Honda to debut NSX Type R in Tokyo later this year?

Forbes reports that Honda is finally ready

to deliver the gift many have been pining for, the

Acura NSX

Type R. The debut’s supposedly penciled in for the

Tokyo Motor Show

this October, almost four years after the new-generation

NSX

debuted at the Detroit Motor Show. The Forbes piece is light on the how of the transformation, but says we can expect 650 horsepower, a harder edge to the driving experience, and aerodynamic additions inspired by the NSX-GT racer in Japan’s Super GT series.

It isn’t known yet if a Type R would stick with Super Handling All-Wheel Drive. If the track-focused NSX dropped its two front electric motors, that would leave a 47-hp e-motor attached to the crank, and the 500-hp, 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 to make up the difference to 650 hp.

If you’ve paid close attention to NSX press, you’ll know that there’s been chatter about a Type R version since four months after the car debuted in Detroit, which was eight months before the standard coupe actually went on sale. A piece in

Australia’s Motoring

magazine from May 2015 declared “news out of

Honda

reveals the company is

preparing” an NSX Type R

that “could exceed 447 kw and land in showrooms by 2018.” That would have been 600 hp, if said car had shown up. That article was written by the same Peter Lyons who wrote the present

Forbes

piece.

Autocar wrote about the potential

go-faster coupe in 2016, predicting “a lighter, track-focused Type R NSX” that could lose its two front-mounted e-motors, and therefore its all-wheel drive. That weight loss, combined with lighter parts on what would be a limited-edition offering, would really move the needle. There might even be a place for the kind of active aerodynamics the carmaker eschewed for the standard car, but took care to patent.

The

Forbes

report has a

friend in Japanese site Spyder7.com

, though. The Nippon outlet predicted an NSX Type R would debut this year with 650 metric horsepower, or 641 U.S. horses. However, whereas

Spyder7 figured a Type R to cost

something like Lexus

LFA

money, Forbes thinks $200,000 is more like it, representing a $43,000 jump over the standard car.

The Tokyo show opens to the media on October 23. We’d love to find an early Type-R-ish present under the lights.