and we think our portfolio gives them lots of options, whether they want sedans, whether they want crossovers, whether they want sports cars, we have a place for everyone to be.