| Description Honda’s rise from motorcycle maker to world-class car manufacturer has been fascinating to watch. This Performance Portfolio features the car which really made the motoring establishment sit up and take notice back in 1989. Honda’s astonishing NSX took the company into the supercar league for the first time - and frightened many small companies which specialised in such cars.
Honda announced its NSX in 1989 and put the car into production the following year. It was a technical tour de force - aluminium body structure and suspension, mid-mounted quad-cam 24-valve V6 engine of just under 3 litres giving 270bhp at a screaming 7300rpm, looked to vie with Italy’s best and a maximum speed of around 165mph. With this car, the Japanese company put its hard-won technological skills on display, and startled the motoring world. Honda, after all, was supposed to be a maker of reliable family saloons, not supercars.
The Acura-Honda NSX Performance Portfolio 1989-1999 features road and comparison tests, model introductions and updates, performance data, on the track, and long-term report. Covers NSX, R, T, F-matic, Auto, 5 & 6 speed, and Zanardi models.
Therein lay the NSX’s problem, which it also encountered in the USA where it wore an Acura badge. Despite the car’s excellence, it did not have the pedigree of the established supercars from makers like Porsche and Ferrari. Yet Honda persevered, adding a targa-roof version to the original coupe, offering a four-speed automatic alternative to the standard five-speed manual, providing a Formula 1-style gearchange and even a six-speed gearbox. In Japan, the car was even made available with Bridgestone’s revolutionary twin tyres.
Of course, the NSX was and remains much more than a pretender to the supercar crown. It also offered the reliability and driveability associated with mundane Honda saloons, and it was as much at home pottering around town as it was all-out on a German autobahn. When Honda choose to follow this one up, the NSX will be seen for what it always has been - the first in a line of serious challenges to the established supercar pecking order.
Features:
- Road and comparison tests
- Model introductions and updates
- Performance data
- On the track
- Long-term reports
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