Acura NSX

About Car:

The Acura NSX was a car of firsts. It was the first production car to feature aluminum construction for its body structure, body panels, suspension and engine. Its engine was the first to feature variable valve timing and a variable-volume intake manifold. It was the first Japanese sports car sold in America to truly go head-to-head with the world’s best. Furthermore, all of this ichiban stuff came from an automotive brand that, at the NSX’s debut, had been in existence for just five years.

Some people dismissed Acura’s exotic as being too bland and Honda-like. But could it have been anything different? Honda simply has better engineers than most other car companies, which is how they went from zero to moderately huge in just two decades. The Accord and Civic are the benchmarks in their respective categories. A few years after they entered Formula One racing, Honda dominated the sport. The NSX is basically the street car built by the Formula One folks.

The NSX removes almost all barriers to heroic driving. Late for an appointment and need to go 80 mph around mountain curves? You won’t hear the tires squeal. Getting a call on your cell phone? Nudge the transmission into full auto and the car will shift for you, smooth as a Lexus. Don’t want to downshift while descending the Sierra mountains? Good luck getting the ventilated foot-diameter rotors to heat up enough to make the brakes fade. Worried that your $85,000 car and cell phone aren’t enough to attract a partner and anxious to get a tan? Take the top off your NSX-T and store it in the ingenious spot above the engine that doesn’t rob you of any luggage space.

The first thing you notice when you get into the NSX is the comfort. This is not a Porsche or a Ferrari. Nothing is weird, there is no penalty for all the extra capability. After ten minutes, the controls feel as natural as on a car you drive every day. Visibility is superb in all directions and the low cowl prevents claustrophobia. Considering that the engine is about a foot from your ear, the car is reasonably quiet; wind noise is unobtrusive (at least up to 100 mph). Set the temperature you’d like and the automatic climate control system delivers it (I’ve always hated these systems, but the NSX’s works).

Transmission

You can get the NSX with a 5-speed manual or 4-speed Formula One-type automatic tranmission. My testosterone-poisoned psyche yearned for a manual transmission, but rationally I knew that all race cars these days have “semi-automatic” transmissions. The console-mounted shifter in my automatic NSX-T had four settings: 4, 3/M, 2, 1. In “4″, the car behaves like any other with an automatic transmission: it chooses the best gear from 1 through 4. Shifting into 3/M from a stop, the car starts in first gear. You can accelerate until just before redline and the transmission will not shift. All control has moved into a little stalk by your right index finger. Tip it up and the car will instantly shift into second gear. Another tip up and you’re in third gear. Tip it down and the car will shift back to second, assuming that won’t result in overrevving the engine. No matter how powerful the car, automatics never felt really powerful to me. If you want to move, you have to mash the accelerator to the floor and wait a split second for the kick-down switch to engage and the transmission to downshift. I always miss the instant throttle response of a manual. With the NSX, you can quickly tip the car down into second or third gear. With the revs kept high, the throttle response is every bit as good as any manual.

Engine

While other car companies whined that the new California emissions standards were impossible, Honda figured out how to meet them with minor valve timing and induction system tweaks. The same kind of engineering brilliance was applied to the NSX’s all-aluminum 3.0-liter V-6. It produces 270 hp and 210 lbs-ft of torque, which is ample considering that the car only weighs 3100 lbs.