- Joined
- 31 December 2010
- Messages
- 309
If you folks remember about a month back I purchased JH4NA1150MT000649 from Dallas and had it shipped to Tucson. The timing belt, water pump, and a bunch of other small tune up stuff is complete. At 55,000-ish miles the intake valves were a bit loose and the exhaust were a bit tight, the plugs pulled & replaced. They looked proper, actually impressively clean, timing, fuel all looked spot on from the plugs. The idle is much smoother. The original timing belt and water pump looked in fantastic shape for being 20 years old, but now I have peace of mind knowing a fresh belt is on there.
I've driven and owned a wide range of sports cars and exotics, currently own a turbocharged Viper, and recently parted with an RX-7 (to make garage room for the NSX).. I must say, this is by far the most enjoyable stock vehicle I've ever driven. Honda did one hell of a job. I've already put 500 miles of very "spirited" driving on it, up and down a mountain twice for some good twisties. The manual steering is perfect, tight, you can sense the road but not with too much rawness, the car feels very much as an extension of your body similar experience as riding a sport bike, and takes a bit of punishment in order to step the back end out in tight corners and elevation changes, even when it does, it's extremely predictable, smooth, and forgiving. You aren't needing to constantly stay ahead of the vehicle.
I have no major complaints about the power plant other than it looks goofy sitting sideways lol. 270 horsepower was a decent amount in the late 80's early 90's. Tucson is 3,000 feet ASL, and DA commonly approaches 6,500 feet during the summer, hell it nearly adds an entire second to the 1/4 mile in most N/A cars. The V6 sound is amazing, especially as the needle kisses redline, and hearing those high revs never gets boring. It has a decent amount of torque around 2,500-4,000 RPMs, and 6,500-8,000 is outright addicting. This is my first Honda with VTEC. I was a little concerned about an obnoxious transition, but the NSX is tasteful, barely noticeable, and power seems to continue even where you'd expect it to fall flat, in fact I think it begs to be taken deep into red. The shifter couldn't be in a more perfect location, the throws are precise and has a definitive "lock into place" feel when grabbing gears - there's no mistaking whether you've missed. The clutch is lightning quick, not too heavy to where you'd be concerned of developing massive calves in your left leg. The brakes are phenomenal, firm zero travel pedal feel. The gas is a bit close for my large feet, however barefoot heel-toe shifting is so easy it's almost comical.
The visibility which is often overlooked, is a solid 10. Most sports cars and exotics are horrid in this department. I have zero concern on tracking this car with other vehicles in close proximity. You can't beat analog gauges. I was sad when sport bikes started going digital speedometers, sometimes it makes it difficult to read the speed change rate.
It has all of the creature comforts any executive would ever need. In fact I would consider it a bit much. I personally could do without power mirrors, power seats, automated climate control, and leather bottoms.
Maintenance: I'm not going to lie. It's a pain. Standard oil changes, spark plugs, filters are all easy.. But anything else seems to have a 21 step procedure. This would be the category where the Viper and other domestics definitely wins, you can essentially gut the entire car in an afternoon and have it back together by morning using basic tools and 99% of parts can be found at Autozone, where the NSX would be a full weekend project + wait time for parts to arrive. Although parts aren't excessively expensive compared to Ferrari / Porsche, so that's a bonus.
I'm basically telling everyone what you already know.. But compared to the vast number of other vehicles I've driven, my conclusion is: I should have bought one of these a long time ago. This is how driving is meant to be experienced. It's the perfect balance of timeless looks, luxury, performance, and probably reliability (to be determined). This NSX is a keeper.
I've driven and owned a wide range of sports cars and exotics, currently own a turbocharged Viper, and recently parted with an RX-7 (to make garage room for the NSX).. I must say, this is by far the most enjoyable stock vehicle I've ever driven. Honda did one hell of a job. I've already put 500 miles of very "spirited" driving on it, up and down a mountain twice for some good twisties. The manual steering is perfect, tight, you can sense the road but not with too much rawness, the car feels very much as an extension of your body similar experience as riding a sport bike, and takes a bit of punishment in order to step the back end out in tight corners and elevation changes, even when it does, it's extremely predictable, smooth, and forgiving. You aren't needing to constantly stay ahead of the vehicle.
I have no major complaints about the power plant other than it looks goofy sitting sideways lol. 270 horsepower was a decent amount in the late 80's early 90's. Tucson is 3,000 feet ASL, and DA commonly approaches 6,500 feet during the summer, hell it nearly adds an entire second to the 1/4 mile in most N/A cars. The V6 sound is amazing, especially as the needle kisses redline, and hearing those high revs never gets boring. It has a decent amount of torque around 2,500-4,000 RPMs, and 6,500-8,000 is outright addicting. This is my first Honda with VTEC. I was a little concerned about an obnoxious transition, but the NSX is tasteful, barely noticeable, and power seems to continue even where you'd expect it to fall flat, in fact I think it begs to be taken deep into red. The shifter couldn't be in a more perfect location, the throws are precise and has a definitive "lock into place" feel when grabbing gears - there's no mistaking whether you've missed. The clutch is lightning quick, not too heavy to where you'd be concerned of developing massive calves in your left leg. The brakes are phenomenal, firm zero travel pedal feel. The gas is a bit close for my large feet, however barefoot heel-toe shifting is so easy it's almost comical.
The visibility which is often overlooked, is a solid 10. Most sports cars and exotics are horrid in this department. I have zero concern on tracking this car with other vehicles in close proximity. You can't beat analog gauges. I was sad when sport bikes started going digital speedometers, sometimes it makes it difficult to read the speed change rate.
It has all of the creature comforts any executive would ever need. In fact I would consider it a bit much. I personally could do without power mirrors, power seats, automated climate control, and leather bottoms.
Maintenance: I'm not going to lie. It's a pain. Standard oil changes, spark plugs, filters are all easy.. But anything else seems to have a 21 step procedure. This would be the category where the Viper and other domestics definitely wins, you can essentially gut the entire car in an afternoon and have it back together by morning using basic tools and 99% of parts can be found at Autozone, where the NSX would be a full weekend project + wait time for parts to arrive. Although parts aren't excessively expensive compared to Ferrari / Porsche, so that's a bonus.
I'm basically telling everyone what you already know.. But compared to the vast number of other vehicles I've driven, my conclusion is: I should have bought one of these a long time ago. This is how driving is meant to be experienced. It's the perfect balance of timeless looks, luxury, performance, and probably reliability (to be determined). This NSX is a keeper.
