The Auto Channel-Sports Car International Magazine

NSX-Files
Acura NSX

Until its driven at 10/10ths, yo might miss the beast that lurks within Acura's imge machine.

By the time I turned to racers Peter Cunningham and Richie Hearn for corroboration, I was already convinced that the 3.2-liter NSX was one of the best supercars money can buy. But it was nice to hear them confirm my opinion.

Said Cunningham, who races a quasi-works Realtime Racing NSX for Acura in SCCA's World Challenge Series, "There may be faster cars out there in a straight line or a particular turn, but overall, this is the easiest car to drive fast. And that's what makes all the difference."

Hearn, who is making quite an impression in his sophomore year with CART, was all smiles as he climbed from the cockpit of the Honda's supercar for the first time: "I've never driven one of these before, but it really has a strong powerband for a street car. More than enough power to spin it out." During te photo shoot, Hearn was dunking more donuts than Zanardi ever did on a victory lap.

When I met up with Cunningham and Hearn in the paddock at Laguna Seca, I had just spent a euphoric week probing the limits of the NSX's envelope. And a business-size envelope it was. With a little spur from me, the pearlescent yellow coupe racked up close to 700 miles on every kind of road imaginable. Freeway runs down to Laguna Seca and back for the Historics tested the Acura for comfort, wind noise and fuel consumption. Two lane blasts from Salinas to Monterey allowed me to evaluate passing power and outward vision. Traffic jams into Laguna and out of the Concours Italiano tested docility and clutch engagement. And finally, autocross runs on a course set up by Firestone at Laguna Seca spoke volumes about transient response, balance and throttle control.

The NSX passed all the tests with attributes to spare. It ran like a flawless grand tourer on the freeway, with a softly loping, yet always eager canter. Down time for gas stops was minimal as the 3.2-liter engine consistently returned more than 20 miles to each gallon of premium. The inside of the cabin resembled an anechoic chamber, so muffled was the outside world when the windows were up. The coupe is a special order NSX, now that the standard version has become the Targa, or NSX-T. Dealers have to designate "coupe" on the order form, or else they'll automatically receive the "T" model. But the coupe design is so wonderfully quiet and snug you have to wonder why anyone would opt for an open cockpit version of this car. Unless it's the profiler's need to be seen by others that outweighs practicality and aerodynamics.

After eight years of production, the coupe's ergonomics are still outstanding - far better than those of the Viper or C5 Corvette. Vision over the front fenders is so good you can place your wheel within millimeters of your apex. Engine noise only intrudes when you invite it to do so with your throttle foot. The rest of the time, the Bose-designed stereo produces a fine alternate soundtrack. The standard tuner put such a hammerlock on distant stations that selecting and retaining eight candidates for the pre-set slots on the face plate was never a challenge. Despite its exotic nature, the NSX is a civil proposition. The car completely achieves its maker's mission statement that reads, "The NSX had to be as easy to live with as any other Acura."

But all those familiar Honda gauge faces send to the driver a message of comfort and lassitude that contradicts the cutting edge performance of the NSX. That veneer of civility belies the car's true intent - which is to cover ground as fast as possible without apology or hesitation. If bend looms in the panoramic windshield, the NSX challenges you to strip it of its apex and get on with the show. If a gap looms in traffic, the NSX teases you to make it yours as you slice your way ever forward. Sure, you can relax your hold of the reins, and allow this mount to canter dutifully back to the barn. But driving passively ignores the nervous energy that defines the character of the NSX. Though you'd have a hard time knowing it from first acquaintance, rest assured that the beast does indeed lurk within.

"The seats were really great," says Hearn, "so high-sided that I stayed planted in the side-to-side stuff." This is high praise coming from a guy used to 4 g side loads on the high banks of Michigan International. But he's right about those unprepossessing buckets. These fancy-stitched black leather chairs don't scream "SPORT SEAT" like so many ribbed and winged pillions do these days. But they get the job done in first class style without a lot of notoriety. Honda could have stitched them in a contrasting color. Or they could have added expandable bladders for lumbar and thigh support. But instead of tacking on a lot of afterthought contrivances to make up for an intrinsically underdesigned product, Honda did the right thing to begin with: They constructed a superb seat that is modest in appearance but overwhelming in performance.

The seat philosophy extends to the looks of the car. After several years in the public eye, there's nothing much new to look at here. No redone wing or front spoiler. No aero-rockers or flatulence-inducers. Indeed, the NSX looks very much the same as it did when introduced back in 1991. But the reason nothing much has been changed is that everything still works extra well - just like it always has. This car is the most aerodynamically planted sports car I have ever driven at triple digit speeds. It will notch your confidence level way beyond the nervous feedback from a C5 Vette, a Porsche 993 or a Viper Coupe. The NSX feels like it was meant to spend its life at full chat on the Mulsanne. By comparison, the rest of the aforementioned crew feel like interloprs in the game of aerodynamic stability. The others aren't bad, but the NSX is the only one that's truly great. I guarantee it will pump red blood into your white knuckles when you're flat out in top gear and looking for cops.

Back in '91, Acura installed the world's first production VTEC motor in the midship engine bay of the NSX. Even the original engine, which displaced 3.0 liters and produced 270 hp. made an ungodly howl when the tech swept past 6000 rpm. The newer 3.2-liter version, good for 290 hp. really puts some yelp in the shriek. Crank it up to the 8000 rpm redline in any gear, and that VTEC marvel behind your head instantly starts playing the soundtrack from Le Mans. There isn't a sports car in the universe that can match the NSX for ethereal scintillation on full cry. It may not be the fastest car in a straight line, but it is certainly the fastest-sounding one. And that's got to count for something.

Honda mated a new six-speed gearbox to the overbored 3.2-liter engine, and to quote factory driver P.D. Cunningham, "The close ratio gears and the bigger motor have made all the difference in the world to this car." Honda retained the original car's final drive ratio of 4.06:1, but adding that sixth cog tightened up all the intermediate gears. The ratio shuffle keeps the VTEC motor from falling below optimum power production on each upshift. This is especially significant because of the motor's relatively small displacement. Even with the 3 mm bore increase (from 90 mm to 93 mm), a non-turbo 3179cc motor in a 3066 pound car is not going to give you a Viper's power-to-weight ratio.

The extra gearset is also valuable because it maximizes the VTEC effect, which doesn't even come into play until 5800 rpm. VTEC (Variable Valve Timing and Lift Electronic Control) offers two cam modes - low lift and high lift. Up to 5800 rpm, the rocker arms follow a low profile lobe. Above that engine speed, a computer signals a spool valve to deliver oil to pistons embedded in the rocker arms. The oil pressure allows the rocker arm pistons to slide and lock together previously independent low and high speed rocker arms. Once this occurs, the locked rockers follow a higher lift cam lobe. Because this engine doesn't even start to produce more than 250 horsepower until it reaches 6000 rpm, a close ratio gearset is essential to keeping the 3.2 on its cam.

Cunningham, who currently lies third in the SCCA World Challenge T1 standings with two wins in seven events, attributes his success to the NSX's handling and braking prowess. "The car is okay in a straight line," he told me, "but where we really make it up on the Saleen Mustangs, the Corvettes and the 911 s is under braking and in the turns." Along with the engine and gearbox revamp, Honda upgraded the brakes for '98, with bigger discs front and rear. Previous iterations of the car used 282mm (11.1 inch) rotors all around. The fronts are now up to 298mm (11.7 inches), while the rears expand to 303mm (11.9 inches). While front rotor thickness remains 28mm, rear width increases from 21 to 23mm. No matter how hard Hearn and Cunningham tried to cook the test car's brakes on the autocross course, they were unsuccessful.

And when I trundled out of the paddock and onto the highway, there wasn't a hint of pull or fade from the strenuous session.

"It feels pretty soft to me," said Cunningham after putting Acura's stock gun through its paces. "It rolls around a lot on the suspension, which is not something I'm used to feeling." Of course, the NSX Cunningham races not only produces 390 hp and runs on BF Goodrich's latest shaved G Force rubber, it also benefits from a complete suspension rebuild by Comptech, the tuner behind Realtime Racing. "Comptech changes everything on the car, from the springs to the shocks to the bushings - they have a replacement part available for just about everything," says Cunningham of his sponsor's product line. "Even a supercharger," he says with a grin. Now I hadn't noticed much roll or slop in driving this NSX on the street, but I had to admit that it looked pretty pitchy when Hearn stuffed it into a 180 degree switchback, or when Cunningham kept his foot planted through the slalom cones.

But if this were my car, I wouldn't change anything on the suspension because the real world ride is so good it would be a shame to slam it for the sake of a few seconds in coneland. Besides, as SCCA Class Superstock (SS) results will attest, there are far better autocrossers than the NSX out there. The Acura's long (99.6 in.) wheelbase precludes the sharp directional changes necessary for successful autocrossing. It's like harnessing a Triple Crown thoroughbred to the pony ride. The short-overhang, short-wheelbase (95.5 in.) Mazda RX-7 turbo (also classed in SS) will run circles around it in Solo 2, so why bother ruining the great street ride to chase a car it will never catch?

Another reason the NSX leaves something to be desired on the slalom course is its relatively small tire footprint. From the beginning, this car has suffered from insufficient rim and rubber allocation. When introduced, the front wheels were only 6.5 inches wide and 15 inches tall, and carried 205/50 ZR15 Yokohama A002 tires designed specifically for this car. The debut rears were 8 x 16 in., with 225/50 ZR16 Yokos of a slightly softer compound than the fronts. Though Honda has upgraded the contact patch on today's version, there's still not enough rim or rubber. The current NSX uses 7 x 16 forged alloys up front and 8.5 x 17 rears, but the tires (215/50 ZR16 front, 245/40 ZR17 rear) are still too small to keep the back of the car ahead of the front when you delete the traction control and stomp on the gas. It's just way too easy to provoke the NSX into an oversteering slide with the standard-issue Bridgestone Potenza S-01 tires.

Just ask Richie Hearn. He didn't make it through four slalom cones before he was facing the direction he'd come from. The look of surprise on his face said, "I'm glad my Reynard doesn't do this!" While a wheel and tire upgrade might add some unsprung weight to this flyweight aluminum car, it would be a good trade-off in stability for those who rely on reflexes rather than traction control to stay out of trouble.

Despite poor sales of the current car, a new NSX is most assuredly in the offing. According to Cunningham, "The new car is already done, but still some way off. The great thing about Honda is that they don't care how well this car sells. This is their image car, their leader in technology, and they're going to continue making it, no matter what." Mike Spencer, who heads PR for Acura, concurs: "The NSX is definitely not going away."

I have only the sketchiest concept of how Honda could improve this car with a second generation version. They might do well to revamp the somewhat tired Origami styling, delete the kitsch pop-up headlights, and increase the size of the wheel wells with Rim Augmentation Surgery. But they'd be doing the wrong thing if they decide to monkey with what is essentially the perfect supercar package.

The best way for Honda to go with this car would be to make something like the home market-only "Type S" available in the USA. This is an even lighter weight, higher-horsepower version of the NSX sure to guarantee the kind of excitement that right now only Peter Cunningham can experience in his 390 hp. 2000 pound Comptech car. Now, of course, that might be asking a bit much from a company that sold only 253 of these cars Stateside last year, and 151 through July of 1998. But we're allowed to dream about dream cars, aren't we?

Even Acura spokesman Jay Joseph admits that he wouldn't be surprised to see a really hot Type S over here sometime soon: "There is a possibility there will be something special out there for '99. We haven't made any decisions one way or the other, but we're looking at the possibility of a limited edition version of the car." Mike Spencer says, "We're always looking at doing things to make the NSX more exciting, and the Type R and Type S versions for sale in Japan certainly fit the bill."

Even Ferrari serial number dweebs wouldn't dare quibble with the quantifiable exclusivity of a limited edition NSX. If Honda does decide to export a couple of dozen hybrid Type Ss, we'll let you know when it's time to spend your hundred grand. It just doesn't make sense for Acura to let the comparatively plebeian Integra Type R have all the family fun. After all, big brother was here first, and it's not going away.

Send questions, comments, and suggestions to
Editor-in-Chief@theautochannel.com