Nearly every automotive brand has its own little gimmick. Ford->ke31 has its blue oval, Chevy->ke199 has its bow-tie, Buick->ke17 has its shields, and on it goes. Acura->ke10, however, never really developed a gimmick until recently and it certainly made up for its lack of said gimmick by making one for the ages.

Acura’s newfound gimmick was what it dubbed “the shield” or as us automotive buffs have dubbed it “the beak.” As of late, Acura has received a good bit of flack regarding said beak, and even its own design head admits that it went “a little overboard at some points” when speaking about “the shield.”

According to multiple reports, however, Acura has no plans to drop the beak any time soon, but it may massage it a little on certain models. We already saw that the nose was slightly reduced on the ILX, though it was still pretty large. The NSX Concept was another that looked as if the beak was trimmed back a little bit, but it was also still very noticeable.

It’s one thing to have your own little niche carved out in automotive history, but it’s another thing when that niche suddenly becomes the focal point for your cars. We are willing to bet that “the shield” gets trimmed down over the next few years and the largest cut down just may happen when Acura finally releases the production NSX.

Then again, car companies can be a little stubborn when it comes to admitting failure and letting designs linger around for way too long, so we may be in for several decades of this massive beak. Only time will tell.

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