Hey RJPKRP, (man all these initials - what does this stand for?)
Anyway, thanks for calling my attention to this one too RJ (for short). It's a good read as well. I can hardly put the NSX in the catagory as the McClaren, I mean wow, now that is a super car but my little old 91 N1 still will almost do what the speedo says - 180 - now that is quite an accomplishment for an 18 year old car with a NA V6 with only 270 some odd hp. I do have comptech headers and a later model exhaust which has got to be good for some hp increase, but who knows how much, still my car is very fast imho.
Sure doesn't compare to some of these real bombs with V12s and V8s and tons of torque that do 0 - 60 in 3.6 but it does it in a respectable time. Is it enough to make it a super car.....that's up for constant debate. However, like you I feel there are other things that take it into that catagory - it's a 2 seater for one, a real sports car for another and what in it's price range, that's a 2 seater is appreciably faster. Ok a Vette, that's it. Ok, how bout an Exige, yeah but you can't take it on long trips and our NSXs are surely comfortable. So it fits in that mysterious nitche just like you say and it's hand built - that I've seen in the films that I enjoy watching over and over, just wish there were subtitles. I would love to hear what the originators had to say - that is a total miss by the way for the Japanese. That could have had so much more appeal if it had subtitles - that's the hour long film on the production of the NSX eveyone here has most likely seen. I have it stashed in my file somewhere.
Anyway, it's a magical sports car, beautiful to me and "quite right", but maybe lacking a bit in some areas and could be more refined in the braking and handling department and power department - why Honda chose to virtually leave it as is for it's entire production run is somewhat of a mystery but they did come out with the 3.2/6 speed - T top and as I understand it the 6 speed is a big difference. I really believe that since Honda was making no real money off the car and that is was merely a show piece to say - yes we Japanese can build a super car too! - it's no wonder why it wasn't refined further, but if it had I believe the Japanese would have found that the market would have responded in a bigger way! The advertisement for the car was almost nill - absolutely a lack of committment on the part of Honda to call attention to the car - maybe that's just not the Japanese way or something - I really don't understand.
That's the difference in Honda and other "real" sports car dedicated companies like Porsche, Mercedes, McClaren, AMG, Aston Martin, Ferarri, etc, they are sports car companies and their mission is to race, have a presence in racing and in building great sports cars that are refined over and over trying to reach perfection which is unobtainable but that's where Honda doesn't get it. It's a committment to racing and production of world class sports cars - Honda arguably isn't that kind of company and yet it produced the NSX - a glorious bit of history and dimming in brightness - and it's really too damn bad! I hope that don't let us down totally. Maybe they'll reawaken the sports car program - we can only hope!
Tim
Anyway, thanks for calling my attention to this one too RJ (for short). It's a good read as well. I can hardly put the NSX in the catagory as the McClaren, I mean wow, now that is a super car but my little old 91 N1 still will almost do what the speedo says - 180 - now that is quite an accomplishment for an 18 year old car with a NA V6 with only 270 some odd hp. I do have comptech headers and a later model exhaust which has got to be good for some hp increase, but who knows how much, still my car is very fast imho.
Sure doesn't compare to some of these real bombs with V12s and V8s and tons of torque that do 0 - 60 in 3.6 but it does it in a respectable time. Is it enough to make it a super car.....that's up for constant debate. However, like you I feel there are other things that take it into that catagory - it's a 2 seater for one, a real sports car for another and what in it's price range, that's a 2 seater is appreciably faster. Ok a Vette, that's it. Ok, how bout an Exige, yeah but you can't take it on long trips and our NSXs are surely comfortable. So it fits in that mysterious nitche just like you say and it's hand built - that I've seen in the films that I enjoy watching over and over, just wish there were subtitles. I would love to hear what the originators had to say - that is a total miss by the way for the Japanese. That could have had so much more appeal if it had subtitles - that's the hour long film on the production of the NSX eveyone here has most likely seen. I have it stashed in my file somewhere.
Anyway, it's a magical sports car, beautiful to me and "quite right", but maybe lacking a bit in some areas and could be more refined in the braking and handling department and power department - why Honda chose to virtually leave it as is for it's entire production run is somewhat of a mystery but they did come out with the 3.2/6 speed - T top and as I understand it the 6 speed is a big difference. I really believe that since Honda was making no real money off the car and that is was merely a show piece to say - yes we Japanese can build a super car too! - it's no wonder why it wasn't refined further, but if it had I believe the Japanese would have found that the market would have responded in a bigger way! The advertisement for the car was almost nill - absolutely a lack of committment on the part of Honda to call attention to the car - maybe that's just not the Japanese way or something - I really don't understand.
That's the difference in Honda and other "real" sports car dedicated companies like Porsche, Mercedes, McClaren, AMG, Aston Martin, Ferarri, etc, they are sports car companies and their mission is to race, have a presence in racing and in building great sports cars that are refined over and over trying to reach perfection which is unobtainable but that's where Honda doesn't get it. It's a committment to racing and production of world class sports cars - Honda arguably isn't that kind of company and yet it produced the NSX - a glorious bit of history and dimming in brightness - and it's really too damn bad! I hope that don't let us down totally. Maybe they'll reawaken the sports car program - we can only hope!
Tim
