Acura will be hitting The Quail this weekend with a concept designed to re-ignite some of the brand's performance sedan credentials. The snazzy Type S Concept paves the way for an upcoming souped-up TLS Type S.
Honda's high-end spinoff is ready to start injecting a bit of excitement back into its mid-range sports and performance sedans, its new concept recalling the popular Type S versions of cars like the TL that made waves in the mid-2000s before giving way to a more sensible and pedestrian TLX in the noughteens.
It's a spunky design – and there's not much about it that'd be too outrageous to go into production. Wide, low and long, it's a four-door sedan that could almost be mistaken for a coupe. The face, with its neatly sculpted scoops, aggressively cheerful grille and eyeliner driving light/indicators, has a nice sporty arrogance to it.
Down the sides, minimalistic lines create a narrow, athletic waist, and the rear is crisp and clean, with forged carbon highlighting the spoiler, underbody and front side aero elements, and the spokes on its eye-catching 21-inch rims. While some of its lines clearly betray its Asian design influences, there are other touches that seem inspired by German work – not least the shapes that radiate out from the logo on the front grille, which recalls some of the fun stuff Mercedes-Benz has been doing in recent years.
The concept wears a bespoke "Double Apex Blue Pearl" paint job that looks terrific thanks to "nano-infused pigments" and "a color-infused clear coat," with the aforementioned forged carbon adding an interesting carbon corkboard kind of texture to add some detail around the edges. All in all, a handsome machine.
Performance and powertrain specs are unavailable, and indeed irrelevant as this is merely a design study. Acura is preparing to refresh the TLX, and offer a hotted-up Type S version alongside it. This concept will "heavily influence the character" of this upcoming TLS Type S, so it remains to be seen exactly how much of this look will make it through the long and arduous path to production.
Designed in Acura's California studio, it'll be revealed in a private event on Thursday before making a public debut at The Quail in Monterey. Check out a cheesy video below.
Source: Honda/Acura