Caught! Is this the Honda ZSX?

UPDATE: Honda has revealed that the car photographed is not, in fact, a sub-NSX sportscar, but simply a three year-old concept that was being moved out of a Honda facility and into storage. Nothing to see here folks, move along.

A SLEEK roadster believed to be the Honda ZSX has been spotted ahead of its rumoured debut at next month’s New York motor show.

Talk that Honda was intending to build a mini version of its NSX supercar returned last year when the Japanese automaker applied to trade mark the ZSX name in Europe.

Eight months later and this mid-engined sports car, believed to be the ZSX concept and possibly a forebear of the next-generation S2000 roadster, has been spied in California which is where Honda’s flagship NSX was designed.

Details of the slippery looking roadster concept are sparse, though it’s certainly mid-engined going by the short nose and gaping air intakes behind the doors.

Like the NSX it’s likely to be hybrid powered, with a modified 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine taken from the Honda Civic Type-R with electric motors on the front and rear axles.

The two-seat roadster looks very similar to images of a two-seat sports coupe released by Honda in August last year.

French site Automoto, which revealed those images, said an anonymous source claiming to be an engineer at Honda in Japan said the company was planning to debut the ZSX at the 2017 North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January.

While that didn’t occur, these new pictures suggest it’s on track for a Big Apple reveal.

Automoto’s source, who also provided the speculation surrounding the possible powertrain, said the ZSX will be offered first as a coupe, followed by a roadster version with a folding/removable hard top.