I’m glad [MENTION=20915]RYU[/MENTION] posted this. A classic Prime thread. Most of you know my story already. I sold my 91 in 2015 and bought a 2013 GT-R. With the benefit of time and perspective, I now realize it probably was a mistake. I was a 7-year owner at that point, fairly well known in the community and may car was really, really close to what I wanted in a NSX. But, at the time I had a newborn son and a 2-year old daughter. My decision occurred in a moment, not after a long thought process. I was rocking my little guy to sleep at about 3 am one night and I was thinking about the carbon fiber bumper beams that I planned to install that weekend. I was so exhausted from the new baby that it just hit me: “What am I doing?” The thought of taking the front and back ends of my car (my daily driver) apart, installing the beams, and putting it all back together in time to make it to work on Monday just defeated me. I knew doing that would put the burden of dealing with the kids completely on my already exhausted wife, I’d be wiped out from the work, who knows what I would break during the process and would Acura have a replacement part ready on a Sunday? Then my brain went to the fact that the NSX had no back seats, so where were the kids supposed to go if Mrs. Honcho was out in the RDX? Right then, at that moment, I decided to sell it. And it was gone a few weeks later.
I tried with the GT-R. It solved the rear seats issue and I hoped I could have a similar experience to the NSX. Like many on this thread, I was also attracted by the new-ness, the blistering speed, ATTESA-ES AWD, modern A/V, the dual-clutch trans, all that stuff. I got involved on the forums, modded and tuned it to about 650 hp. I even went to some local club events, but it wasn’t the same. It was a bunch of swole dudes in affliction shirts and ripped skinny jeans, with slicked back hair to cover their pattern baldness. They all seemed to either own a gym or a bar, or some kind of shady small business. The heavy smell of cologne and fat, shiny Rolexes were just too much for me. All they talked about was roll racing Lambos and they drove like maniacs. They didn’t even really care about the cars- these were the guys that would pick up that used Gallardo as soon as their debt-swollen budgets would allow. Mrs. Honcho even remarked after one get together that this “wasn’t you.” Eventually the shiny-object fascination with the car faded. The 2.6 second blasts to 60 got old- after about a year, I never really launched it anymore. I turned the boost down to 15 psi and hit the road course, but even that was underwhelming. Even in “R” mode, the GT-R did all of the driving- I was basically along for the ride. It was almost comically faster than my old NSX in terms of lap times, but in truth all I could think about was how much I was wearing down my $3,000 tires. So, the GT-R was gone after 3 short years. In its place was a F-150 Super Crew and a fat check.
That journey got me thinking about the NSX and what I want from a sports car generally, and whether I was just done with sports cars altogether. Without getting too metaphysical, I came to the realization that I enjoy the man-machine connection you get from driving at speed. That connection to me is informed by my senses, which are fed by tactile and audible things like the feel of the clutch grabbing through the pedal, the brake modulation as you press your foot down, the snick of the gear lever, the pushback through the steering wheel in a corner, the momentum of the car in over/understeer and the sound of the engine. I can think of many cars that deliver some or all of these factors, but none seem to do it in a combination quite like the NSX. I’m not sure if it was intentional or an accident, but Honda really hit on something with this car that seems to be really, really hard to replicate elsewhere. I can’t quite put my finger on it, which is maybe what makes the NSX special. I think it’s also why NSX prices are rising so high lately- other people are figuring that out too.
So now I have another NSX. If you’ve seen my build thread, I’m doing stuff to it that will enhance all of the things I love about it. I’m leaving it NA. I’m making it light. I’m putting a hot exhaust on it. Because now I think I understand. I’m after the driving experience, not speed or cool tech or status. This is me now- just a few days ago actually. See that smile? It’s because I now know what I’ve got. I won’t be selling this one.
Having been though the journey away from the car and back, I can now say that while cars like the GT3 RS, Cayman, Lotus, C8, etc raise my eyebrow for a moment, I know better. Even the NC1. So, my advice is to keep your NSX. Even if it just sits there for a while. Go and try the other cars- that’s fine- but, keep your NSX. You’ve got lightning in a bottle sitting in your garage. You’ll come back to it. I did.
