It was 1989. George Bush had just become the 41st President of the United States, while here in the UK, Margaret Thatcher’s premiership was beginning to draw to its end.

Ride On Time by Black Box, Eternal Flame by The Bangles, and Back To Life by Soul II Soul were playing on the radio and Honda was launching a supercar.

You can imagine how ridiculous this might have seemed at the time. But actually, it wasn’t really so. Honda was a company of huge imagination in the late 1980s.

Not only did it have sensible family cars like the Accord and Civic in its range, but there were lithe sports cars in the form of the CRX and Prelude, a remarkably prescient MPV-SUV crossover called the Shuttle, and even the oddball Aerodeck, a three-door estate with pop-up headlights based on the Accord.

One thing all of these cars had in common was their down-to-earth usability. It didn’t matter which Honda you were talking about or how leftfield it might have been in concept – driving one was a hassle-free experience.



The obligatory Channel Tunnel shot: the old NSX is much easier to park on a train than the wider new one CREDIT: OLGUN KORDAL


The same couldn’t be said of the supercars of the time. Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and even Porsches were truculent beasts that demanded concentration – not to mention a bit of heft.

Should it really have come as a great surprise, then, that Honda would take aim at a class where it thought it could do better? Here was a chance to bring to market a supercar that could excite just as well as all of these rivals, but also be as easy to use day-to-day as its Civic.

To this end, engineers famously drafted in Ayrton Senna to help develop the handling of the new car. Stylists Ken Okuyama – designer of the 1984 HP-X concept, pilfered from Pininfarina – and Masahito Nakano came up with a beautifully balanced and incredibly aerodynamic body, whose glasshouse referenced the F-16 fighter jet.

Under project leader Shigeru Uehara, meanwhile, the NSX became a reality, eschewing the fad for turbocharged engines and instead combining a naturally-aspirated 3.0-litre V6 engine which featured Honda’s newfangled VTEC variable valve timing system, with an all-aluminium body – the first in a mainstream production car – to produce supercar pace.

And it really was supercar pace that the NSX could offer. 0-60mph came up in 5.7 seconds, while the top speed was 168mph. To put that into context, the newly-launched Ferrari 348’s figures were 5.4 seconds and 171mph respectively. Honda was right in the hunt.



The original car in red, the second-generation in orange, and the newest model in blue (with a Civic Type R along for the ride) CREDIT: OLGUN KORDAL


It was in February of 1989 that the NSX broke cover for the first time, at the Chicago Auto Show. Now, 30 years later, Honda has gathered three examples together for us to drive across Northern France on a rather wonderful road trip that, we hope, will reveal exactly how the model has evolved.

From 1990, we have an original NSX, complete with pop-up headlamps and the red paintwork of those first prototypes. From 2005, a last-of-the-line post-facelift car finished in retina-scorching Imola Orange. And from 2017, the all-new NSX – a successor many years in the making, and once again on the cutting edge of supercar technology.

We're aboard the 2005 car first, and as we roll out of the Eurotunnel in Calais, we’re glad to note that the drizzle falling on the other side of the Channel has ceased on this side. A burst of acceleration onto the autoroute for the schlep down to Reims proves what character its 290bhp 3.2-litre engine has; the hard-edged, metallic noise right behind your head is addictive, and it takes all of our will-power not to end up at speeds that – given the undoubted proclivity for gendarmes to book a bright orange supercar with British plates – would almost certainly cause the trip to be over before it had really even started.



Alex stops at Reims for further Eurotrip clichés CREDIT: OLGUN KORDAL


Once settled into a cruise, though, it’s easy to appreciate just how much of a stir the NSX must have caused at the time. Though our car is a late example, in many ways it’s barely changed from the original, and it feels smooth and pliant. The gearshift is slick, the pedals are light and feelsome, and the steering is nicely weighted. We set the cruise control and let the miles glide by, the NSX’s surprising suppleness causing them to pass more quickly and less stressfully than we’d expected.

Then it’s time to come off at Reims, to take in the old grand prix circuit and a few of the smaller roads around the area. And it’s here that the NSX’s charm becomes even more apparent.

The steering’s the most unusual aspect: it’s an electric system, and an early one at that, so there’s very little feel. But it’s ultra-quick and ultra-precise; combined with the brilliantly incisive turn-in, that makes it easy to position the NSX where you want it. Then there’s the chassis – beautifully balanced, it moves in a way that provides all of the information about the car’s attitude that you don’t get through the steering.

Prod the throttle hard and the NSX will push its tail wide, but you have to be trying – treated more gently, there’s copious grip to lean on as you power out of a corner. And despite the suspension’s comfort, body control is superb, the car feeling taut and flat even if you turn in at silly speeds.

No sooner have we fallen in love with the orange car, though, than a proper relic presents itself. We step into the 1990 car with mixed feelings; disappointed, slightly, because it’s an automatic, but excited, too, because this is a car with quite some provenance – it was actually given to Ayrton Senna to use for a stint while he was in the UK promoting the NSX.



The car that started it all CREDIT: OLGUN KORDAL


So, safely ensconced in the bum groove of one of the world’s finest racing drivers, we set off. Manual NSXs with this 3.0-litre engine had 270bhp, but the automatics had 18bhp shaved off that figure to avoid overwhelming the gearbox, and that lack of power makes itself felt. Particularly low down, where the second-generation’s genuine supercar pace has been downgraded simply to something vaguely sporty.

But with that exception, the automatic NSX is better than you might expect. The VTEC shove at the top end is at least still there. And the automatic gearbox slots home each ratio crisply, cleverly reading when you’re in a corner and opting to hold onto ratios right when you really want it to.

The journey to Paris passes even more smoothly than the first leg, the older car’s slightly softer suspension (and, potentially, more worn-in seats – thanks Ayrton) making it an even more adept cruiser. And as we make our way into the centre of town, negotiating rush-hour traffic as we try to find our hotel for the night, we’re feeling rather smug about finding ourselves in the auto. We’re glad, too, of the old NSX’s visibility, its low dashboard and thin pillars allowing a terrific view out, while the squared-off front wheel arches are easy to place.

The next day, we’re in another auto, but this time it’s the latest NSX. Winding it out of the underground car park is not easy, and on the streets of Paris, the extra bulk of the new car is immediately noticeable. But even more so is the complete silence with which it manoeuvres at low speed; this NSX is, of course, a hybrid.



It's wider, and therefore slightly more difficult to drive in town than the older models CREDIT: OLGUN KORDAL


More precisely, that means there’s a 3.5-litre V6, boosted by two turbos, and paired with three electric motors for even more grunt: one at the rear, and two at the front. The result is 573bhp and a whopping 476lb ft of torque.

Where the old NSXs were decidedly analogue, the new one is one is a proper technofest. You can choose between four different driving modes – Quiet, Sport, Sport Plus and Track – via a large knurled knob right in the centre of the dash, and the difference between the four is dramatic.

We select Quiet, intended for unobtrusive use in town centres, for our early-morning journey out of the city, and the NSX tiptoes through the streets, using its electric motor as much as possible and keeping exhaust noise to a minimum whenever the petrol engine is called for.

Eventually we find dual carriageways, which deliver us safely through the suburbs and out onto the motorways beyond. As we pull up to one péage, my inner child gets the better of me and I flick the NSX into Sport Plus mode, burying the throttle as we clear the concrete pedestals.



The NSX is fundamentally highly liveable-with, and is as suitable for real life as it is for a high-speed autoroute missionCREDIT: OLGUN KORDAL


The power is immediate and astonishing, the instant shove of the electric motors ameliorated by the grunt of that V6 and, as the revs rise further, the fast-acting turbos. This is a ballistically quick car, and very different in the way it delivers its power to the older cars, both of which reward you for letting them rev out. The new NSX, by contrast, gives you everything in one, overwhelming assault on the senses, the throbbing wail of that V6 filling the cockpit as that instant, unrelenting acceleration pins you back in the seat.

And as all that power is deployed, the back end squirms, flicking to the left suddenly. So brutal is the sledgehammer blow the NSX delivers that the clever, power-shuffling four-wheel drive system can’t quite keep up. Happily the tail is caught just as quickly as it breaks free, though more likely by the driver assistance gadgets or the four-wheel drive system catching up than by your correspondent’s slow wits. “They do do that,” grins John, Honda’s technical guru, who’s sitting beside me for this leg.

The rest of our motorway schlep to Rouen passes without incident, the new NSX aping the old as an adept cross-country cruiser, though admittedly one with a firmer ride and a slightly more focussed feel. It gains in modernity, mind you, offering dual-zone climate control, Bluetooth and sat-nav, though these latter two must be accessed via an archaic infotainment system that, ironically, feels like something from 2003.



The new Honda NSX rated highly by all the Telegraph's motoring critics CREDIT: OLGUN KORDAL


We leave the autoroute bound for what remains of Rouen-les-Essarts, a street circuit that hosted the French Grand Prix several times between 1952 and 1968, when Jo Schlesser was tragically killed here. Formula One racing never returned, and the circuit gained a reputation for danger; it was eventually closed in 1993.

Today, though, the roads that made up the track can still be driven; it isn’t hard to see how difficult and perilous the steep drop down the hill into the sharp Nouveau Monde hairpin would have been. But these wide, sweeping sections suit the modern NSX well, its girth becoming a non-issue and the slight inconsistencies of its steering having less of an impact. And of course, its immense power trivialises the car-testing climb back up to Courbe de l’Etoile.

Just as we’re getting to know the new NSX, however, the rain starts to fall again, and with a solid mass of weather heading our way from the Atlantic Ocean, the time to start the long slog home is nigh. Rejoining the motorway and heading for Calais, there are certainly worse places to be. And yet, it isn’t this car that’s captured our hearts here, and nor is it Senna’s.



Sometimes it takes a great car to rekindle a love for the open road CREDIT: OLGUN KORDAL


That 2003 car, with its rampant, singing engine, pinpoint chassis and all the visual drama of the original, is the one we really want to be in. Over and above any objective assessment, the late, first-generation NSX just feels right. It is the original, remastered; the result of 10 years or so of continuous improvement, through tweaks and tricks and modest upgrades, applied to an already rich and exhilarating base.

And in that regard, it leaves us with a tantalising prospect. Just imagine how good the current NSX might be in 10 years’ time, were it to receive the same sort of development; its foibles worked through, the chassis tamed a little more, that archaic infotainment system chucked in the bin. The immense and unrelenting power of its deeply clever drivetrain allowed to flourish in a car patiently finessed around it; this lesson from the past informing the NSX’s future. Now there’s a thought to make one look forward to the 40th anniversary reunion.

Even so, Kakinoma says Honda is unlikely to share the Type R nameplate with Acura on future products.

“When it comes to the Acura brand, Type S is used to dictate a performance flagship, not Type R,” the engineer told Motor1.com.