Gadgetory

this is a Honda NSX and so is this and this the NSX was the supercar of choice for the aficionados people who valued incredible engineering a certain legendary test driver and handling prowess over big flashy badges and over abundances of power it's easily one of the coolest supercars ever made and his wife Japan's first proper mid-engine supercar was supposed to be a best of all worlds affair fast enough to make a Ferrari feel foolish and easy enough to drive you'd have to be a proper spanner to crush one the year is 1984 and Honda wanted to make something a bit special so it commissioned Pininfarina to design a concept car the HP X Honda Pininfarina experimental it came with a 2 liter v6 and it was designed to be anything that came out of Italy or Germany as the concept turned into a prototype it got a new name the NSX and its target cars with a Ferrari 308 and later the 3 for 8 that's how it ended up with a 3 litre v6 you know how the NSX is cabin looks a little bit like the one you're getting a fighter jet well that's not entirely unintentional you see Honda's designers use the f-16s bubble as a bit of an inspiration because it gives 360 degree visibility as such the cockpits nice and far forward and there's loads of glass in it so you can see really well and that also means the deck at the back is nice and long which gives better high speed stability the NSX made its public debut at the 1989 Chicago Motor Show then again at the Tokyo show of the same year it went on sale in 1990 in America as an acura in Japan and Europe as a Honda it was a flagship to be proud of Bill to highlight f1 tech the NSX is loaded with interesting things for example it's all aluminium body saves 200 kilos open equivalent steel one things like aluminium suspension arm save even more weight on top of that then there's all the toys for example 4-channel abs brakes forged pistons titanium con wrong the first electric throttle control ever fitted to a Honda VTEC basically loads and loads of cool stuff to make sure this thing goes proper quick I know all of that doesn't sound too exciting today but well for the 80s and 90s that was quite something oh and it's development driver one of them at least was a certain mr. a Senna and when he drove it he told Honda's engineers to make it stiffer and they did because Senate told them to Honda being hunter didn't just engineer the crap out of it it also made sure it was solid as anything each car was assembled by a hand-picked team of 200 people each with 10 years experience under their belt even the paint had a twenty three-step process one of which was actually designed for aeronautics the paint on this early model still looks good today the first NSX's came with a three liter v6 with 270 horsepower 210 pound foot and a nought to 60 226 seconds and its top speed was nearly a hundred and seventy miles an hour a porsche boxster today would smash that realistically it would walk all over it however for the early 90s that was mental that was proper proper quick so this is the baby the first NSX the original one what's it like to drive well this is an automatic and the gearbox is horrible I really really don't like it removes a lot of engagement from the car because it doesn't really like changing gear however the steering almost saves it because it's a little bit funny to start with but once you pop it in you get lots of feel the car grabs and away you go throttle response thanks to the gearbox is a bit lacking the interior for a 90s car is actually held up remarkably well this one being immaculate looked after by Honda is beautiful it's so clean the lines are so loving that they CAC anywhere in all the original MSX this one it's rather nice it doesn't feel that quick because of its gearbox but Honda prided itself on the fact that the NSX was easy to drive that anyone could get in it and still have a great time and it really is easy to drive the steering's not too heavy but it still gives you beautiful feedback you know what's going on this isn't a hard car to drive quickly at all even with this horrible gearbox we've got a nice straight foot now come on Carl oh there we go and break harder than that please cart there we go breaks it very much of an error but it is very quick it's a lovely lovely thing it's so easy to drive easy to see out of easy to control but for the next trick I've got something a little bit more hardcore in 1992 Honda decided to make a harder-edged NSX for customers who wanted something a bit more focused something with more bite engineers worked to lose 120 kilos from a standard car so the type r weighs in at 1230 kilos in car terms nothing how it was done however is when the R gets fum it came with no sound deadening no aircon no stereo carbon Kevlar seats rather than something comfy tweaked suspension to sold some early discovered surprise oversteer issues and its engine was blue printed as well so it was properly put together like a race car Honda made less than 500 of them and they were supposed to be for Japan only but a few escaped and this is one of them this is a 1992 car one of the proper NSX type ours and there are a few little things to it as well as the no sound deadening it will have you because it is quite noisy in here especially compared to the early one but you can hear the engine because the glass in between the cabin and the and the engine bay he's very very thin everything that could be removed was to make this a proper hardcore lightweight thing the steering on this is absolutely fun normal it's so precise you can bang it into a corner you feel everything you feel the front you feel what it's doing it's dragging it you're pushing it but you know where the tires are oh man the ride is a lot harsher than the other car it feels a lot stiffer but as a result this feels more like a proper supercar and less like a sofa well the other one is very usable and you can use it every day and you still get some lovely thrills out of it this isn't a daily driver it's true litre engine is allegedly unchanged the one you get in the normal NSX however because it was looked at and put together and properly blueprinted and all that feels are a lot more sprightly that said this has a proper gearbox a five-speed and it makes an elegant oiss or what we're doing 100 110 120 because there's less weight in here because of the work Honda's engineers did to ensure it was a proper lightweight track special it feels so sprightly it flies this thing it just throws itself along the road feels fantastic why isn't Honda making a car like this today this is proper this feels good man the rides a bit hard the gearbox is beautiful the steering is beautiful and the noise it makes who needs sound deadening when you can drive along with this thing sauntering along behind your head this is perfect there are many varieties of NSX's that appeared over the years there is a japan-only type half which I'm in right now then there was the aforementioned target op the US only Alex Zanardi edition which was built to celebrate many many many championship wins and then the frankly mental sounding lightweight special NSX s and s0 editions which where they sound quite scary to me 1997 saw some performance upgrades the engine gained 200 CC upping it to 3.2 liters and it also got a dollop more power they got a six-speed manual with better ratios while the auto cars kept the same old 3 liter set up a new aluminium alloy was used allowing for thinner panels that retained the strength of the old car and it got bigger brakes as such naught to 60 times fell into the five-second zone even for the Targa roof versions and in some tests under 5 seconds were managed for the coupe a in 2002 the NSX changed shape it lost its pop-up headlamps it got wider rear tires and modified rear suspension in the US you're only allowed to buy a target op where is everywhere else well they got the right to choose between the t-top and a coupe a so how does this feel compared to the original one well the steering is markedly different this is very much assisted and it doesn't feel grey to start with but then once you pitch it in it feels nice it feels good the bigger engine 3.2 also feels a lot freer it feels a lot nicer a lot smoother a lot happy it's a rev that might be important to the gearbox though this has a lovely lovely manual it just feels nice and light and easy to use the shift isn't too laborious the clutch isn't too heavy which often kills supercars and because of the bigger engine and the lovely gears you knew this and you feel the extra power as well it does feel a lot fresher than the earlier car it feels more like a car that made its way into the naughties the other one did feel very very 90s it was just that little difference here that makes it just that little bit better it's a lot of response is beautiful the brakes again wonderful and you can tell this is quite light you can tell it moves around a little bit but not too much it feels stable where you want it to feel stable and if you do something stupid well it'll let you know about it it's not too hard sprung either it is a bit soft and squidgy it's still got a little bit of giving it which might not be ideal for people who love a bit of track work but it is ideal for people who want to feel engaged but also enjoy their spines and don't like giving money to chiropractors usability of something that super car manufacturers kick about all the time nowadays they keep banging on about how oh it's very usable there's lots of space and there's lots of movement in the car you can put everything in it and you can use it and it's all wonderful but actually a lot of the time that's up to parts of top driving something like a 911 gt3 on a daily basis is hideous you've come to hate it because it's not practical it's too hard sprung it's too uncomfortable it's too noisy whereas this will give you the noise when you want the noise it'll give you the hard drive that you want but it doesn't overwhelm you and I love the noise at v6 makes 3.2 litres of fun that is he's fantastic it's not quite as hardcore as they are which might be a little much for idiots like me but this is the NSX this is the easy to drive usable supercar it's a wonderful thing I can see why people absolutely adore these things in 2005 the NSX was killed it was a 15 year old car and wasn't selling all that well and its innings had been pretty stellar however before it went the way of Betamax Honda had one last trick up its sleeve the second generation NSX Type R the second generation NSX R they lost the tight bit because well they like losing things in that a lot of weight for example its curb weight was twelve hundred and seventy kilos there was carbon-fiber pretty much everywhere no sound deadening no aircon no stereo no nothing really it was a balls-to-the-wall track car and here's the thing even though it was 15 years old at the time it still managed to do the ring in the same time as a Ferrari 360 challenge to darling today a Honda Civic type-r the new one would humble it quite happily but man is a serious bitter kid over its 15 year lifespan the NSX gained a lot of fans from kids playing with them in Gran Turismo hi to grownups who wanted an alternative to the regular German or Italian fare it's quite telling just how good the NSX was when Gordon Murray was on the customer list and Jack Nicholson he wrote the NSX is run was long enough at 15 years that's fair to say and while it was around it keep all kinds of ass there's a new one on the way but it's been delayed well Lots I don't think though that's because of any adverts developmental issues I just think Honda wants to get it 100 percent straight out of the box so it can have another 15 years at the top