Honda’s Obscure, One-Off Accord is the Spiritual Ancestor of the 2021 TLX Type S

Acura devotees will tell you that the first Type S model was a 1997 NSX, a stripped-down version of Honda’s brilliant supercar that managed to bit a bit more civilized than the all-out Type R. Other Type S models followed, including the RSX, TL, and CL. After more than 10 years without a Type S, we’re anticipating the return of the sporty moniker with the TLX. The all-new Type S will be the latest iteration of a formula that Acura first distilled in North American not with the Japan-only NSX Type S, but with a skunkworks, one-off 1998 Accord.

“The [Accord] AC-R,” says Jay Joseph, Acura’s product planner for the original Type S models, “helped us all shape our perception of the kind of performance cars we wanted to build with Type S.” The hotted-up Accord could lay down a 14.1-second quarter mile, top out at 166 mph, and pull 1.0 g on a skidpad, all with a 300-hp, 3.0-liter VTEC V-6 engine that revved to 7500 rpm. The car’s stat sheet, however, wasn’t its most important contribution, in Joseph’s eyes. “It helped us crystallize our thoughts on the way it should feel … not the measurements, the quantifiables, but just the feel, the reaction, how you interact with [the car].”

So, Honda decided to “bake some of that goodness into the [2001–03] CL,” as Erik Berkman, executive engineer of the original Type S models, says. Of course, then Acura’s sedan customers wanted a slice of the performance cake, and the TL Type S was born, followed by “the wild child of the three,” as Joseph puts it: The 2002–06 RSX. With the subsequent ’07–08 TL Type S, however, Acura began to discover the limits of injecting performance into a front-wheel-drive vehicle.

Enter the newly-arrived TLX Type S, the first model in the Type S hierarchy to use all-wheel drive. It packs a walloping 355 horsepower and 354 lb-ft of torque, boasts a specially-tuned double-wishbone front suspension and Brembo four-piston brakes, and a stiffer chassis. The quantifiables outline a potent recipe—we can’t wait to taste the intangibles.

To immerse yourself in all the details of the Accord AC-R and Acura Type S history, check out Acura’s 12-minute video—and, if you’re a die-hard sedan fanatic, brace yourself: Acura’s poised to also bring the MDX SUV into the Type S fold.