The quiet supercar

I had two cars this week, a 300-horsepower Chevrolet SSR hot-rod truck and a 2005 Acura RL sedan. Guess which one had the major technical innovations, and which one nobody could pass by without a double take?

You got it.

It’s not like the Acura is plain Jane. It is, in fact, rather handsome in an angular way, with some family resemblance to the TL model that was redesigned for 2004. In the process of redesigning the RL, Acura created a real top-of-the-line product.

The new car has an absolutely amazing number of high-tech features. How about a message center that talks to you and offers the opinion that the automatic headlight feature might not be working in complete harmony? How about a global positioning system that includes real-time traffic information?

At almost $50,000, you would expect the RL to be completely equipped, and it is, with a German-like level of leather and wood luxury. The whole vehicle feels beautifully made, like the $10,000 CD player I read about in Downbeat. The crisp gauges look like something out of the Sharper Image catalog, and one sinks in to enjoy the ride.

The pampering starts with a 3.5-liter, 300-horsepower (yes, the same as the SSR) VTEC V-6 engine. Some reviewers have complained that the RL isn’t offered with a V-8, but the driver benefits from a package offering very good ULEV emissions, plus 18 mpg in town and a respectable 26 on the highway. (The SSR’s figures are 15/19).

And the V-6 has plenty of punch, though it lacks the overt thrill that finds SSR passengers grinning wildly as their backs are pressed against the seats. The five-speed automatic offers manual shifting through hub-mounted racing-type paddles.

Another really neat feature is keyless entry, which I first encountered in the Toyota Prius. Just keep the key-free fob (containing a wireless transmitter) in your pocket and the doors unlock as you touch the handle. The car starts with a twist of a knob. After a while, I nearly forgot 30 years of key-in-ignition-lock conditioning.

Another cool innovation on the RL is Super-Handling All-Wheel-Drive, which can shift the amount of torque applied to front and rear wheels, and to the left and right side of the car. That means that under heavy acceleration it will act like a rear-wheel-drive car. When cornering, the outside rear wheel gets the torque. A vehicle stability package also is incorporated. I can’t say that this assist is immediately noticeable, though the RL is well-balanced and handles beautifully.

I may not have paid much attention to the RL’s handling because I was distracted by the "information/entertainment center." When not grooving to XM Satellite Radio or tunes from the CD player, I could key into XM NavTraffic for the latest word on tie-ups. A minor point: The GPS display is not easy to read in bright daytime glare, and it’s not that visible in nighttime mode, either.

The bottom line is that this is a top-flight automobile, pretty much the state of the art for vehicle engineering in 2005. We can’t build a better car than this. It’s a pity that to most people it will look like just another Japanese sedan — OK, but no Chevrolet SSR (more next week on this) or Hummer H2.