Drmanny3: I have to agree with your sentiment and reflections on the NC1. Also thank you for posting the links to the launch plans and info. that you did. Like yourself I have owned several dozen cars in my lifetime including a 2000 NSX and I do find my 2017 NSX to be a far superior car than the 2000 in so many ways except perhaps some of the emotional engagement aspects of driving my 2000 which notably was a 6 speed manual transmission car. At that time I also had a BMW M3 and Porsche 911 that were manual transmission cars so that's what i favored back then. According to the material you posted links to, it seems that Acura planned on 800 units for the first year, remaining flexible on future volume adjustments.
It's very difficult to directly recoup overall design and engineering investment costs on a limited production vehicle like this, especially with the level of technology incorporated into the hybrid system as well the manufacturing facility investment costs and various vehicle testing and certification costs. That's a tremendous amount of overhead to amortize over a small number of units. The Acura material talks about the positive halo effect but as I've mentioned before the NSX is relative anomaly on the Acura line-up and they don't have the necessary product line-up to benefit from this.
In the market for supercars there are a lot of brand snobs and so many "spec sheet" drivers. Some of these people want to feel good about the advertised numbers for their cars even if they aren't attainable for the most part and they don't drive their cars to those limits anyway. And they want to be noticed for driving a car that is of a high end brand. I do think, for example, that if the car was advertised from the getup as having sub 3 second 0 to 60 times, a sub 11 second quarter mile time and 600 plus horsepower it would have made a difference, especially given the lack of changes in the car over time. I also think the prices of the options was too high - so a heavily equipped car like mine came in at $200K which is pushing up against the Huracan, 911 Turbo, McLaren and other cars with substantially more brand equity in the segment. You also had cars in the lower priced segments like the Z06 C7 Vette advertising 650 hp and quicker performance times (even though I've seen plenty of them run at the track and not be able to put the power to the ground, even with drag slicks, and not come close to the advertised acceleration numbers. But I think having 3.0 seconds 0 to 60 and 11.0 secs for the quarter mile is much less advantageous when marketing to some buyers than say 2.8 secs 0 to 60 and 10.8 secs in the quarter mile. And 573 hp versus say 610 hp. I'm not saying that the core C7 Z06 buyer was a candidate for the NC1 but some potential NC1 buyers might not like the fact that the Z06 has the specs it has for the price it is offered at and so look at other options in the supercar segment.
It also didn't help that the NC1 has had mixed reviews from the automotive press. Had there been more enthusiasm in this department that might have helped with sale.
I've had my NSX at the Irwindale Drag Strip track a few times now and the crowd response is tremendous (I get lots of cheers as I drive on the return road past the grandstands) and other exotic car drivers have come up to me and say they really respect the car's looks and performance. I have no doubt the appreciation will grow over time and resale values will hold solidly.
In the end we can just enjoy what we have and continue to share that with others with whom we interact but it is sad to see things end this way.
