Acura: NSX News
10-24-2015, 11:16 AM
#5881
Burning Brakes
Bunch of amateurs running things Silicon Valley startups have what I think is a horrid maxim: "Fake it till you make it." Acura seems to have adopted it and it just alienates fans and potential customers. A measured, honest approach would be better.
Last edited by WheelMcCoy; 10-24-2015 at 11:21 AM.
10-26-2015, 09:23 AM
#5882
Race Director
http://www.autonews.com/article/2015...reimagined-nsx
LOS ANGELES -- Twenty minutes into Acura’s first drive event for its all-new 2017 NSX sports car, things were not going well.
Before letting a few journalists loose on Sonoma Raceway in northern California in a pair of gleaming pre-production NSX models parked outside, Acura gave us a long-winded technical presentation about every detail on the car.
In a windowless classroom next to the track, terms like “ablation casting” and “human support cockpit” were thrown around. Always rational Honda, it seemed, was having trouble getting its head around what is largely an irrational segment.
Eyes glazed over. Fidgeting started. Emails were surreptitiously checked.
And then finally the fog lifted. Having teased the world since 2012, when a second-generation NSX concept debuted at the Detroit auto show, Acura told us the real details we’d been waiting for: 573 horsepower, 476 pound-feet of torque, a 3,803-pound curb weight and 0-60 mph in just over three seconds.
Details on the rest of the NSX drivetrain have been out for a while. A hand-built, direct-injected 3.5-liter, twin-turbocharged V-6 engine sits behind the car’s two passengers. It was developed specifically for the NSX and makes 500 horsepower.
The rest of the car’s juice comes from three electric motors: one powering each of the front wheels, and a third motor that’s positioned between the gas engine and the nine-speed, dual-clutch transmission. The motors’ lithium-ion battery is wedged between the seats and the engine.
But this is all meaningless puffery without some real-world seat time. So over the next 48 hours I learned just what those numbers added up to. Mostly good things, it turns out. Here are some key takeaways:
• The car evokes far more emotion than I expected. After years of appearing on display stands at every auto show on the circuit, its design had lost a lot of the drama. But not on the street. It’s wide and low (Acura claims lowest center of gravity in its class) and grabs the proper amount of attention for an exotic machine driving down the road.
• It sounds good if you’re in the car. I spotted an early development mule on the freeways just outside downtown L.A. early this year, weaving in and out of traffic with a first-gen Audi R8 and Porsche 911. It barely made a peep. If you’re lucky enough to have one rush by you, the sound may be underwhelming. Fortunately, once you’re inside the NSX, it can roar, and Acura swears it’s without the aid of artificial sound piped through the speakers. Redline is 7,500 rpm and the transmission has no fear of keeping the car right at that point when you have track mode engaged (the car also has Sport+, Sport and Quiet modes).
• On the track there’s no real turbo whine, but on the road you can faintly hear it and the whoosh of the wastegate valve. There is a subtle pop-pop of exhaust overrun that Honda artificially calibrated into the engine -- you can thank the engineers in Ohio for this little parlor trick, since Japan didn’t think it was necessary.
• None of the executives or engineers said so, but I got the sense that this kind of tension -- between the Americans leading the project who wanted more visceral thrills and their coworkers back in Japan who wanted rationality -- ran throughout the development of the car.
• At 3,803 pounds, the NSX is heavier than the three models Acura benchmarked for the NSX: the Ferrari 458, Porsche 911 Turbo and first-gen Audi R8 V-10 Plus. In a way, Acura painted itself into a corner here. As a tech showcase for Honda, the NSX is packed with a complicated, heavy powertrain, and then the plumbing to keep all of it cool. But without a seven-figure price tag of a Porsche 918, Ferrari LaFerrari or McLaren P1, Acura couldn’t offset the weight with a carbon fiber chassis or body (Honda used aluminum instead).
• Like the aforementioned hypercars that cost roughly the same as a beach house in Malibu, the NSX does a great job of plugging the performance gaps of a turbocharged engine, and for a fraction of the price. I could feel this during multiple 0-to-60 mph sprints at the track: After a brief and immediate surge that only an electric drivetrain can offer, the engine assumes duties, and suddenly you’re a block away.
• Although the car is mid-engined, the weight distribution is 42 percent in the front and 58 percent in the rear, and the tail end of this car swings out quicker than you might expect. The NSX understeers mightily and will push through a turn if you come in too quick. But lighten up on the throttle a smidge mid-corner and the NSX tucks its nose right where you want it. You can then come back onto the power quicker than a rear-wheel-drive car as the multitude of motors, engines and software work seamlessly to power you out of the turn. In this regard, the NSX rewards nuanced, smart driving better than the Audi R8 and certainly better than the Nissan GT-R.
• But that’s on the track, and Acura knows the vast majority of NSX buyers will keep their cars on the safe confines of public roads. The rest of the time, you don’t notice the heft of the car. This is a very easy daily driver. The cabin is quiet, spacious and comfortable, even at the track with my 6-foot-2-inch frame and a racing helmet. The suspension is nicely tuned to eat up a bumpy road but also stay planted at high speeds. You can drive hard on twisty mountain roads in Sport+ or Track mode and then twist the large silver dial in the dashboard over to Sport for easy cruising.
• Visibility is excellent. There’s nothing sexy about visibility but it matters when driving aggressively and many sport and supercars today are burying the drivers into a cocoon that’s hard to see out of. Not the NSX. There’s so much visibility in the cabin, it’s easy to forget that you’re not in a more mundane Acura sedan.
• The nine-speed dual-clutch transmission is a gem. Gear changes happen immediately. It’s smart too. Half the time on the track, I just left it in full auto mode and let it shift itself. There was almost never a time that I wanted a different gear than the car gave me, even if this meant the engine was shamelessly flirting with its redline.
• There’s no full EV mode. When you have Quiet mode engaged, the car will travel on EV power alone for short distances if there’s enough juice in the battery and if you keep your speeds low. Otherwise, the car sounds like it has a head cold. Skip this mode -- Sport is a nice balance of sound and comfort for everyday driving.
• The two pre-production models we drove came with carbon ceramic brakes, an option that all NSX models will come with at launch. Roughly six months later, the base car with iron rotors (and the promised mid-$150,000 price tag) will be available.
• Options will be few: various carbon fiber trim pieces (engine cover, roof, rear spoiler), a tech package (navigation, premium sound system) and upgraded alloy wheels.
• There’s a definite place in the market for this car. It splits the difference between the tech-first showcase of BMW’s i8 and the legitimate race-bred performance of Audi’s R8. It’s not as visceral as the Ferrari 458 and the Porsche 911 Turbo. Instead it offers a very Honda-esque approach to increasing capability and speed.
Due on sale next spring as a 2017 model, this new NSX is far more complicated than its revered predecessor, which arrived in 1990 and was on the market for the next 15 years.
But the ethos of both versions is the same: to serve as a showcase for Honda’s engineering might. Twenty-five years ago, that meant the NSX was the world’s first production car with an all-aluminum chassis and body, as well as variable valve timing.
Today it means Acura (and Honda globally) can prove once again it’s got the chops to build something more emotional than rational.
Ted Klaus, chief engineer for this NSX, put it this way at the press drive: “We never lost the passion, we just didn't have a place to display it.”
Before letting a few journalists loose on Sonoma Raceway in northern California in a pair of gleaming pre-production NSX models parked outside, Acura gave us a long-winded technical presentation about every detail on the car.
In a windowless classroom next to the track, terms like “ablation casting” and “human support cockpit” were thrown around. Always rational Honda, it seemed, was having trouble getting its head around what is largely an irrational segment.
Eyes glazed over. Fidgeting started. Emails were surreptitiously checked.
And then finally the fog lifted. Having teased the world since 2012, when a second-generation NSX concept debuted at the Detroit auto show, Acura told us the real details we’d been waiting for: 573 horsepower, 476 pound-feet of torque, a 3,803-pound curb weight and 0-60 mph in just over three seconds.
Details on the rest of the NSX drivetrain have been out for a while. A hand-built, direct-injected 3.5-liter, twin-turbocharged V-6 engine sits behind the car’s two passengers. It was developed specifically for the NSX and makes 500 horsepower.
The rest of the car’s juice comes from three electric motors: one powering each of the front wheels, and a third motor that’s positioned between the gas engine and the nine-speed, dual-clutch transmission. The motors’ lithium-ion battery is wedged between the seats and the engine.
But this is all meaningless puffery without some real-world seat time. So over the next 48 hours I learned just what those numbers added up to. Mostly good things, it turns out. Here are some key takeaways:
• The car evokes far more emotion than I expected. After years of appearing on display stands at every auto show on the circuit, its design had lost a lot of the drama. But not on the street. It’s wide and low (Acura claims lowest center of gravity in its class) and grabs the proper amount of attention for an exotic machine driving down the road.
• It sounds good if you’re in the car. I spotted an early development mule on the freeways just outside downtown L.A. early this year, weaving in and out of traffic with a first-gen Audi R8 and Porsche 911. It barely made a peep. If you’re lucky enough to have one rush by you, the sound may be underwhelming. Fortunately, once you’re inside the NSX, it can roar, and Acura swears it’s without the aid of artificial sound piped through the speakers. Redline is 7,500 rpm and the transmission has no fear of keeping the car right at that point when you have track mode engaged (the car also has Sport+, Sport and Quiet modes).
• On the track there’s no real turbo whine, but on the road you can faintly hear it and the whoosh of the wastegate valve. There is a subtle pop-pop of exhaust overrun that Honda artificially calibrated into the engine -- you can thank the engineers in Ohio for this little parlor trick, since Japan didn’t think it was necessary.
• None of the executives or engineers said so, but I got the sense that this kind of tension -- between the Americans leading the project who wanted more visceral thrills and their coworkers back in Japan who wanted rationality -- ran throughout the development of the car.
• At 3,803 pounds, the NSX is heavier than the three models Acura benchmarked for the NSX: the Ferrari 458, Porsche 911 Turbo and first-gen Audi R8 V-10 Plus. In a way, Acura painted itself into a corner here. As a tech showcase for Honda, the NSX is packed with a complicated, heavy powertrain, and then the plumbing to keep all of it cool. But without a seven-figure price tag of a Porsche 918, Ferrari LaFerrari or McLaren P1, Acura couldn’t offset the weight with a carbon fiber chassis or body (Honda used aluminum instead).
• Like the aforementioned hypercars that cost roughly the same as a beach house in Malibu, the NSX does a great job of plugging the performance gaps of a turbocharged engine, and for a fraction of the price. I could feel this during multiple 0-to-60 mph sprints at the track: After a brief and immediate surge that only an electric drivetrain can offer, the engine assumes duties, and suddenly you’re a block away.
• Although the car is mid-engined, the weight distribution is 42 percent in the front and 58 percent in the rear, and the tail end of this car swings out quicker than you might expect. The NSX understeers mightily and will push through a turn if you come in too quick. But lighten up on the throttle a smidge mid-corner and the NSX tucks its nose right where you want it. You can then come back onto the power quicker than a rear-wheel-drive car as the multitude of motors, engines and software work seamlessly to power you out of the turn. In this regard, the NSX rewards nuanced, smart driving better than the Audi R8 and certainly better than the Nissan GT-R.
• But that’s on the track, and Acura knows the vast majority of NSX buyers will keep their cars on the safe confines of public roads. The rest of the time, you don’t notice the heft of the car. This is a very easy daily driver. The cabin is quiet, spacious and comfortable, even at the track with my 6-foot-2-inch frame and a racing helmet. The suspension is nicely tuned to eat up a bumpy road but also stay planted at high speeds. You can drive hard on twisty mountain roads in Sport+ or Track mode and then twist the large silver dial in the dashboard over to Sport for easy cruising.
• Visibility is excellent. There’s nothing sexy about visibility but it matters when driving aggressively and many sport and supercars today are burying the drivers into a cocoon that’s hard to see out of. Not the NSX. There’s so much visibility in the cabin, it’s easy to forget that you’re not in a more mundane Acura sedan.
• The nine-speed dual-clutch transmission is a gem. Gear changes happen immediately. It’s smart too. Half the time on the track, I just left it in full auto mode and let it shift itself. There was almost never a time that I wanted a different gear than the car gave me, even if this meant the engine was shamelessly flirting with its redline.
• There’s no full EV mode. When you have Quiet mode engaged, the car will travel on EV power alone for short distances if there’s enough juice in the battery and if you keep your speeds low. Otherwise, the car sounds like it has a head cold. Skip this mode -- Sport is a nice balance of sound and comfort for everyday driving.
• The two pre-production models we drove came with carbon ceramic brakes, an option that all NSX models will come with at launch. Roughly six months later, the base car with iron rotors (and the promised mid-$150,000 price tag) will be available.
• Options will be few: various carbon fiber trim pieces (engine cover, roof, rear spoiler), a tech package (navigation, premium sound system) and upgraded alloy wheels.
• There’s a definite place in the market for this car. It splits the difference between the tech-first showcase of BMW’s i8 and the legitimate race-bred performance of Audi’s R8. It’s not as visceral as the Ferrari 458 and the Porsche 911 Turbo. Instead it offers a very Honda-esque approach to increasing capability and speed.
Due on sale next spring as a 2017 model, this new NSX is far more complicated than its revered predecessor, which arrived in 1990 and was on the market for the next 15 years.
But the ethos of both versions is the same: to serve as a showcase for Honda’s engineering might. Twenty-five years ago, that meant the NSX was the world’s first production car with an all-aluminum chassis and body, as well as variable valve timing.
Today it means Acura (and Honda globally) can prove once again it’s got the chops to build something more emotional than rational.
Ted Klaus, chief engineer for this NSX, put it this way at the press drive: “We never lost the passion, we just didn't have a place to display it.”
10-26-2015, 09:48 AM
#5883
Suzuka Master
The following users liked this post:
srika (10-26-2015)
10-26-2015, 10:27 AM
#5884
AZ Community Team
Numbers 
Last edited by Legend2TL; 10-26-2015 at 10:39 AM.
10-26-2015, 10:44 AM
#5885
Senior Moderator
We have specs?!????? 
Per the article, 573HP, 476 pound-feet of torque, and 3,803-pound curb weight...
Per the article, 573HP, 476 pound-feet of torque, and 3,803-pound curb weight...
10-26-2015, 10:56 AM
#5886
Suzuka Master
10-26-2015, 11:06 AM
#5887
Senior Moderator
0-60 mph in 3.0 seconds.
hahahahaahahahahah
hahahahaahahahahah
10-26-2015, 11:18 AM
#5888
Team Owner
Pretty sure a 335 can beat that 0-60 time...
10-26-2015, 11:35 AM
#5889
Senior Moderator
10-26-2015, 11:40 AM
#5890
Senior Moderator
10-26-2015, 11:44 AM
#5891
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
Why would anyone buy it..
Should have just kept the specs a secret and never released.. At lease we wouldn't be laughing at you. Worth the wait......... not.
Should have just kept the specs a secret and never released.. At lease we wouldn't be laughing at you. Worth the wait......... not.
10-26-2015, 11:47 AM
#5892
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
Audi or Acura.. hmmm..
10-26-2015, 11:47 AM
#5893
Ex-OEM King
Acura told us the real details we’d been waiting for: 573 horsepower, 476 pound-feet of torque, a 3,803-pound curb weight and 0-60 mph in just over three seconds.
Thanks for nothing Acura.
10-26-2015, 11:50 AM
#5894
Team Owner
10-26-2015, 11:51 AM
#5895
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
Has anyone actually confirmed a flat 3 second acceleration?
I'm willing to bet the best they squeeze out of it is 3.3/3.4
I'm willing to bet the best they squeeze out of it is 3.3/3.4
10-26-2015, 11:51 AM
#5896
Senior Moderator
10-26-2015, 11:52 AM
#5897
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
10-26-2015, 11:52 AM
#5898
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
10-26-2015, 11:53 AM
#5899
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
P90D maybe
10-26-2015, 11:54 AM
#5900
Senior Moderator
10-26-2015, 11:56 AM
#5901
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
10-26-2015, 12:00 PM
#5903
Senior Moderator
I've only read about it to be fair, haven't seen it either.
Here's how Tesla hits 'Ludicrous Speed' | Autoweek
http://jalopnik.com/the-tesla-model-s-just-got-upgraded-to-ludicrous-speed-1718577723
Tesla Announces Model S "Ludicrous Mode" ? 0-60 in 2.8 Seconds
Here's how Tesla hits 'Ludicrous Speed' | Autoweek
http://jalopnik.com/the-tesla-model-s-just-got-upgraded-to-ludicrous-speed-1718577723
Tesla Announces Model S "Ludicrous Mode" ? 0-60 in 2.8 Seconds
10-26-2015, 12:03 PM
#5904
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
Hmm... NSX.. or 570S.. 
Oh.. the NSX is cheaper by 10k..
I guess I'll buy a pedestrian GT-R then..
Oh.. the NSX is cheaper by 10k..
I guess I'll buy a pedestrian GT-R then..
10-26-2015, 12:04 PM
#5905
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
10-26-2015, 12:08 PM
#5906
Senior Moderator
I'm not thrilled about the weight but if the GTR can do it, so can the NSX. 
HIGH FIVE TO ACURA!!!!!!!
HIGH FIVE TO ACURA!!!!!!!
10-26-2015, 12:09 PM
#5907
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
Moar like NSXXL
amirite?
amirite?
10-26-2015, 12:09 PM
#5908
Autocar review
2016 Honda NSX road and track review | Autocar
2.9 sec
573 hp
After the multiple concept cars and prototype spy shots and a complete reboot of the programme halfway through, Honda has finally produced a driveable new-generation NSX that you can buy. Or will be able to buy, once the car goes into production in the US next spring or thereabouts – as long as there are no more gremlins to sort out.
Our Honda NSX test car spent half of our two-day drive in northern California partially brain-fried by a limp-home mode triggered by the rev limiter. The distraught engineers corrected that problem and the rest of the time the NSX revealed itself to be a mid-engined track slayer very much in the Japanese bushido mode of quiet but swift competence. Honda has been out of the sports car arena for some time, so it’s good to see the company back in the game.
Those familiar with the Porsche 918 Spyder hybrid will recognise elements of its make-up in the NSX. Up front are two electric motors with a combined output of 72bhp. These provide all-wheel-drive tractability, EV-mode stealth and torque vectoring capability through their overdriven planetary gearsets.
In the back, wedged between the 500bhp twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre V6 and its nine-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, is a third, 50bhp motor that helps the engine to deliver low-speed torque while it waits for the boost to build to its 1.05bar peak. Combined real-world power output is 573bhp – enough to be considered worthy of the supercar badge.
All that hardware plus a lithium ion battery pack, magnetorheological suspension and lots of computers are stuffed into an aluminum spaceframe under a bodyshell of purposeful angularity and many heat-exchanger holes.
With a price expected to land north of £120,000 in the UK, the Honda NSX is going to seem a world apart in a showroom full of sub-£30,000 family cars and runabouts, but it shows how technology is trickling down. What was once exclusively hypercar tech will eventually be in a Jazz. The NSX is a mid-point stopover.
With its gloriously odd 75deg bank angle, the V6 has a direct lineage to past Honda racing programmes, a wonderful fact barely hinted at by the four small exhaust pipes clustered at the back. The car’s creators say it doesn’t need larger plumbing, but one could argue the point.
The NSX is too quiet, even with a meticulously engineered sound tube running off the intake to the cabin and controlled by its own electronic throttle body off a Japanese kei car. The engine race-revs on start-up like a Ferrari, but it lacks the aural drama that makes ears prick up as you drive down the high street. Okay, not every sports car has to be obnoxiously Latin, but a little more bella voce would be welcome.
A central rotary switch controls the four driving modes, starting with Quiet, the fuel-saver mode that allows the car to creep off using electric power only up to 40mph if you’re feather-light on the pedal. We don’t have fuel consumption figures from the European test yet, but the NSX is expected to average about 17mpg when the US test figures are released, with cruising economy in the region of 20mpg.
One rung up is Sport mode, which is for HR-V drivers who have just won the lottery. The steering is very fast but much too light in this mode, and it can become tricky to plot a smooth and accurate course at high speeds. But if you like to take calls on your traffic-laden slog into the office, this is the commuting mode.
Switching to Sport-Plus finally brings appropriate steering heft and rotates the virtual rev counter to put the redline closer to high noon. Honda doesn’t give you à la carte control, as you get with Audi’s Individual setting or BMW’s many mode buttons. That’s a pity. The NSX would benefit from customisable settings so drivers can have what they want in any mode.
Track mode is where the NSX fully reveals itself as a McLaren 570S hunter, especially if you’re driving on the optional (but short-lived) Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. The rabid acceleration out of corners is the most noticeable benefit of the hybrid system, as the front motors help to tug the 1725kg car up to silly speeds. Our car had optional carbon-ceramic brakes; pedal response is firm and the braking force is minutely adjustable.
The lump intruding into the single small boot at the rear of the car is the new nine-speed transmission, developed specifically for the NSX to be as short as possible to centralise the mass. You can shift it manually with paddles, but it’s easy to get lost in the maze of short ratios and the engine spins so energetically to the redline that triggering the limiter is a frequent nuisance.
There are none of the prominent shift lights that you get on a Ferrari. Instead, the revcounter simply flashes red when you’re close to the end, a distinction you can easily miss if your eyes are fixed on the road.
So it’s best to leave the transmission in Drive and let the computer handle it. In Track mode, we never found the programming wanting, the car always in the right gear to make the magic happen. As with so many elements of the NSX, this is a hint of the future, when all transmission control will come down to a couple of buttons.
Honda didn’t want the steering wheel to squirm in your hands, so it has gone for a GT-style approach in which the steering filters out most of the impacts, letting just enough data through to provide a sense of the g-forces. Even so, on the standard Continental ContiSportContact tyres, the understeer is pronounced.
The Ohio-based engineering and test team say some push is deliberate, a nod to the wide range of driving abilities expected. As you go up the mode ladder to Track, the understeer diminishes as the torque vectoring ramps up. In Track, on the optional Michelins and with the hovering stability control turned off, the NSX feels like it’ll run with all the cars in its price class, from a Porsche 911 Turbo to an Audi R8.
You open the doors with pull sticks of the kind found on Aston Martins. The expansive seats are mostly leather, with spinal strips of grippy Alcantara. They’re sited low, the centre console rising between them with the Park-Drive-Reverse buttons and the e-brake button. Arcs of aluminium trim provide the brightwork, carbonfibre-like inserts on the steering wheel speak of the car’s mission, and a big start button with red text beckons your finger.
Beyond the small glovebox, there’s limited storage space and no obvious parking spot for your mobile phone. The central infotainment screen is straight from Honda’s parts bin and the instrument cluster is equally conventional, with a large central rev counter and various hybrid-related gauges flashed on a TFT screen but flanked by analogue fuel and temperature dials.
The engineers worked hard to keep the A-pillars slim, but the good visibility still doesn’t quite match that of the original NSX. On the new NSX, a 12mm-thick slab of glass, the thickest of any Honda production car, separates the cockpit from the engine compartment.
It’s a move designed to allow the piped-in engine noise to prevail. The sounds you hear are ones of cadenced technical proficiency, plus the sighing of the compressors. However, they are not thrilling.
2.9 sec
573 hp
After the multiple concept cars and prototype spy shots and a complete reboot of the programme halfway through, Honda has finally produced a driveable new-generation NSX that you can buy. Or will be able to buy, once the car goes into production in the US next spring or thereabouts – as long as there are no more gremlins to sort out.
Our Honda NSX test car spent half of our two-day drive in northern California partially brain-fried by a limp-home mode triggered by the rev limiter. The distraught engineers corrected that problem and the rest of the time the NSX revealed itself to be a mid-engined track slayer very much in the Japanese bushido mode of quiet but swift competence. Honda has been out of the sports car arena for some time, so it’s good to see the company back in the game.
Those familiar with the Porsche 918 Spyder hybrid will recognise elements of its make-up in the NSX. Up front are two electric motors with a combined output of 72bhp. These provide all-wheel-drive tractability, EV-mode stealth and torque vectoring capability through their overdriven planetary gearsets.
In the back, wedged between the 500bhp twin-turbocharged 3.5-litre V6 and its nine-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, is a third, 50bhp motor that helps the engine to deliver low-speed torque while it waits for the boost to build to its 1.05bar peak. Combined real-world power output is 573bhp – enough to be considered worthy of the supercar badge.
All that hardware plus a lithium ion battery pack, magnetorheological suspension and lots of computers are stuffed into an aluminum spaceframe under a bodyshell of purposeful angularity and many heat-exchanger holes.
With a price expected to land north of £120,000 in the UK, the Honda NSX is going to seem a world apart in a showroom full of sub-£30,000 family cars and runabouts, but it shows how technology is trickling down. What was once exclusively hypercar tech will eventually be in a Jazz. The NSX is a mid-point stopover.
With its gloriously odd 75deg bank angle, the V6 has a direct lineage to past Honda racing programmes, a wonderful fact barely hinted at by the four small exhaust pipes clustered at the back. The car’s creators say it doesn’t need larger plumbing, but one could argue the point.
The NSX is too quiet, even with a meticulously engineered sound tube running off the intake to the cabin and controlled by its own electronic throttle body off a Japanese kei car. The engine race-revs on start-up like a Ferrari, but it lacks the aural drama that makes ears prick up as you drive down the high street. Okay, not every sports car has to be obnoxiously Latin, but a little more bella voce would be welcome.
A central rotary switch controls the four driving modes, starting with Quiet, the fuel-saver mode that allows the car to creep off using electric power only up to 40mph if you’re feather-light on the pedal. We don’t have fuel consumption figures from the European test yet, but the NSX is expected to average about 17mpg when the US test figures are released, with cruising economy in the region of 20mpg.
One rung up is Sport mode, which is for HR-V drivers who have just won the lottery. The steering is very fast but much too light in this mode, and it can become tricky to plot a smooth and accurate course at high speeds. But if you like to take calls on your traffic-laden slog into the office, this is the commuting mode.
Switching to Sport-Plus finally brings appropriate steering heft and rotates the virtual rev counter to put the redline closer to high noon. Honda doesn’t give you à la carte control, as you get with Audi’s Individual setting or BMW’s many mode buttons. That’s a pity. The NSX would benefit from customisable settings so drivers can have what they want in any mode.
Track mode is where the NSX fully reveals itself as a McLaren 570S hunter, especially if you’re driving on the optional (but short-lived) Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. The rabid acceleration out of corners is the most noticeable benefit of the hybrid system, as the front motors help to tug the 1725kg car up to silly speeds. Our car had optional carbon-ceramic brakes; pedal response is firm and the braking force is minutely adjustable.
The lump intruding into the single small boot at the rear of the car is the new nine-speed transmission, developed specifically for the NSX to be as short as possible to centralise the mass. You can shift it manually with paddles, but it’s easy to get lost in the maze of short ratios and the engine spins so energetically to the redline that triggering the limiter is a frequent nuisance.
There are none of the prominent shift lights that you get on a Ferrari. Instead, the revcounter simply flashes red when you’re close to the end, a distinction you can easily miss if your eyes are fixed on the road.
So it’s best to leave the transmission in Drive and let the computer handle it. In Track mode, we never found the programming wanting, the car always in the right gear to make the magic happen. As with so many elements of the NSX, this is a hint of the future, when all transmission control will come down to a couple of buttons.
Honda didn’t want the steering wheel to squirm in your hands, so it has gone for a GT-style approach in which the steering filters out most of the impacts, letting just enough data through to provide a sense of the g-forces. Even so, on the standard Continental ContiSportContact tyres, the understeer is pronounced.
The Ohio-based engineering and test team say some push is deliberate, a nod to the wide range of driving abilities expected. As you go up the mode ladder to Track, the understeer diminishes as the torque vectoring ramps up. In Track, on the optional Michelins and with the hovering stability control turned off, the NSX feels like it’ll run with all the cars in its price class, from a Porsche 911 Turbo to an Audi R8.
You open the doors with pull sticks of the kind found on Aston Martins. The expansive seats are mostly leather, with spinal strips of grippy Alcantara. They’re sited low, the centre console rising between them with the Park-Drive-Reverse buttons and the e-brake button. Arcs of aluminium trim provide the brightwork, carbonfibre-like inserts on the steering wheel speak of the car’s mission, and a big start button with red text beckons your finger.
Beyond the small glovebox, there’s limited storage space and no obvious parking spot for your mobile phone. The central infotainment screen is straight from Honda’s parts bin and the instrument cluster is equally conventional, with a large central rev counter and various hybrid-related gauges flashed on a TFT screen but flanked by analogue fuel and temperature dials.
The engineers worked hard to keep the A-pillars slim, but the good visibility still doesn’t quite match that of the original NSX. On the new NSX, a 12mm-thick slab of glass, the thickest of any Honda production car, separates the cockpit from the engine compartment.
It’s a move designed to allow the piped-in engine noise to prevail. The sounds you hear are ones of cadenced technical proficiency, plus the sighing of the compressors. However, they are not thrilling.
10-26-2015, 12:12 PM
#5909
Road&Track
2017 Acura NSX - First Drive
The sun has gone wild on the California sky, bending the air red and gold, purple and pink, filtering through swollen clouds and splashing across the asphalt in warm pools. It's fall in Napa Valley, and late afternoon is giving way to early dusk. The temperature fades with the day. Paper-thin sheets of rain drop through the light, wetting the windshield and the road before us, a Richter line of perfectly vacant tarmac scratching from Vichy Springs to Hennessey Lake. The air is heavy with the summer smell of rain and eucalyptus. I'm hammering through it all in a 2017 NSX, punching a hole in the quiet countryside with a wailing twin-turbo V6. For the first time in two days behind the wheel, I'm enjoying myself.
This is not a modern interpretation of the light and lithe machine that stole our hearts in 1990. If you're looking for mechanical purity, or that magical synergy of man and machine that Honda once did so well, I'm sorry, neither is here. You can count the similarities between this car and its namesake on one hand. But that doesn't make it any less impressive. Vastly complex, the new NSX is a machine that handily answers the question, "can we?" while leaving the more important, "should we?" to whither.
Honda says it didn't build the car to performance targets. If the 0-60 mph or top speed specs happened to be competitive with the other sharks in the water as a consequence of the engineering, so be it, but engineers weren't tasked with building a sub three second car. They did anyhow. There are no official performance numbers just yet, and we won't be able to pull data on the car for a good while, but I'm told the machine can pants a 911 Turbo in the sixty sprint. I believe it. Launch Control is a wonder. There's zero wheel spin and exactly no hesitation, just a relentless press for the speedometer's upper octaves.
There's a twin-turbo, dry-sump, 3.5-liter V-6 behind the passenger cell good for 500 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque. It raps to an impressive 7500 rpm, pulling to redline like a good Honda mill. It's fed by both direct and port injection. It's splayed to 75 degrees. It is not the star of the show. There are a total of three electric motors onboard: one direct drive unit bolted straight to the crank and snugged between the engine and the car's nine-speed dual-clutch transmission. The motor can contribute up to 47 horsepower and 109 pound-feet of torque to the party. There are two more motors up front, one powering each front wheel, good for 36 horsepower and up to 54 pound-feet each.
The system uses the electric motors with their instant, brilliant torque, to fill in the powerband while the turbos wake up. There's no lag. None. You'd never know they were back there if it weren't for the whistle of forced induction at your ear and the off-throttle chatter. If electrification really is coming for us all, I hope and pray it looks just like this.
The hybrid components are the backbone of Super Handling All Wheel Drive system, and the NSX can use the front motors to mitigate torque steer and induce or reduce oversteer as needed.
The brakes are monstrous carbon ceramic numbers, and they work in conjunction with the regenerative electric motors to slow the party. The system is entirely capable of dispensing with big speed, but doesn't suffer from the hellish grabbiness of most regens. The reason? The NSX uses a Brake Operation Simulator. You press on the pedal, the car reads your foot pressure, then calculates the correct amount of hydraulic and regenerative brake force to yield the desired result. A small electric motor pushes back on the brake pedal to give you the illusion of "feel." It sounds terrifying, but it works. The brakes are linear.
And the transmission? Porsche sets the pace with its PDK when it comes to dual-clutch gearboxes. Honda readily admits it developed everything in this system, from the hardware to the software, in just 18 months – an eye blink for a manufacturer. It's a strong effort, but still falls short of the German system. Where the 911 can be eerily anticipatory, choosing the correct gear half a second before you knew you wanted it, the NSX manages to be underfoot in anything less than a full, deep-throttle bashing. Manual mode is better, offering very fast, very smooth shifts both up and down the pattern, but I still saw occasions where requesting a gear did not yield a shift.
But the transmission is a soft complaint. There are other ghosts to contend with. Stumbling out of San Francisco and into the varicose pavement along the coast, I expect the NSX to come alive, to shine like the new penny wonder its ancestor was.
It doesn't happen.
The road is a gorgeous thing, silky smooth and tangled up and down a ridge side. Sunlight pushes through the thick conifer canopy in a few rare spots. We splash through the shafts of light at a good clip, the sun shattering over the car's gorgeous blue paint. It would be perfect if I could tell where the hell I was on the road. There's no on-center feel, and the wheel's numb in my hands. If, like me, you rely on your fingertips to tell you what's happening at the front wheels, you're right out luck.
And that's a problem, sure, but not nearly as troublesome as the healthy dose of understeer that shows up when the road gets tight. Drive on the nose or off. It doesn't matter. The front gives up.
There is no one reason for it. Yes, there is an electric power steering system, complete with a variable ratio rack. Yes, the company's Super Handling All Wheel Drive actively works to mitigate torque steer while a dual-ball-joint lower control arm design passively does the same, but there are other players on the board. In Sport and Sport+ driving modes, engineers programmed the SH-AWD system to yield a decent amount of understeer to protect novice drivers from having the tail step out. In a $150,000, mid-engine supercar.
There's also the weight issue. Despite a chassis intense with lightweight materials like aluminum and carbon fiber, this car tips the scales at just over 3,800 pounds – some 700 more than the fattest first generation machine. And, like the original NSX and the Ferrari 458 Italia, the new car only puts 42 percent of its heft on the front tires. The engine may be in the middle, but the weight isn't.
But the biggest culprit? These hateful tires. There are two rubber options for the NSX, and if you don't check the box for the sublime Michelin Pilot Sport Cups, you get these: a set of Continental Conti-Sport Contact 5Ps. Let me be entirely clear: these compromise the NSX in an unforgiveable way. If they show up on your car, demand the dealer take them off so you can set them on fire in the showroom.
Acura knows the shortcomings, but chose the Continentals for their carcass rigidity and all around performance. You know, in four seasons. In wet weather. In Ohio. So instead of getting a brilliant car in perfect conditions, we get a compromised car all year around. Lucky us.
Never underestimate the importance in choosing proper footwear. The hero Michelins transform the NSX from a vague, confidence sapping experience into a car that encourages you to push a little harder, to gun for the next apex and dive deep. There's turn in where there was no turn in before. Grip. Glorious, glorious grip. The right rubber lets you use this miracle machine Honda stitched together, and you can feel a quiet thread of commonality singing back to that special car, the first NSX.
In Track Mode and shod with the sticky Michelins, the NSX wakes up. The hellish understeer nearly vanishes. It's not a neutral car by any means, but it's easier to point in the direction you want. The rest is managed with big lifts of the throttle or brakes. The tail rotates and sets beautifully. It's so good, you wonder why the engineers buried it under a nasty pile of algorithms and unfortunate tire.
Honda wants the NSX to be an everyday supercar, but by definition, a supercar isn't an everyday affair. It's a special thing reserved for special days, and if you buy one, you never want to quietly tip toe out of a valet stand under electric power. You want to rattle the crystal on the hotel roof. You want to throw open the garage doors on a gorgeous day and bend the asphalt to your will. If there's compromise, you want it in the pursuit of performance, not livability. There was a time when you felt a little NSX in your Accord. Now there's too much Accord in your NSX.
2017 Acura NSX - First Drive
The sun has gone wild on the California sky, bending the air red and gold, purple and pink, filtering through swollen clouds and splashing across the asphalt in warm pools. It's fall in Napa Valley, and late afternoon is giving way to early dusk. The temperature fades with the day. Paper-thin sheets of rain drop through the light, wetting the windshield and the road before us, a Richter line of perfectly vacant tarmac scratching from Vichy Springs to Hennessey Lake. The air is heavy with the summer smell of rain and eucalyptus. I'm hammering through it all in a 2017 NSX, punching a hole in the quiet countryside with a wailing twin-turbo V6. For the first time in two days behind the wheel, I'm enjoying myself.
This is not a modern interpretation of the light and lithe machine that stole our hearts in 1990. If you're looking for mechanical purity, or that magical synergy of man and machine that Honda once did so well, I'm sorry, neither is here. You can count the similarities between this car and its namesake on one hand. But that doesn't make it any less impressive. Vastly complex, the new NSX is a machine that handily answers the question, "can we?" while leaving the more important, "should we?" to whither.
Honda says it didn't build the car to performance targets. If the 0-60 mph or top speed specs happened to be competitive with the other sharks in the water as a consequence of the engineering, so be it, but engineers weren't tasked with building a sub three second car. They did anyhow. There are no official performance numbers just yet, and we won't be able to pull data on the car for a good while, but I'm told the machine can pants a 911 Turbo in the sixty sprint. I believe it. Launch Control is a wonder. There's zero wheel spin and exactly no hesitation, just a relentless press for the speedometer's upper octaves.
There's a twin-turbo, dry-sump, 3.5-liter V-6 behind the passenger cell good for 500 horsepower and 406 pound-feet of torque. It raps to an impressive 7500 rpm, pulling to redline like a good Honda mill. It's fed by both direct and port injection. It's splayed to 75 degrees. It is not the star of the show. There are a total of three electric motors onboard: one direct drive unit bolted straight to the crank and snugged between the engine and the car's nine-speed dual-clutch transmission. The motor can contribute up to 47 horsepower and 109 pound-feet of torque to the party. There are two more motors up front, one powering each front wheel, good for 36 horsepower and up to 54 pound-feet each.
The system uses the electric motors with their instant, brilliant torque, to fill in the powerband while the turbos wake up. There's no lag. None. You'd never know they were back there if it weren't for the whistle of forced induction at your ear and the off-throttle chatter. If electrification really is coming for us all, I hope and pray it looks just like this.
The hybrid components are the backbone of Super Handling All Wheel Drive system, and the NSX can use the front motors to mitigate torque steer and induce or reduce oversteer as needed.
The brakes are monstrous carbon ceramic numbers, and they work in conjunction with the regenerative electric motors to slow the party. The system is entirely capable of dispensing with big speed, but doesn't suffer from the hellish grabbiness of most regens. The reason? The NSX uses a Brake Operation Simulator. You press on the pedal, the car reads your foot pressure, then calculates the correct amount of hydraulic and regenerative brake force to yield the desired result. A small electric motor pushes back on the brake pedal to give you the illusion of "feel." It sounds terrifying, but it works. The brakes are linear.
And the transmission? Porsche sets the pace with its PDK when it comes to dual-clutch gearboxes. Honda readily admits it developed everything in this system, from the hardware to the software, in just 18 months – an eye blink for a manufacturer. It's a strong effort, but still falls short of the German system. Where the 911 can be eerily anticipatory, choosing the correct gear half a second before you knew you wanted it, the NSX manages to be underfoot in anything less than a full, deep-throttle bashing. Manual mode is better, offering very fast, very smooth shifts both up and down the pattern, but I still saw occasions where requesting a gear did not yield a shift.
But the transmission is a soft complaint. There are other ghosts to contend with. Stumbling out of San Francisco and into the varicose pavement along the coast, I expect the NSX to come alive, to shine like the new penny wonder its ancestor was.
It doesn't happen.
The road is a gorgeous thing, silky smooth and tangled up and down a ridge side. Sunlight pushes through the thick conifer canopy in a few rare spots. We splash through the shafts of light at a good clip, the sun shattering over the car's gorgeous blue paint. It would be perfect if I could tell where the hell I was on the road. There's no on-center feel, and the wheel's numb in my hands. If, like me, you rely on your fingertips to tell you what's happening at the front wheels, you're right out luck.
And that's a problem, sure, but not nearly as troublesome as the healthy dose of understeer that shows up when the road gets tight. Drive on the nose or off. It doesn't matter. The front gives up.
There is no one reason for it. Yes, there is an electric power steering system, complete with a variable ratio rack. Yes, the company's Super Handling All Wheel Drive actively works to mitigate torque steer while a dual-ball-joint lower control arm design passively does the same, but there are other players on the board. In Sport and Sport+ driving modes, engineers programmed the SH-AWD system to yield a decent amount of understeer to protect novice drivers from having the tail step out. In a $150,000, mid-engine supercar.
There's also the weight issue. Despite a chassis intense with lightweight materials like aluminum and carbon fiber, this car tips the scales at just over 3,800 pounds – some 700 more than the fattest first generation machine. And, like the original NSX and the Ferrari 458 Italia, the new car only puts 42 percent of its heft on the front tires. The engine may be in the middle, but the weight isn't.
But the biggest culprit? These hateful tires. There are two rubber options for the NSX, and if you don't check the box for the sublime Michelin Pilot Sport Cups, you get these: a set of Continental Conti-Sport Contact 5Ps. Let me be entirely clear: these compromise the NSX in an unforgiveable way. If they show up on your car, demand the dealer take them off so you can set them on fire in the showroom.
Acura knows the shortcomings, but chose the Continentals for their carcass rigidity and all around performance. You know, in four seasons. In wet weather. In Ohio. So instead of getting a brilliant car in perfect conditions, we get a compromised car all year around. Lucky us.
Never underestimate the importance in choosing proper footwear. The hero Michelins transform the NSX from a vague, confidence sapping experience into a car that encourages you to push a little harder, to gun for the next apex and dive deep. There's turn in where there was no turn in before. Grip. Glorious, glorious grip. The right rubber lets you use this miracle machine Honda stitched together, and you can feel a quiet thread of commonality singing back to that special car, the first NSX.
In Track Mode and shod with the sticky Michelins, the NSX wakes up. The hellish understeer nearly vanishes. It's not a neutral car by any means, but it's easier to point in the direction you want. The rest is managed with big lifts of the throttle or brakes. The tail rotates and sets beautifully. It's so good, you wonder why the engineers buried it under a nasty pile of algorithms and unfortunate tire.
Honda wants the NSX to be an everyday supercar, but by definition, a supercar isn't an everyday affair. It's a special thing reserved for special days, and if you buy one, you never want to quietly tip toe out of a valet stand under electric power. You want to rattle the crystal on the hotel roof. You want to throw open the garage doors on a gorgeous day and bend the asphalt to your will. If there's compromise, you want it in the pursuit of performance, not livability. There was a time when you felt a little NSX in your Accord. Now there's too much Accord in your NSX.
10-26-2015, 12:14 PM
#5910
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
tl;dr
Read first, post link to article second
Read first, post link to article second
10-26-2015, 12:15 PM
#5911
Car&Driver
2017 Acura NSX First Drive ? Review ? Car and Driver
FIRST DRIVE REVIEW
Should Acura even have this car? Ailing Acura strikes us as a brand in need of reinvention from the bottom up, starting with a new Integra, the car that the people have crowned as the real keeper of Acura’s flame. Instead, Honda’s luxury brand is starting its long journey back to relevance from the top, with a hybrid supercar that will sell for more than $150,000. It’ll be a tall poppy in a showroom where the next-priciest vehicle starts at $51,870, but it’s too late to dig up old arguments about priorities. We’ve finally moved past the drawings and concepts, beyond the prototypes, and on to what the aviation industry calls the flight article. This is it, the real deal, a drivable Acura NSX with a key that has been placed in our hands. So we’ll put aside the academic critique and just go pound pavement.
What we’re about to drive is a distillation of Honda’s inner feelings at this moment. After some dark years of uncertainty, the company is ruminating on past glories, on Marlboro McLarens with Ayrton and Alain, racing bikes with oval pistons, and absurdly exquisite lawn equipment. Honda wants to be spoken of with awe again, to show the world that it’s back as a technology and performance powerhouse ready to both amaze the world and till its flowerbeds.
An aborted prototype with the transverse V-6 out of an Odyssey minivan died in mid-2012 because it couldn’t deliver amazement, and a crash program to reinvent the NSX ensued. The 2017 NSX, developed mainly in Ohio by a small group that has come to think of itself as a family, is a four-wheel-drive hybrid-electric knee to the pants of the world’s fanciest exotics. Its creators sincerely hope you like it, as do their loved ones, whom they haven’t seen in two years.
This is a prime example of filter-down technology. The layout of the three electric motors onboard, including two on the front axle and a third between the twin-turbo V-6 and the nine-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, echoes that of the late, great $850,000 Porsche 918 Spyder, promising many of the benefits for a fraction of the price. Those benefits include rapid torque vectoring, continuous thrust assist to smooth over turbo lag and torque changes during upshifts, a modicum of fuel efficiency, and, if desired, silent operation for brief periods. Someday, this stuff will be in a Civic, but for now at least, the price tag has slid under $200,000.
Acura’s sculptors passed on the virile flair typical of the Italians, as well as the utopian futurism of the BMW i8, preferring instead a somewhat conventional, menacing angularity. It’s not an angry-looking car, but it appears determined. With its wide stance and long wheelbase, the snub-nosed body has unmistakable mid-engine proportions, and it invites a stroll around to investigate its many nooks and crannies. The flaring nostrils up front hide the radiators and the A/C condenser, while the side ducts gulp air for the intercoolers and engine intakes. The original 1991 NSX had flaplike door handles, and this one uses flush grab-sticks that angle out when needed, as on an Aston Martin.
The hood opens to a “hot box” of aluminum chassis members and equipment, the single, four-cubic-foot trunk residing behind the engine. Squat down in back and you’ll notice a cluster of what looks like Honda Fit exhaust pipes. Unusually small for a car expected to hit 60 mph in less than three seconds, the four pipes are your first hint that the NSX is not like other sports cars.
The 3.5-liter dry-sump V-6 has racing heredity in its odd, 75-degree V angle, and it fires up with an automatic rev zing now typical of high-strung machines. But it’s not a howling yap meant to turn heads in three counties, just a muffled throat-clearing heard mainly through the sound tubes plumbed from the intake plenum into the cabin. The Japanese culture emphasizes politeness. The demure NSX faithfully reflects that ethos.
To wit: The four drive modes start with “Quiet,” which allows you to sneak away in silence up to 40 mph if you’re easy on the gas pedal. Silence “can be really, really cool in a supercar,” says the NSX’s ebullient chief engineer, Ted Klaus, who behaved at the launch as if several anvils had lately been lifted from his back. “We definitely have a different opinion than Ferrari.” Definitely.
Sport is the mild-mannered default mode (you can change which mode is default, however), with steering that is a little overboosted. Acura wants the NSX to be everyday usable, a commendable goal but one that shouldn’t mean steering so light that the car changes direction over every freeway bump and dip. You can’t set steering heft or shift speed individually, so you get what the engineers give you in each mode. Sport mode quickly speeds the many-ratio transmission to its top gear for fuel economy, which is expected to peak in the mid-20s and average around 20 mpg once the EPA numbers are established.
The base tire is a Continental ContiSportContact 5 P, sized 245/35ZR-19 in front and 305/30ZR-20 in back. It’s the commuter tire, with only middling dry-road grip but the promise of wet-weather traction and some decent longevity. If you are nailing it on the open road, you’ll find the limit a tad too quickly as the front end fights for grip. Fit the optional Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s, almost the same meats as on the Porsche 911 GT3, and the grip becomes that of cured epoxy. But you’ll be lucky to get 15,000 miles out of a set.
Things get interesting when you turn the large console dial to Sport Plus. The virtual tachometer rotates so that the higher numbers move to the 12 o’clock position—peak engine horsepower is at 7500 rpm—and the steering weight finally becomes appropriate to a car with 573 combined horsepower. You can lap a track in Sport Plus and get a taste of the NSX’s capabilities, but only a taste on the Continentals, which amplify the understeer tuned in for safety. In Sport Plus, the stability-control system still hovers, straightening this and nudging that and cleaning up your imperfect lines.
Hold the dial several seconds for Track mode and you finally see the vision, the car that Honda dreamed of. On the Michelins, it is ferocious, leaping at corners with steering so tightly wound that you vector the car by palm impulse. The brake pedal is just a rheostat to command (by wire) the electrohydraulic brakes, but it’s given a more organic feel by a hydraulic pressure simulator. The net effect is a firm, highly effective pedal, one that is very sensitive to minute changes in pressure. Iron discs will be standard, while the cars we drove had the optional carbon-ceramic rotors.
On the run, the NSX’s computers take data from its many sensors and work the hardware like a coxswain on a rowing team. The front motors alternately thrust through their overdriven planetary gearsets or drag in regenerative mode, while the rear tires also push or brake as needed to yaw the car in accordance with the driver’s whims. Exiting a corner, you want to get on it early to put the front’s side-by-side motors into full tractor mode to help pull the heavy NSX out with startling haste. The upshifts are heard but barely felt, the acceleration curve hardly slackening as the front motors power the car through the gearchanges and the rear motor impels the V-6 as the boost builds back to its 15.2-psi peak.
It’s a seamless operation and a vision of a future when all cars will be bionic. It’s also much too muted. The precision thrum of the V-6 piped into the cabin lacks a guttural snarl, and it’s even more disappointing for bystanders. An NSX passing by at full throttle is a whoosh of mostly tire hiss and displaced air, the engine a distant voice in the wilderness. We don’t mind that the steering wheel, comparable in feel and feedback to a Porsche 911’s, doesn’t jump in your hands, but the NSX needs more drama.
Another issue: Rather than offer a series of escalating modes that increase the driver’s freedom, as, say, on the Corvette Z06, the NSX staircase is designed for outcomes—or to make the car go ever faster. In Track mode, you can’t slide around because sliding is slower. The car intervenes with corrections that make it straighten up and fly right. Faster lap times, yes, but also not as fun. You can shut off the stability control entirely, but then you risk a wall encounter. Besides desperately needing a door bin to hold your cellphone, the NSX needs another mode, call it Track Plus, that lets the driver make mistakes and look into the abyss but will act to prevent disaster. With it, the NSX would be a better learning tool.
The overall impression is that of a company that hasn’t built a sports car in a while, cautiously feeling its way with a complicated new machine produced by a rushed development program. It has the essentials; what it needs can mostly be added with software. The on-sale date isn’t until spring, so there’s still time to make the NSX of our dreams.
FIRST DRIVE REVIEW
Should Acura even have this car? Ailing Acura strikes us as a brand in need of reinvention from the bottom up, starting with a new Integra, the car that the people have crowned as the real keeper of Acura’s flame. Instead, Honda’s luxury brand is starting its long journey back to relevance from the top, with a hybrid supercar that will sell for more than $150,000. It’ll be a tall poppy in a showroom where the next-priciest vehicle starts at $51,870, but it’s too late to dig up old arguments about priorities. We’ve finally moved past the drawings and concepts, beyond the prototypes, and on to what the aviation industry calls the flight article. This is it, the real deal, a drivable Acura NSX with a key that has been placed in our hands. So we’ll put aside the academic critique and just go pound pavement.
What we’re about to drive is a distillation of Honda’s inner feelings at this moment. After some dark years of uncertainty, the company is ruminating on past glories, on Marlboro McLarens with Ayrton and Alain, racing bikes with oval pistons, and absurdly exquisite lawn equipment. Honda wants to be spoken of with awe again, to show the world that it’s back as a technology and performance powerhouse ready to both amaze the world and till its flowerbeds.
An aborted prototype with the transverse V-6 out of an Odyssey minivan died in mid-2012 because it couldn’t deliver amazement, and a crash program to reinvent the NSX ensued. The 2017 NSX, developed mainly in Ohio by a small group that has come to think of itself as a family, is a four-wheel-drive hybrid-electric knee to the pants of the world’s fanciest exotics. Its creators sincerely hope you like it, as do their loved ones, whom they haven’t seen in two years.
This is a prime example of filter-down technology. The layout of the three electric motors onboard, including two on the front axle and a third between the twin-turbo V-6 and the nine-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, echoes that of the late, great $850,000 Porsche 918 Spyder, promising many of the benefits for a fraction of the price. Those benefits include rapid torque vectoring, continuous thrust assist to smooth over turbo lag and torque changes during upshifts, a modicum of fuel efficiency, and, if desired, silent operation for brief periods. Someday, this stuff will be in a Civic, but for now at least, the price tag has slid under $200,000.
Acura’s sculptors passed on the virile flair typical of the Italians, as well as the utopian futurism of the BMW i8, preferring instead a somewhat conventional, menacing angularity. It’s not an angry-looking car, but it appears determined. With its wide stance and long wheelbase, the snub-nosed body has unmistakable mid-engine proportions, and it invites a stroll around to investigate its many nooks and crannies. The flaring nostrils up front hide the radiators and the A/C condenser, while the side ducts gulp air for the intercoolers and engine intakes. The original 1991 NSX had flaplike door handles, and this one uses flush grab-sticks that angle out when needed, as on an Aston Martin.
The hood opens to a “hot box” of aluminum chassis members and equipment, the single, four-cubic-foot trunk residing behind the engine. Squat down in back and you’ll notice a cluster of what looks like Honda Fit exhaust pipes. Unusually small for a car expected to hit 60 mph in less than three seconds, the four pipes are your first hint that the NSX is not like other sports cars.
The 3.5-liter dry-sump V-6 has racing heredity in its odd, 75-degree V angle, and it fires up with an automatic rev zing now typical of high-strung machines. But it’s not a howling yap meant to turn heads in three counties, just a muffled throat-clearing heard mainly through the sound tubes plumbed from the intake plenum into the cabin. The Japanese culture emphasizes politeness. The demure NSX faithfully reflects that ethos.
To wit: The four drive modes start with “Quiet,” which allows you to sneak away in silence up to 40 mph if you’re easy on the gas pedal. Silence “can be really, really cool in a supercar,” says the NSX’s ebullient chief engineer, Ted Klaus, who behaved at the launch as if several anvils had lately been lifted from his back. “We definitely have a different opinion than Ferrari.” Definitely.
Sport is the mild-mannered default mode (you can change which mode is default, however), with steering that is a little overboosted. Acura wants the NSX to be everyday usable, a commendable goal but one that shouldn’t mean steering so light that the car changes direction over every freeway bump and dip. You can’t set steering heft or shift speed individually, so you get what the engineers give you in each mode. Sport mode quickly speeds the many-ratio transmission to its top gear for fuel economy, which is expected to peak in the mid-20s and average around 20 mpg once the EPA numbers are established.
The base tire is a Continental ContiSportContact 5 P, sized 245/35ZR-19 in front and 305/30ZR-20 in back. It’s the commuter tire, with only middling dry-road grip but the promise of wet-weather traction and some decent longevity. If you are nailing it on the open road, you’ll find the limit a tad too quickly as the front end fights for grip. Fit the optional Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s, almost the same meats as on the Porsche 911 GT3, and the grip becomes that of cured epoxy. But you’ll be lucky to get 15,000 miles out of a set.
Things get interesting when you turn the large console dial to Sport Plus. The virtual tachometer rotates so that the higher numbers move to the 12 o’clock position—peak engine horsepower is at 7500 rpm—and the steering weight finally becomes appropriate to a car with 573 combined horsepower. You can lap a track in Sport Plus and get a taste of the NSX’s capabilities, but only a taste on the Continentals, which amplify the understeer tuned in for safety. In Sport Plus, the stability-control system still hovers, straightening this and nudging that and cleaning up your imperfect lines.
Hold the dial several seconds for Track mode and you finally see the vision, the car that Honda dreamed of. On the Michelins, it is ferocious, leaping at corners with steering so tightly wound that you vector the car by palm impulse. The brake pedal is just a rheostat to command (by wire) the electrohydraulic brakes, but it’s given a more organic feel by a hydraulic pressure simulator. The net effect is a firm, highly effective pedal, one that is very sensitive to minute changes in pressure. Iron discs will be standard, while the cars we drove had the optional carbon-ceramic rotors.
On the run, the NSX’s computers take data from its many sensors and work the hardware like a coxswain on a rowing team. The front motors alternately thrust through their overdriven planetary gearsets or drag in regenerative mode, while the rear tires also push or brake as needed to yaw the car in accordance with the driver’s whims. Exiting a corner, you want to get on it early to put the front’s side-by-side motors into full tractor mode to help pull the heavy NSX out with startling haste. The upshifts are heard but barely felt, the acceleration curve hardly slackening as the front motors power the car through the gearchanges and the rear motor impels the V-6 as the boost builds back to its 15.2-psi peak.
It’s a seamless operation and a vision of a future when all cars will be bionic. It’s also much too muted. The precision thrum of the V-6 piped into the cabin lacks a guttural snarl, and it’s even more disappointing for bystanders. An NSX passing by at full throttle is a whoosh of mostly tire hiss and displaced air, the engine a distant voice in the wilderness. We don’t mind that the steering wheel, comparable in feel and feedback to a Porsche 911’s, doesn’t jump in your hands, but the NSX needs more drama.
Another issue: Rather than offer a series of escalating modes that increase the driver’s freedom, as, say, on the Corvette Z06, the NSX staircase is designed for outcomes—or to make the car go ever faster. In Track mode, you can’t slide around because sliding is slower. The car intervenes with corrections that make it straighten up and fly right. Faster lap times, yes, but also not as fun. You can shut off the stability control entirely, but then you risk a wall encounter. Besides desperately needing a door bin to hold your cellphone, the NSX needs another mode, call it Track Plus, that lets the driver make mistakes and look into the abyss but will act to prevent disaster. With it, the NSX would be a better learning tool.
The overall impression is that of a company that hasn’t built a sports car in a while, cautiously feeling its way with a complicated new machine produced by a rushed development program. It has the essentials; what it needs can mostly be added with software. The on-sale date isn’t until spring, so there’s still time to make the NSX of our dreams.
10-26-2015, 12:40 PM
#5913
I drive a Subata.
iTrader: (1)
Road & Track review summed it up very well. Love how it ended.
Nice numbers but 3800lbs.
Honda wants the NSX to be an everyday supercar, but by definition, a supercar isn't an everyday affair. It's a special thing reserved for special days, and if you buy one, you never want to quietly tip toe out of a valet stand under electric power. You want to rattle the crystal on the hotel roof. You want to throw open the garage doors on a gorgeous day and bend the asphalt to your will. If there's compromise, you want it in the pursuit of performance, not livability. There was a time when you felt a little NSX in your Accord. Now there's too much Accord in your NSX.
The following users liked this post:
Majofo (10-26-2015)
10-26-2015, 12:42 PM
#5914
And then finally the fog lifted. Having teased the world since 2012, when a second-generation NSX concept debuted at the Detroit auto show, Acura told us the real details we’d been waiting for: 573 horsepower, 476 pound-feet of torque, a 3,803-pound curb weight and 0-60 mph in just over three seconds.
10-26-2015, 12:54 PM
#5915
Suzuka Master
I still like the looks of it 
after a grille wrap of course
after a grille wrap of course
10-26-2015, 01:02 PM
#5916
I drive a Subata.
iTrader: (1)
I like the front end. The interior and back-end are just meh to me. It's a $150k car. It's right at the GT3 territory!
10-26-2015, 01:17 PM
#5917
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
Acura engineers be like.. we're not trying to compete.. that's not the point.
O'rly.. stfu. That's what a loser says..
O'rly.. stfu. That's what a loser says..
10-26-2015, 01:21 PM
#5919
Chapter Leader (Southern Region)
Acura NSX.. the humble brag.. because we not trying to compete.
10-26-2015, 01:22 PM
#5920
Team Owner
Exactly. I prefer the more "pedestrian" looks of the GTR. Hauls just as much ass without drawing the attention of every single person within viewing distance.