Ohio facility uses the best and brightest talent to create its most powerful performance machine.
Believe it or not, it’s possible for supercars to come from normal places. While it’s tempting to imagine Aston Martins emerging from a mist-shrouded English castle, or Ferraris charging their way out of the Roman Colosseum, the reality is that they come from factories, just like the Acura NSX. The difference is that the Japanese supercar is made right here on U.S. soil at the Performance Manufacturing Center (PMC) in Marysville, Ohio.
In the above video, Lauren Fix (aka The Car Coach) and Paul Brian visit the 150,000 sq. ft. facility with cameras rolling. Only 70 highly skilled (and carefully chosen) employees get the responsibility of assembling the hybrid halo car and bringing it to life. Clearly, one thing they don’t get to do is be sloppy. Brian says he’s undergone surgery in a place that wasn’t as clean as the PMC.
As you’d expect of a car with a starting price of $156,000, the NSX is the product of advanced machines and the discriminating hands and eyes of human beings. Fix says the bolts that hold the 573-horsepower/476-lb-ft road rocket together are started by hand. After its various welds are laid down, employees check them by hand to make sure they’re just right. NSX buyers can put a few of their own touches on their personal cars at the PMC, too – including placing the Acura badge on the back end.
While they’re in Marysville, Fix and Brian make sure to visit the Honda Heritage Center. Of course, both generations of the NSX are there, but so are tiny Honda hatchbacks of yesteryear, racecars, and motorcycles. A certain camera-eyed humanoid robot also calls the Honda Heritage Center home, too…
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
