Your statements regarding raising the bar and grabbing headlines with faster cars around the ring is true but it is not in the Honda spirit to build cars like that. NSX and S2000 were never the fastest nor the most powerful in their class. Yet these 2 vehicles are nenowned for their balance, nimbleness, daily driver reliable practical package. This is what embodies the Honda spirit.
Have you seen the video of Gan San driving a prototype S2000 around the ring back in 1999, when the car was undergoing final shake down. The in-car view showing his speed is amazing.
Give me a car with twice that horsepower and I question if I can go around the ring faster than Gan San did on the S2000. Most sports car owners simply cannot exploit the potential of a high powered car. In Honda’s culture, “Manufacturer’s pride” and “engineering advancement” is reflected in building intelligent, purposeful, and efficient cars. These concepts are well reflected in the S2000 and the NSX.
There will be sports car makers who will continue to chase after the fastest and the most powerful. For that, there are 3 camp of owners with some overlap in each category.
- The first camp buys them so they can saviour them as engineering masterpieces and they value the continued heritage the marque brings.
- Second camp will be a very select few who can exploit its full potential on a track and truly enjoy what the car was built to do.
- Then we have the third camp that wears the car like Jewelery so they make a statement to the world about who they are.
There are many that falls in the 3rd camp and the engineering resources spent behind these car is neither treasure, nor used, but only flaunted.
Phil Hill, the nenowed formula 1 racer and now one of the writers on Road and Track wrote several years ago that many cars simply have excessive amount of horsepower and he expressed that manufactures could better allocate their resources elsewhere. With the 35mpg mandating coming in 2020 and decreased CO2 emisson requirement in EU, manufacturers are chasing after efficiency and reduced emissions. In 2011, the new CAFÉ standard begins to phase in with full 35mpg implementation by 2020. With the help of Bosch, the next generation of Ferrari engines will go direct injection to address efficiency and emissions.
Mr. Phil Losee, the owner of many Ferraris and well known in the Ferrari community crashed his Enzo. This is one case of many on how the car’s capability exceeded the talent or the judgement of the driver.
While $70K Nissans that can do 0-60 in 3.3 seconds may be a great idea for the wise and trained, in the hands of the many unrestrained and untrained, it becomes a pubic hazard and can make you go from Hero to zero.
Many NSX owners feel like a hero after a drive simply because their car communicates and executes every command with immediacy and accuracy. This experience leaves a bonding experience much like a horse and its rider. What bring one this heroic experience is driving a vehicle that is rich in feedback yet forgiving of uneducated inputs. For this builds driver confidence, allows the driver to be one with the car and dance gracefully on the pavement. Bonding with your car in this manner will make you feel like a hero, even though you know you are not, because there are faster cars and faster drivers. That alone will leave your ego in check and well grounded.
Mr. Fukui pursuit about building a V-10 sports car is very un-Honda like. He is merely jumping on the horsepower bandwagon because someone's Ego may have been bruised because of the constant criticism about the "measly" V6 in the NSX. His direction goes against industry tide as manufacturers gear down for efficency. Time for Mr. Fukui to get grounded and start making sensable sports car in the spirit of the original NSX, the way Soichiro Honda intended.
