NSX remains a true driver’s car
HONDA has made its longawaited return to supercar circles with the all-new NSX.
This is an occasion that has most certainly eclipsed anything that the Japanese car manufacturer has accomplished in the last decade. Indeed some of that magic that only halo cars can offer has, up until now, been missing and the NSX will certainly reignite that flame.
Filling the shoes of arguably Honda’s most seminal road car has seen the NSX miss almost every one of its production deadlines. Fortunately that constant transformation ensures that when it goes on sale in South Africa in mid 2016 it will marry an advanced hybrid drivetrain with lightweight materials.
It’s late because Honda wanted it to be perfect.
Keeping with tradition the design is sleek and devoid of ostentatious movable wings that pop up at high speed. Honda’s preference calls for downforce to be achieved in more subtle ways; the arrowshaped nose pierces the air while airflow over the bumpers performs crucial cooling for the batteries before being channelled over the diffuser. Is it heart-stopping wild enough to pull a crowd?
A glimpse of the mid-mounted engine through the narrowest of plastic covers whets your appetite in typical supercar fashion but many of its other cues have been downplayed to broaden appeal. This is a thinking man’s high performance car rather than an outright brute.
During the global media event at Honda’s R&D facility, engineers in white jackets tried persuasively to demonstrate the autonomous capabilities of several next-generation models. Quite ironic then that the NSX remains a true driver’s car which harks back to the days when Ayrton Senna helped develop the original. That Formula One reference is still valid today.
Leveraging hybrid technology developed primarily for Formula One sees a compact 3.5-litre V6 heart fitted with twin turbochargers and supplemented by three electric motors. Together they distribute power to all four wheels through a fast-shifting nine-speed gearbox.
Like the original there’s more than outright numbers to the NSX’s overall appeal. Even by Honda’s own admission the NSX is a difficult car to understand just by the numbers. That said all systems merge to produce 429kW (367kW from the engine alone) and refreshingly there’s no mention of a Nurburgring time which is a possible explanation as to why the NSX possesses such a high degree of civility to its chassis.
For all its otherworldy systems the conventional doors operate with little extravagance and promote easy access with none of the typical fuss associated with cars of this ilk. The dashboard’s neutral and symmetrical angle fails to instantly cradle you behind the wheel and that premium look and feel isn’t quite evident, but on the converse, familiar switchgear does soften the learning curve.
Two laps around Honda’s R&D steeply banked oval proved difficult to dig down into the NSX’s multilayered qualities but first impressions are of an immensely fast car with unfathomably high levels of grip under a full-bore launch. Torque is divvied between the front wheels via the electric motors while corrective braking acts on each wheel to improve turn-in sharpness. You’re aware just the slightest that grip management is not entirely down to the driver’s gut feel.
Despite its hefty 1 725kg Honda claims the NSX has the lowest centre of gravity of any car in its class thanks to batteries mounted close to the carbonfibre floor. From the first stab of the throttle, any notion of bulk is quickly forgotten. The heightened immediacy of the throttle response, attributed by instantaneous torque from the hybrid system, hands the NSX the advantage in short distance sprints over conventional powertrains. That lowend slug of power then continues to spin freely to a sonorous 7 500rpm redline supported by an explosive soundtrack that crackles on idle and fizzes at the maximum. Under braking the faintest of whines from regenerative braking can be heard, adding to the car’s already sci-fi personality.
If the short time behind the wheel made assessing its virtues difficult, then nitpicking some of the faults was almost impossible. Not being able to set and store individual preferences under driving modes is top of that list for now while electric range, on account of the small battery, is quickly depleted over an estimated distance of only 5km.
As a tentative first verdict the NSX has nothing to fear when it enters a market filled with performance royalty and builds upon everything that made the previous version punch above its weight. However, with a very light heritage back in South Africa, pricing will need to soak up the usual premium that this type of hybrid technology usually commands and positions itself amongst the likes of the Audi R8, Mercedes GT and Porsche 911 Turbo.