Acura vigor1/4/2024 ![]() We’d like to think that the unique number of cylinders Was a 2.5-liter, five-cylinder engine that was not only unique for its time, but Like its Legend older brother, but with smaller and sleeker proportions.īut it was a family sedan nonetheless, and under the hood Was based on the third-generation Integra platform at the time and looked a lot Vigor had a short production cycle in North America from 1992 to 1994. Others in the lineup, but it was an Acura all the same. Ways, it was the “black sheep” of the family in that it was different than the Model that was unveiled during the early 90s was unlike all the rest. Was bringing in most of the sales, and the Legend It saw early success from the NSX supercar, the Integra In addition to its dynamic qualities and handsome styling, one look at the beautifully understated and driver-focused cockpit above makes it clear that it’s one FWD I wouldn’t mind rolling around in on a daily basis.Įditor’s note: This post is part of an ongoing series highlighting FWD cars I think highly of, in spite of my overwhelming RWD bias.Back in the 90s, Acura was one of the bestīrands in the market. Sadly, it didn’t accomplish its goal, the most common reasons cited being a smaller size and considerably firmer suspension tuning than its rival at Lexus, qualities lost on a typical American consumer.Īs with so many aspects of the Japanese entry into the American luxury car market in the early ’90s, it’s a shame the Vigor wasn’t properly developed and pitched. Positioned between Acura’s range-topping Legend and entry-level Integra, the short-lived Vigor was the automaker’s attempt to poach midsize executive car sales from Infiniti and Lexus in particular, going head-to-head with the latter’s successful ES300. They may have wanted to use much of what was in the parts bin, but the result, although excellent, suffered from a sort of halfhearted, middle-of-the-road sense of execution. Who knows perhaps it was a parts commonality issue? Honda didn’t produce a mass-market RWD car until the much-later S2000 roadster. I’m no engineer, but it seems like it would have been simpler to stick a driveshaft out the back of the transmission, connect it to a diff and halfshafts out back and call it a day, rather than making the power do a U-turn and cluttering up the engine bay with the kit necessary to get said power to the front wheels. The whole setup is actually reminiscent of that of Saab’s first-generation 900, itself a FWD Champion. The engine orientation and gearbox location allowed the powerplant to be advantageously located farther rearward in the chassis, greatly benefiting weight distribution, which came in at a remarkable (for a FWD car) 60:40 front-to-rear. So again, tell me why the Vigor had to be FWD? Featuring a punchy 188-hp, 2.5l 5-cylinder engine, the aforementioned rear-mounted transmission sent power to the front wheels through a sports-car-like limited-slip differential, giving the car excellent handling in spite of its FWD nature. And the whole package has distinctly BMW 3-series proportions and overtones, mimicking the RWD sports sedan benchmark. ![]() The engine is mounted longitudinally, not sideways, and the transmission is located behind the engine-again, like a RWD car. The front wheels are pushed to the front corners of the car in a characteristically RWD fashion. I sometimes wonder why the 1992-1994 Acura Vigor is FWD.
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