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Leave it to American Honda Motor Co. to couple a catchy name with a new, technically progressive product for the 1991-92 automotive marketing wars.

Honda, via its Acura Automobile Division, is scheduled to introduce the 1992 Acura Vigor sports sedan to Indianapolis in the next few days. Local dealers say they expect to receive shipments before the end of the month.

Acura Division is not relying on slick phraseology. The Vigor’s engine has exotica like five cylinders, 20 valves, dual-stage manifolding and a single overhead cam. The engine is mounted longitudinally, a departure from the usual transverse mounting, to drive the front wheels. A fairly good-sized automobile, the Vigor is positioned in the market between the Acura Integra and Legend.

“What we’re looking at is a car that is going to fill the gap between the Integra and the Legend,” said Jim Mulvaney, general manager for Ed Martin Acura. Integras range in price from an entry-level model to upper midscale. The Legend is a luxury car. “An Integra costs from $11,000 to $18,000,” said Rick Campbell, general manager of Dave Mason Acura. “The Legend runs from $28,000 to $34,000. So we needed something to fit in between.” In between is going to be $23,000 to $26,000, a price structure that easily qualifies for the luxury car class. But in return, the Vigor offers as standard equipment a driver’s-side air bag, anti-lock brakes, a digital signal processor audio system on the GS model, and a leather interior power moonroof on the GS. On the LS model, moquette upholstery is standard. Many manufacturers would be satisfied to bring forth a new product with just a couple of the features found in the ’92 Vigor. But Acura Division has gone the whole load, figuring if a little did a little good a lot should be sensational.

In a period when 2.5-liter engines lie in the four-cylinder camp, Acura has added one more cylinder. While this is not the first aluminum in-line five, the design configuration is not all that common.

There are four valves per cylinder actuated by a single overhead cam rather than the usual dual overhead cams. Each valve is actuated by its own rocker arm rather than having a single forked rocker operate two valves at a time.

An added piece of advanced engineering technology is a dual-stage intake manifold.

Under a light load, each cylinder has a single intake runner with its own throttle valve that feeds limited air and fuel to each cylinder of the engine. Under a heavy load, a second throttle valve/runner for each cylinder opens up and increases the air/fuel flow to the engine.

Again, dual-intake manifolding is not entirely new, but it generally is the province of rather expensive engines. It increases torque throughout the engine speed range.

The Acura’s overhead-cam five produces an excellent 176 horsepower from 150 cubic inches of displacement. Torque reading is 176 foot-pounds at 3,900 rpm.

In positioning the engine longitudinally as if the Vigor were a rear-dri ve instead of a front-drive, Acura’s engineers take the power via a gear and stub drive-shaft assembly from the left front side of the transmission. The system is the same for both the manual five-speed and the four-speed automatic transmission.

The front wheels are driven by a transverse axle shaft that runs beneath the crankshaft and the fourth and fifth cylinders. This is something of a takeoff on the initial Oldsmobile Toronado. The Toronado’s V-8 engine was mounted in a longitudinal position and drove the front wheels by a shaft that ran beneath a recess in the oil pan.

The Vigor is at the upper end of the midsized-car bracket. Its wheelbase is 110.4 inches and its overall length is 190.4 inches. “It’s bigger than the Integra but smaller than the Legend,” Mulvaney said, “so they’ve also balanced the car out in respect to size.

“This is going to be a sedan that’s comfortable todrive and gives good performance.”

The four-door is a sports sedan meant to appeal to yo ung profe ssionals who want to move up to a better-class automobile. “It’s going to attract Honda buyers who have an Accord but don’t want to move up to a Legend,” Campbell said. “The Vigor puts them into a luxury automobile without getting into the $30,000 bracket.”

Buyers are expected to be mostly between 30 and 55 years of age. The company sees the Vigor accounting for 25 percent to 35 percent of Acura dealership sales.