The NSX is Acura's technological calling card. Added displacement, bigger brakes, and a 6-speed make for more of the same. Words by George Stradlater, Bill Cash photos.
To leap into the sports-car canon on the strength of a single model, the company which boasted "We make it simple" built something very, very complicated. The NSX was less about bolt-on gimmicks than finicky materials and high-tech construction methods, but almost seven years later it remains a technological showboat for its maker.
Let's start with the unibody. Here Honda took an utterly familiar process-that of joining lots of small stampings into a single rigid whole-and made it heroically exotic by replacing the easy-to-handle steel with cantankerous aluminum. Complex alloy extrusions were then specified for parts such as the intricate inner doorsills and rubber-mounted suspension subframes, while titanium connecting rods and cast-in ferrous liners got dropped inside the light-alloy V6 engine block. Add variable-length intake tracts, VTEC variable valve timing, optional electric power steering, and mandatory traction control and you had a pretty trick little package back in 1990, even while it eschewed the then-popular gewgaws of forced induction, digital instruments, all-wheel drive, and 4-wheel steering.
Interestingly, most of the doodads Honda selected have since become commonplace, while those they rejected are largely in decline. For once, PR and reality seem to jibe: Honda says it chose each solution only on its merits, never just to beef up the car's spec box. This basic philosophy has proven so sound that nothing else still in production has aged so gracefully over the last seven years. The NSX remains one of the most predictable, capable, and usable sports cars ever made. Just strap it on and go-nothing else is so easy to drive fast.
A Good Deed Unpunished
Yet while the NSX was a philosophical success, it has also proven a financial and aesthetic failure. All the pieces were there for a winner: great performance, decent value, unbeatable usability, and the second-to-none Acura dealer channel. This car even had Honda's F1 heritage and 15 years of proselytizing Civic owners behind it.
But there were two problems. One, just as NSX production ramped up the sports-car market began ramping down. Two, the styling was an ill-conceived clash of old Italian cues, slightly strained proportions, and detailing that could best be described as Early Ultraman. Sales stabilized at less than 1000/year, and the expected Porsche and Ferrari conquests never materialized.
Still, to its credit, Honda/Acura has refused to give up on this car. Improvements have been made along the way, including drive-by-wire throttle control, uprated brakes, better differentials, and so forth, invariably to the benefit of the already outstanding package. And while the exterior hasn't exactly gotten better with age, familiarity has at least softened its rough edges, particularly when fit with the body-color roof and more aggressive wheels introduced on the NSX-T targa in 1995.
That brings us up to model-year '97 and the latest round of changes for the NSX, again purely evolutionary. The most significant must be its 202cc displacement boost for 20 more bhp and 14 more lbs.-ft. of torque (to 290 and 224, respectively). A close-ratio 6-speed replaces the old 5-speed manual, and a new dual-mass flywheel and single-plate clutch debut at the same time. Best of all, the '97 NSX-T has gained fewer than 25 pounds over its '96 forebear.
Honda has swapped the 3-liter NSX's old cast-in iron cylinder liners for new fiber-reinforced metal (FRM) sleeves in the 3.2 V6. This material allows thinner cylinder walls and hence greater overall displacement. The intake valves were then enlarged by a millimeter and the titanium connecting rods were toughened to handle the added forces generated by the bore increase. Elsewhere, freer-flowing (and lighter) stainless-steel exhaust headers replace the old cast-iron parts and new spherical joints (versus flex tubes) reduce the exhaust system's weight even more. Other tweaks include faster traction-control response, retuned steering assist, significantly larger brake rotors (the old 11.1-inch front and rear discs are now 11.7 and 11.9 respectively), heat-absorbing green glass in the cockpit, and a standard immobilizer anti-theft system.
Sense and Sensibility
Of course the real question is whether this slew of minor details adds up to a noticeably different car.
The NSX has never crushed you into your seat like a Viper or gathered speed with the alarming subtlety of a 911 Turbo. Instead, it has powerful but not blinding acceleration that never overcomes the inherent balance and faithfulness of this chassis. Ironically enough, that means the most flattering thing you can say about the 3.2 is that it's mostly noticed in the breach. The car seems less likely to bog down out of low-rev corners, but otherwise this is exactly the same machine it's always been, boasting powerful brakes, well-weighted steering, a predictably broad torque band, and one of the best high-speed engine notes in the business. With closer gearing and a better power-to-weight ratio (10.9 pounds per bhp versus last year's 11.3), the '97 NSX is undoubtedly faster under all conditions. That this fact isn't obvious behind the wheel says more about the chassis' inherent stability than any lack of benefit.
All of which brings enthusiasts to the ontological debate at the core of the NSX. Is a car really fast if it doesn't seem fast, the numbers notwithstanding? The NSX often gets chastised because its day-to-day utility, outward visibility, and ease of control are all equal to a workaday Accord's. A high-performance sports car, some people say, is supposed to involve a little drama.
That's certainly true, and the lack of sturm und drang means you often don't realize how effective the NSX is. On the other hand, nobody has ridiculed Porsche for making the current 911 so livable and few have challenged Ferrari for going the same route with the 550 Maranello. There's a double standard here, and without delving into its roots I'll just say that the NSX's concept and execution are so good they let it combine comfort and performance as nothing else can. To drive this car is to respect its manufacturer-and if you want to know why Honda and Acura have stood by the NSX, I'd suggest there's your reason.
