OVERVIEW
The CL's dynamic styling portrays a youthful, aggressive spirit,
combining contemporary styling touches with a classic, coupe design.
The CL features numerous refinements designed to deliver high levels
of fit and finish, safety, structural performance and overall
refinement.
These refinements include extensive noise and vibration countermeasures to keep the interior calm and quiet. Heat-rejecting green glass helps keep the spacious interior cool on hot days. Rigid door structures are created by laser welding sheet steel of different thickness together before forming, adding more strength at the door hinge, while lowering overall weight. Further refinements include a jointless front and rear windshield molding, and gas pressurized hood supports.
Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) is controlled by various elements throughout the vehicle including foam sound barriers in all body pillars, triple door seals, a high density dashboard insulator, and asphalt-based sandwich melt sheets in rear wheel-house regions and in the floor.
A 13.6 cubic foot trunk provides generous utility space while generous head, leg, shoulder and hip room for front and rear passengers combine for a total passenger volume of 90.0 cubic feet.
As in all Acura vehicles, safety advancements are designed to provide a high level of protection in the event of a collision. These include side-impact door beams, an upper door panel stiffener structure and door lining pads that create a strong outside structure. In addition, the CL features reinforced side sills with added bulkheads for offset and side impact protection, thick floor cross members and strengthened front pillars and roof side rail sections. Reinforced center floor pillars help reduce body deformation during a side impact
Vehicle security is enhanced by reinforced door key cylinders, full frame windows and special body shielding that protects door-locking mechanisms and latches making a break-in more difficult. A standard immobilizer and security system cuts fuel feed to the engine and sounds an alarm in the event of tampering.
Sophisticated corrosion resistance techniques have been employed to lengthen the life of the CL's body. Double-sided galvanized steel panels as well as anti-acid-etch clear coat on dark colors protects paint from acid rain and other corrosive elements. An anti-chipping primer is applied to leading edges of hood and fenders, and PVC and wax sealer are applied to the underbody to ensure a long-lasting body structure.
STYLING
The CL's exterior is styled to exude the classic lines of 2-door
coupes of the automotive past. Acura's own styling cues were adapted
from the NSX supercar as well as from the original Legend coupe. A
long sculpted hood and a short, rear deck along with large diameter,
performance wheels and tires mark the key styling elements for this
coupe.
For 2003, Acura made many styling updates to give the 3.2 CL an even sleeker, more high performance look. These changes include redesigning the car's front end by updating the signature Acura family grille with a body colored surround instead of chrome, applying new black accents on the headlights and modifying the shape of the lower grille.
The redesigned rear end features new, more aggressive tail pipe finishers and revised tail light lenses with a clear upper portion for the turn signal. To add to the sporty look, the door handles, which had been chrome, are now body colored.
The large greenhouse glass area provides excellent visibility and has a shape reminiscent of the original Legend coupe, a design that has greatly influenced the style of Acura automobiles since its inception.
PRECISE FIT AND FINISH
The CL coupe incorporates the latest techniques to achieve an
uncompromised level of fit and finish. Stiffened door structures,
laser-welded inner door panels, special plastic-encapsulated door
checkers and latches, and added sound damping materials combine to
tune the closing sound of the CL's doors. Special power window motors
increase window speed while also reducing noise.
Key features:
- Body gaps, specifically the front grille gap, door/fender cut line gap, outer door handle gap, and front and rear bumper gaps, are minimized to reduce wind noise and complement a more streamlined cosmetic appearance.
- A very thin center B-pillar provides a clean, seamless side glass appearance.
- The windshield wiper stopping position is beneath the hood to enhance visibility.
- Under-hood windshield washer nozzles are used.
UNIT BODY STRUCTURE
The CL's unit body maximizes torsional and bending rigidity without
adding unnecessary weight to achieve significant improvements in
ride, handling precision and noise reduction. This rigid structure
allows the suspension mounting points to maintain a consistent
position, resulting in improved handling precision and ride comfort.
SAFETY STRUCTURE
The CL's passenger "safety cage" was engineered from the earliest
stages of development to meet tough safety regulations. Using super
computers to conduct extensive crash simulations, engineers studied
impact forces on a "virtual car" to supplement actual prototype crash
testing. These tests led to the development of numerous safety
innovations in the design of the CL.
In frontal impacts, straight-section frame box rails with large cross-sections feed impact energy directly into the main frame structure. To meet 2003 federal head-impact safety regulations, the CL's interior has energy absorbing roof-pillar garnishes and roof lining designed to help reduce injury to the occupants. To deal with offset-impact energy, reinforcements are placed at the roof side rails, floor frame, A-pillars and front and side frame members.
SIDE IMPACT PROTECTION
The 3.2 CL's structure includes substantial reinforcements to help
protect occupants during side impacts. The dual-wall B-pillar is
stiff to minimize the possibility of intrusion during a side impact
while a substantial cross member runs transversely across the floor
pan to reinforce the passenger cabin structure. The doors have
special, twin side-impact reinforcement beams as well as
impact-absorbing door-lining pads.
NOISE, VIBRATION AND HARSHNESS (NVH)
Throughout the body, features like foam roof pillar separators, wheel
arch extension melt sheets and vacuum-controlled hydraulic engine
mounts minimize noise intrusion into the car's interior. Noise
attenuation material including Thinsulate' is used at key points
throughout the CL, resulting in a vehicle that is serenely quiet,
making long trips less fatiguing. Triple door seals, rubber mirror
seals, an increased density dashboard insulator and a fiberglass hood
insulator also reduce NVH. A highly rigid steering hanger beam,
steering column shaft and accelerator cable bracket reduce vibration
in the steering wheel and throttle pedal. Diffuser side mirrors
channel air between the mirrors and the window glass for reduced wind
noise.
KEYLESS TRUNK LATCH
For greater security and cleaner rear styling, the CL's trunk has no
key cylinder. The trunk lid can be released by the keyless remote, by
a button on the driver's door panel, or by a backup manual release
accessible via the pass-through in the rear seatback.
HIGH INTENSITY DISCHARGE (HID) HEADLIGHTS
All CL models feature reflector-type Xenon High Intensity Discharge
(HID) headlights as standard equipment. Three times as efficient as
conventional halogen lamps, the Acura HID system uses less energy,
with more than double the bulb life. The useful range of illumination
on low beam increases by 39 percent and the increased beam width
eliminates the need for separate fog lights. The CL's high beams use
conventional halogen bulbs and operate in conjunction with the HID
headlights. An auto-off feature turns off the headlights 15 seconds
after the driver's door is closed or the doors are locked.
ADVANCED MATERIAL TECHNOLOGY
A wide range of advanced materials and technologies are used in the
CL. Significant advances include:
- Laser-welded inner door panel blanks increase strength while minimizing weight
- High-strength steel door panels for greater dent resistance
- Body-color drip rail roof molding
- Lightweight fiberglass hood insulator
- Anti-acid-etch clear coat
- 100-percent of plastic materials are ABS, engineered thermoplastics, polypropylene or polyethylene and are all recyclable