Detroit Motor Show 2012: hybrid supercars on show You wait all day for a sporty hybrid super coupé and then two come along at once at the Detroit Motor Show. Although it does seem strange that both Honda and Toyota, who have suffered badly as a result of the Fukushima earthquake, have chosen such similar concepts to mark their turnarounds. Both swoopy coupés have been designed in their makers" Californian design studios. The Honda is actually an Acura, Honda's US-only luxury brand. It's a replacement for the old NSX, Honda's aluminium supercar, which received mixed reviews when it was launched in 1990, but gained Honda grudging respect by the time it was taken off the price lists in 2005. Takanobu Ito, Honda's CEO, who worked as an engineer on the original NSX, revealed that this hybrid sports coupé would be developed and built in America, possibly at the company's plant in Ohio. He also hinted that a version would be prepared for racing. Honda's been here before when it prepared a 500bhp, V10, Acura-badged NSX replacement in the early part of the decade. This front-engined Advanced Sports Car Concept debuted at the 2007 Detroit Show and was quietly dropped soon after. Not that the new design will be easy to get right. Getting a potentially heavy and complicated hybrid vehicle to behave like a supercar will be difficult. Details are scant, but we understand the car will have a mid-mounted V6 engine driving the rear wheels via a seven-speed twin-clutch transmission. The hybrid system will power a pair of front mounted electric motors which will top up the system output to about 400bhp and be deployed to improve the handling balance as well as beef up the performance. It's expected in the showrooms in three years and would almost certainly come to the UK, but badged as a Honda. The LF-LC Lexus takes a slightly different direction with a front engine/hybrid system driving the rear wheels. It seems much more of a concept car and was described by Mark Templin, head of Lexus in the US, as a "a sneak peak of what we're up to in the future." Rumour suggests the car will use the V6-based hybrid system from the GS450 saloon, although the styling, with a one-piece glass roof forming the rear and front screens and a waterfall front grille are likely to be as significant as the driveline.