Temple of VTEC Rumors and News - 2005 Acura RL Concept unveiled in New York today

7:25 PM - The exclusive galleries are ready (with more photos to be added). Visit the Exhaust Notes section to view the galleries. There you can see the carbon fiber driveshafts that the SH-AWD system uses. You can also see the extensive use of aluminum, with full aluminum subframes front and rear and forged aluminum suspension pieces. We also got a photo of the sticker in the doorjamb which shows the "original tire size": 245/50R17. Keep in mind that this car is a prototype, but the sticker sure looked like a production piece.

5:05 PM -- The first video clip is available for download (with 3 different bitrates). It shows the '05 RL Concept as it first drives onto the stage.

Windows Media Video Clip - 12.0MB (VBR, 480x360)
DivX Video Clip - 5.10MB (300kbps, 320x240)
DivX Video Clip - 6.96MB (450kbps, 480x360)
(Right click and "Save Target As..." to download)

3:15 PM -- Our own photos are currently being processed. Apologies for the delay in getting those out. We interviewed (on video) the product planner and that took some time. Also there were big crowds surrounding the car for quite a while so it was difficult to get clean shots. Overall I like the car, but this car will overlap quite a bit with the TL. It's like a TL Plus. There is a lot of content, but judging by the (not-quite-production) trimmings, there are still elements of the car that indicate it was engineered to a price point.

A few things we noticed on the prototype:

no evidence of power adjusting rear seats (contrary to an earlier rumor).
manual sunshades on rear side windows and a power sunshade on the backlight
onstar
full auto up/down on all 4 windows
exterior electric trunk release (as on TSX, but missing on TL)
nicely finished trunk, however the hinges are still not the articulating kind.
power tilt/telescope steering wheel

Supposedly there are possibly a few more features that will appear on the production model.

9:55 AM The Temple of VTEC is here in New York for the 2004 New York International Auto show and we'll be bringing coverage from the show as the day progresses. We will update this news item periodically with a sampling of photos. A comprehensive photo gallery will be published in the "Exhaust Notes" section of the site. The comprehensive gallery will be available only to registered users of the TOV.