Short on confidence, long on potential
Of all the cars in showrooms, you’d think a supercar should be the most confident. It would know its exact purpose. It wouldn’t make compromises for people who don’t immediately understand that purpose. “Here I am, suckers,” it might say. “Love me or hate me.”
Honda’s gods of engineering once gave us exactly such a car. The original NSX was constructed of lightweight aluminum and with the same simplicity of purpose and delicate engineering as Honda’s other products. It made do with just six cylinders—no excess, thank you—but the V-6 had titanium connecting rods and a new thing called VTEC, and it spun the entire automotive world into an 8,000-rpm frenzy.
The Pininfarina-styled NSX lacked some of the soul of Italian supercars, but it taught all of them a lesson: You can, in fact, make a supercar that works. The NSX started when you turned the key and then continued to run. You could drive it in traffic with the A/C on without it overheating. It didn’t leak oil. Hell, you could even see out of the damn thing. This was a supercar you could actually live with.
That was a quarter of a century ago, and entire car companies have come and gone in the years since. In the intervening NSX-less years, Honda’s been struggling to find its performance groove. Even when it did decide to build another performance halo, Honda couldn’t decide what form it should take.
In 2007, we were shown the Acura Advanced Sports Car Concept with a V-10 mounted under its front hood. Prototypes were seen testing, but the project was ultimately cancelled. Four years later, Acura unveiled the NSX Concept, which like the original NSX used a transversely mounted V-6. Again, development got far enough to build prototypes—but alas, that car was scrapped, too.
Finally, earlier this year, we saw the concept of the car that has made it into production. It shares its basic styling language with the previous two cars, but its V-6 has been given two turbos and mounted longitudinally.
Can you imagine Ferrari promising the 488 GTB’s successor for an entire decade, showing it first as a front-engine GT; then a transverse, mid-engine hybrid; and then finally turning the engine 90 degrees, turbocharging it, and having to completely re-engineer the car from the outside in—and stretching it 3 inches in length and an inch in width to accommodate the new powertrain? This kind of unclear direction isn’t just showing your hand too early, and it’s not just a waste of time and money. It’s a sign that Honda is having a hard time figuring what its own flagship should be. And, by extension, what the Acura brand even means.
Acura’s latest models—TLX and ILX—are badge-engineered versions of existing Honda cars. So it’s clear that the NSX has one big job: to show the world that Acura actually means business.
The V-6 isn’t Honda’s off-the-shelf 60-degree V-6. That engine, which was in the 2012 concept, wasn’t powerful enough. Honda’s Ohio R & D team, which headed up the NSX project, asked Japan for a more powerful engine, and it delivered an all-new, bespoke twin-turbo V-6 for the NSX project. The turbos—or their cooling needs, rather—are what dictated the switch to the longitudinal layout. Honda then increased the engine’s vee angle from 60 degrees to 75, which lowered the heads—and thus the engine’s center of mass—as well as strengthened the crankshaft, as the crankpin offset was reduced from 60 to 45 degrees.
The excess weight, of course, comes in part from the hybrid system. The batteries, controllers, and motors together are likely responsible for more than 500 pounds. Acura points out that, given the technology used, this is one of those times where you can add weight and complexity to a car in search of a more authentic sports car experience.
Our eyebrows also rose upon hearing that sentence. Then again, every engineer Acura brought along to the press launch was a real, serious Actual Car Guy. We gave them the benefit of the doubt and set out to tackle the twisties.
The first thing you notice inside the NSX is that you can actually see the outside. The car’s (over)styled body demonstrates precisely no lineage to the beautiful, simple original’s, but the low cowl and excellent outward visibility are a clear link. Form takes precedence over function on the NSX’s cabin, but it all works well with two exceptions: first, the touchscreen in the center console, which lacks even a physical volume knob, and second, the silly gear selector, which we’ve found equally unintuitive in other Acura products.
2017 ACURA NSX
2017 ACURA NSX
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BASE PRICE
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$155,000 (est)
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VEHICLE LAYOUT
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Mid-engine, AWD, 2-pass, 2-door coupe
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ENGINES
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3.5L/500-hp/406-lb-ft twin-turbo DOHC 24-valve V-6 plus two
36-hp/54-lb-ft front and one 47-hp/109-lb-ft rear electric motors; 573 hp
comb
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TRANSMISSION
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9-speed twin-clutch auto
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CURB WEIGHT
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3,800 lb (mfr)
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WHEELBASE
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103.5 in
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LENGTH X WIDTH X HEIGHT
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176.0 x 76.3 x 47.8 in
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0-60 MPH
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3.0 sec (mfr est)
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EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON
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Not yet rated
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ON SALE IN U.S.
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Spring 2016
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