New Acura NSX Is First Supercar with Design Team Led by a Woman

Jan 17, 2015 03:00 PM EST | Jordan Ecarma

Tags Acura, nsx, designer

You'd probably have to be a little dead inside not to think the new 2016 Acura NSX supercar is really cool. A turbocharged mid-mounted V-6 with more than 550 horsepower and an innovative three-motor electric power system in a sleek muscle frame--what's not to like?

But besides being the first production NSX to feature a hybrid powertrain, the new model marks another fun milestone: It's the first supercar to come from a design team led by a woman.

"They wanted an emotional, 3-D kind of feeling," exterior design product leader Michelle Christensen, 34, told Automotive News. "My priority was to keep that."

Joining the supercar's team soon after Acura took the wraps off its NSX concept in 2012, Christensen enjoyed working the model's mid-engined layout with a design that kept the cabin low.

"It gave us the opportunity to punch more holes in it and make it more exotic," she told Automotive News. "From a styling standpoint, we were really excited to take it to the gym and beef it up."

Christensen, a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., cited her dad as an influence since she worked on muscle cars with him while growing up.

She said fashion was another influence, comparing the structure and design of cars to couture shoes.

"Shoes and cars are both these really complex shapes that need to wrap around a human element," she said. 

Coming after years of concept vehicles, the NSX will compete with models including the Audi R8, Ferrari 458 and Porsche 911 Turbo S. Production of the long-anticipated supercar is expected to start in Ohio this fall.

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