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Honda Motor Co. has taken note that maturing baby boomers are knocking on its door.

It’s answering with an all-new 1997 Acura 2.2 CL luxury sports coupe, an automobile designed to provide upscale motoring for empty-nesters who want to add a little more zip to their lives.

Officially introduced on March 15, a CL in premium form costs $24,395, and that includes a four-speed automatic and leather. According to Paul Fiene, sales manager for Dave Mason Acura, a base CL with a five-speed transmission will cost about $800 less.

“It’s too early to tell whether the five-speed or the automatic is going to be the best seller,” Fiene said. “In the past, its been the automatic. But this is a sporty automobile, so I think the five-speed may hold its own.”

This latest coupe from Honda’s Acura Division is California born and Ohio bred. It was conceived in Acura’s design studios at Torrance, Calif., and is being manufactured in East Liberty and Anna, Ohio.

When things get completely in gear, there will be two models of the CL Series, a 2.2 CL and a 3.0 CL. The nomenclature is based on engine sizes that denote a 2.2-liter (132-cubic inch) four-cylinder and a 3.0-liter V-6, due out in the fall, whose cubic inch displacement will be announced.

For now, the coupe will have to get along with the VTEC (variable valve timing and lift electronic control) four-cylinder, a single-overhead cam motor with four valves per cylinder. The four is rated at 145 horsepower, which would seem a little light on power for this type of luxury coupe.

The CL, however, makes no compromises on exterior and interior styling, comfort and convenience, ride and handling dynamics and safety.

The exterior style adheres to an aerodynamic philosophy, with curving sheet metal that provides for a low coefficient of drag, low wind noise, and good fuel mileage. The coupe has some reminiscent touches of the Honda Accord, but on balance it goes its own way in looks.

Inside, a spacious cabin area provides room for four. With a wheelbase of 106.9 inches and an overall length of 190.2, there is sufficient room to accommodate rear-seat passengers for short journeys. Things might get a little cramped during cross-country touring.

The standard interior is trimmed in rich moquette fabric, with gathered leather for the seats and door panels as an option. As expected in a luxury coupe, there are the usual air, stereo and power accessory features.

Also standard is the state-of-the-art cockpit layout of a center console and a four-gauge (speedometer-tachometer-temperature-fuel) instrument panel. There is nothing here that will get a driver off his or her game. Just get in and go.

With 145 horsepower in hand, the five-speed may not be too bad an idea. It offers the best performance potential for the 2.2 engine. Car and Driver magazine ran a preintroduction CL at Honda’s Mojave Desert proving ground and reported a rather leisurely 0-60 mph acceleration time of 8.2 seconds.

The 3.0-liter can be expected to improve considerably on this performance. It shouldn’t be any trick at all to get one horsepower or a little better from a VTEC four-valve V-6, so that would put the power to somewhere around 180 to 190 horsepower.

Acura has designed the coupe to offer the ease of ride that befits a luxury car. Thus the front-wheel drive is equipped with four-wheel independent suspension. A double-wishbone system incorporates coil springs front and rear, plus rear stabilizer bars to enhance precise handling control.

Precise handling requires a stiff body structure, and this was accomplished in a number of ways.

The center “safety cage” of the unit body structure is specifically fortified with thickened reinforcements at such critical points as the floor tunnel, side sills, and center pillars. Thicker rear damper stiffeners also are extended downward over the wheelhouses to greatly impr ove body rigidity.

This ’97 CL coupe sort of replaces the Acura Legend, which is no longer bein g produced.

“It really doesn’t replace the Legend, because the Legend was a more expensive automobile,” Fiene said. “It’s a stand-alone coupe, and I think the premium package model will be what we will sell the most.”