We Go Inside The American Supercar Factory That Makes Acura’s NSX

During our recent trip to check out the 2019 Acura ILX and NSX, we swung by the company’s Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio which is the exclusive home to NSX production.

While Ohio sounds like an odd place to build a supercar, it’s actually not too surprising, as most of the company’s vehicles are made in the state. In fact, Acura can almost be considered an American luxury brand, as only model imported from Japan is the RLX – and the automaker sells less than 200 of those every month.

Getting back to the NSX, the supercar is built in a unique plant that is optimized for low-volume production. While most factories have a moving assembly line and dozens of robots, the Performance Manufacturing Center is a largely open facility where cars are pushed between stations on rolling carts.

The process of building the NSX starts with the vehicle’s multi-material space frame, which is built entirely in-house at the plant. While the assembly line is largely devoid of robots, Acura employs eight different machines to fully weld the frame together. Technicians then visually inspect each weld and take measurements to ensure accuracy and precision.

In another area of the plant, the car’s body panels are painted by both humans and machines. They are placed aside until needed and that’s when the NSX starts really starts to take shape.

While much of the NSX is built in Marysville, the car’s heart is actually made about an hour’s drive away in Anna, Ohio. There, master engine builders bring the car’s twin-turbo 3.5-liter V6 to life. The engine then takes the relatively short trip to the Performance Manufacturing Center, where it is installed in the NSX.

The car continues coming together as workers begin installing the suspension, interior and various other components. As this occurs, technicians go over the car to ensure everything is working and installed correctly.

Once the car is finished, it undergoes additional testing including everything from a simulated road course to a dyno run. From start to finish, it takes approximately three days to build each NSX.

While that’s just a brief overview of what it takes to build the NSX, Acura is extremely proud of the plant and the roughly 100 people that work there. The company even claims the NSX is the “only supercar designed, developed and manufactured in the United States” – although General Motors might beg to differ.