Teased here before its official reveal next month, Acura claims the new car will “help set the direction for future Acura design; in particular, the next generation of performance-luxury sedans.” The supplied rendering includes no door shutlines, but given the above sentence, we’re inclined to believe the concept will be a four-door coupe of some sort. Can we all finally just concede that the Germans won and a four-door coupe is now no longer a thing that needs to be placed in quotes? Yeah, we know. We hate it, too. Hats off to you, Deutschland, your persistence has paid finally paid its dubious dividend. Introducing the sketch to media assembled in Detroit, Acura general manager Jon Ikeda called attention to the “unmistakable proportions” of the long hood. Speaking to C/D later in the evening, Ikeda told us that it was important to the brand that these classic luxury-sedan proportions aren’t just an illusion. That means the engine likely runs longitudinally, although we’re left guessing where the power is routed. Recall that the second-generation Acura Legend’s longitudinally mounted engine still powered the front wheels.
What’s might be most interesting about the new concept is that it actually has a name, last seen on a production Acura product in the form of the late, beloved Integra. We asked Ikeda if the name Precision suggests that the brand might exhume the badges of its founding fathers, Integra and Legend. He neither affirmed nor denied our suspicions that future Acuras will include more vowels as standard equipment. Instead, he offered something far more important. Ikeda told us that if those iconic names do make a comeback, they can’t be applied to cars like today’s ILX and TLX. It would seem, then, that Acura’s top executive is teeing up the same sweeping overhaul that the brand’s chief designer Dave Marek hinted at when we asked about the Integra back in 2014. Beyond all that joyous news and conjecture, we have but one request for you, dear Acura. Please revive the Vigor nameplate. For only then, with Vigor in our hands and at our feet, will we be able to call our decade, this glorious, fêted decade, 100 percent complete.
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