NEW SPORTS EXPERIENCE

ACURA BUILDS A BEAUTIFUL BEAST

On the race track, the Acura NSX howls like an Indy racer, but on the street, in its “Quiet” mode, it purrs like a Honda kitten.

It was ancient history in 2012 when Acura announced it would bring back its high-tech sports car and that this time it would be a supercar with a gasoline-electric hybrid powerplant.

While pricing starts at $157,800 (including the $1,800 freight charge from Ohio), the price with all the factory options goes to just $203,400 with metallic paint.

For that, the buyer gets an all-wheeldrive, two-seat exotic powered by a turbocharged, 3.5-liter V-6 integrated with three electric motors, a small battery and a nine-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. And most of those elements are American made, engineered, designed and tested. The NSX is an aluminum-intensive car with much carbon fiber and some sheet molded compound (a kind of fiberglass reinforced plastic) for some of the shapely body panels.

Acura invited journalists to test its new baby on a race track with racing champ Graham Rahal leading the pack and sharing pointers. NSX engineers sat in the passenger seats to push drivers to explore the car’s potential. I had a dozen laps in three cars (there were just about a half dozen early-build cars available for testing) with a few full power “launch control” hole shots. Then we were doused with a deep dive tech presentation then sent out on a 100-mile street drive.

With 573 total horsepower — between the engine and motors — and 476 foot-pounds of torque, the power pours forth from launch to 6,000 rpm; redline is at 7,500 rpm. The V6 powers the rear wheels while the two front motors add boost and yaw (spin) control. The third motor, between the engine and transmission, is for “torque fill” to add instant power on takeoff as the twin-scroll turbos catch a breath and begin to wail. The unofficial 0-60 acceleration takes less than three seconds, an engineer told me.

The gasoline-electric integration is so slick that I could not sense I was driving a hybrid or an electric car. Battery-only driving is possible for only short distance, such as for sneaking out of the garage or stealthily returning home.

While I couldn’t touch the 138 mph that Rahal clocked in my hot lap, I did hit 134 and 135 mph a couple of times on the back straight of the 1.8-mile West Palm track at the Thermal Club, in the desert of the Coachella Valley.

There was no turbo lag, there was no hesitation or odd pedal feel to the regenerative braking and the auto stop-start at idle was almost a curious extra in the Quiet mode.

I was driving an advanced-tech sports car and it made me a better driver. Glancing at the speedo and then at the braking cones before a sharp left-hand turn, I heard the engineer-coach in the passenger seat yell “Brake, Brake, Brake … Hard.” I was grateful for those 15-inch vented carbon fiber brake rotors ($9,900). What is not noticeable is the car’s 3,800-pound curb weight. That’s hefty, considering the large Jaguar XF sedan weighs 3,700 pounds.

The nine-speed transmission is among the most cooperative I’ve tested. There is no hesitation when clicking off a downshift.

As power rich as this car is, performance was not the team’s only mission. The goal was to build a beautiful beast that could be driven every day.

The interior was designed for daily driving comfort with good sightlines over the hood, doors that open very wide, plenty of elbow room and headroom for robust 6-foot-5 occupants.

Trunk space behind the midengine layout is just 4.4 cubic feet, but it was configured to hold two modest-size golf bags.

I picked up on three key elements in the first 50 feet of driving: the steering, the suspension and the Indy car blare of the exhaust note.

The steering felt perfect for its light weight and how clearly it communicated what each front tire was doing.

Sometimes supercars have suspensions that are strapped down and clanky to compensate for a less than rigid chassis. But the NSX, with its magnetic ride dampers (shock absorbers), is astoundingly smooth, even crossing railroad tracks. But there a couple of areas to consider: • Skimpy visors are almost useless and with no mirrors, but that’s because a fuller, more functional visor was causing lobotomies in computerized crash testing.

• Detachable cup holders are wonky, positioned on the right of the center console. • There is little interior storage space. The fuel economy seems light at 20 mpg city, 22 highway and 21 combined, on the required premium fuel — but does anybody care?

After a four-year gestation, the wait will have been worth it for those considering this $200,000 beautiful beast.