THE NSX ( FINALLY) RETURNS

THE MISSION OF HONDA’S HYBRID SUPERCAR: PERFECTION THROUGH ADAPTABILITY.

This NSX has been a long time coming. But somewhere along the line, Honda had a philosophical crisis. Was this a car to compete with Corvettes and lower-echelon 911s? Or should it go after bigger game and put fear into Ferraris, like the original NSX from 1991? Eventually, Honda resolved to go big, which meant pretty much starting over. So here we are, finally.

As with the first NSX, the new one is, at heart, a normal car rife with subtle Honda ergonomic touches. There’s the slender A-pillar that allows great forward visibility and the steering-wheel cover that has no stitching to chafe your fingers. Elsewhere, electronics create a duality of character, from hushed and refined to loud and edgy, spread between four drive modes.

For instance, the sound: turning to Quiet mode reduces intake and exhaust noise by 25 decibels. At first, I thought that sounded like the dumbest idea ever, Silence of the Lame Supercar. But when you’re on the highway, it’s actually nice to cork the exhaust and let the NSX impersonate a luxury sedan. Switch to Sport Plus mode and an exhaust bypass valve unleashes two extra pipes and opens plumbing that brings intake noise through the firewall and into the cabin. You wouldn’t want it this loud all the time. So it’s not.

But when you ask for it, the noise of Sport Plus is quite wonderful. In no way does the NSX attempt to disguise its turboness. Hit the gas and you hear the great jet-turbine intake and breathy exhalations of the turbo’s electric wastegates opening. Meanwhile, the exhaust chatters out this strangely exotic Klaxon drumbeat that sounds like no other V6. If you roll the window down and get on the throttle, it’s like you’re about to be overtaken by some kind of big-bore scary motorcycle. It’s excellent stuff.

And if you want to mess with bystanders, go straight from Sport Plus to Quiet as you’re creeping along in a parking lot. The exhaust cuts from a raucous burble to dead silence as the car enters electric mode. From the outside, it sounds like you’ve stalled it. But then the car just keeps going, perhaps stopping and reversing into a parking spot. What demonry is this?

Ah, yes, electric mode. The NSX has it, because it’s a hybrid – two electric motors on the front axle and one at the rear, the

battery riding behind the seats. Total system power is 427 kilowatts, with 373 from the turbocharged 3,5-litre V6 and the rest from the trio of electric motors. You can probably forget about a plug-in version because there’s no room for a battery with enough range to make that worthwhile. It isn’t about the mileage. I saw about 15 litres/ 100 km during my street drive, but let’s just say I wasn’t in Quiet very often. In this hybrid, the electrons deploy to the purpose of speed, not fuel economy.

Each front electric motor is 27 kilowatts and operates independently, which means that for the first time on a Honda, the torque vectoring – intelligently sending power between the front wheels – happens at the front end rather than the rear. The effect is subtle. It makes the NSX feel like a conventional mid-engined car driving from the rear wheels, rather than an uncivilised turn-in-hungry track monster.

The NSX uses a nine-speed dual-clutch transmission with launch control, but the system doesn’t rev up to a high-rev clutch dump like most other dual-clutch cars. Instead, the NSX uses its electric motors for off-the-line torque. To exploit all of the available electric power, you’ve got to push through a detent in the throttle linkage and really floor it. That fraction of a second is all it takes for the V6 to come online with max boost and start ripping through the gears. There’s no wheel spin, no wailing engine. The NSX just beams itself on down the road. The car reliably hits 150 km/h within about 150 metres and its claimed sub-three-second zero-to-100 is appropriate exotic territory.

Top speed is electronically limited to 307 km/h, which is kind of hilarious. I mean, what happens at 308? Honda is vague on the reasons for the limiter, but representatives said the designers are just being conservative in their consideration of items such as tyres and rotating assemblies. If you catch 310 on a downhill straight on the autobahn, the car’s probably not going to blow up.

Honda says this isn’t a track car, but a few hours at the Thermal Club track in Palm Springs proved that the NSX can turn an impressive lap, especially if you’re running on the optional Pirelli Trofeo R tyres, which are nearly race slicks. SPECIFICATIONS PRICE: R2,33 million ZERO-TO-100 (CLAIMED): 2,9 sec ENGINE: Twin turbo V6 with three AC electric motors

THE GRANDDADDY OF ALL VTECS

I’d never driven a first-generation NSX, the car that forced the Italians (and everyone else) to abandon the idea that high performance was incompatible with comfort and reliability. But Honda had one in Palm Springs, a mint 2005 model, so I grabbed the keys. By modern standards, the original model doesn’t feel fast, but you can immediately see why this car blew everyone’s mind back in the early ’90s. The V6 takes on a hard-edged growl at high revs and the steering feels weighty and perfect. You can see out of it – in fact, you feel like you’re perched between the front fenders, nothing at all in front of you as you hurtle across the planet. The NSX feels like a classic already, the original tame exotic.