ACURA A SENSIBLE SUPERCAR
25 years later, second-gen NSX boasts more than twice the horsepower
THERMAL,CAL IF. Acura’s new NSX — 25 years in gestation — might be as much psychological experiment as supercar. Oh, pundits will trumpet its 573 hybridized horsepower. And enthusiasts with deep pockets will have to decide whether Acura’s “New Sports eXperience” — no, that’s not a typo — is more enticing than Ferrari’s newly turbocharged 488 or Lamborghini’s screaming Huracán.
But the deeper question the new 2017 NSX poses, just as its fondly remembered predecessor did, is whether a supercar should appeal to the left side or the right side of the corpus callosum. In less clinical terms, is the best way to loot the wealthy aficionado’s wallet by engaging their brain or appealing to their heartstrings? Or, more important, if you’re an Acura salesperson, can you sell a $189,900 ($250,100 if you add in all the carbon-fibre goodies) supercar based on pragmatic performance?
The original NSX made a compelling argument for yes. Before 1990, the formula for supercar relevance was always the same. If the right hemisphere — controlling emotion, visual imagery and, political correctness be damned, sexual impulse — engaged, the purse strings loosened. Midengine Ferraris, up until the surprisingly pragmatic 488 at least, were perfect examples of the triumph of passion over common sense. Even something as modern as the recently departed 458 could have been commissioned by the great man himself, Enzo never letting ratiocination stand in the way of internal-combustion theatrics.
The original NSX flipped that formula on its ear. Though shaped like a supercar the 1990 NSX could have been designed by Albert Einstein, so ruthless was its logic. With 270 h.p., power was adequate but not scintillating. The V-6 was neither double cammed nor turbocharged. Even the tires were definitely less than supercar-ish.
And yet, it all worked like no supercar before. Indeed, the NSX was so pure in engineering, so devoid of the foibles of traditional exotica, that it lasted, largely unchanged, for 15 years, an eon for a supercar. When the last one did roll off the production line in 2005, a cult was born, one that still recruits to this day, to worship the quintessentially rational supercar.
Twenty-five years later, the NSX remains the sensible supercar. Oh, the new-for-2017 successor boasts more than twice as much horsepower; the NSX’s traditional V-6 gains two turbochargers and no fewer than three electric motors. And the tires are finally super-sized, especially in the rear with its meaty, Lamborghini-like 305/30ZR20 Pirelli PZero Trofeos. But you don’t have to scratch deep to find that Acura still crafts its performance very precisely.
Take the new NSX’s launch-control system. Any supercar worth its turbochargers sports some sort of autonomous clutch and throttle control to boast a quick sprint to 100 km/h. Typically, there’s much sound and fury, computers and actuators maximizing engine r.p.m. and barely contained tire squeal. Not in the NSX. Those three electric motors pump out 217 pound-feet of torque even before the gas engine starts up, Acura calls it “torque filling.”
So, unlike other launch-control systems I’ve tested that rev the snot out of their gas engines before (computer-controlled) dumping of clutch, the NSX comes out of the hole with the V-6 spinning a barely-off-idle 1,800 r.p.m. There’s no roar of engine, no squealing of rubber. In fact, there’s no drama at all. You could use launch control in an NSX in front of a cop shop and there’d be no mad rush for manacle or baton. And yet, the NSX will spring to a 100 km/h in about 3.1 seconds.
That same ruthless application of engineering also applies when the road deviates from the straight and narrow. With four motors — one gas, three electric — all computer controlled, the permutations and combinations of how Acura’s Super Handling All Wheel Drive system decides what wheel gets what torque seem positively endless.
The NSX takes torque vectoring — the ability to distribute power to each wheel — to new levels. Enter a corner hot and heavy and Direct Yaw Control uses the hybrid regenerative braking system to slow the inside front wheel more than the outer wheel to pivot the NSX toward the apex. When exiting the corner, the process reverses. All attention is on the outside front wheel — with all the traction! — and 54 lb.-ft. of electric torque pulls the NSX out of the corner.
And, how about this: The NSX is the first supercar with nine speeds — yes, nine! — in its dual-clutch gearbox. Its paddle-operated upshifts are so smooth and crisp that, other than the digital tach’s dropping of revs, gear changes snick-snick all but imperceptibly. Still, the paddle-changers are all but redundant.
All in all, the NSX brings a level of sophistication to the supercar that even the most expensive exotics can’t emulate. But the gap between reason and emotion is narrower than ever before. So the question on whether to appeal to the left or right side of the brain may not be as important as it was in 1990.