Honda Acura NSX Ultimate Portfolio 1989-2005

This portfolio traces the exciting life of Honda's rear-wheel drive V-6 'Everyday Supercar' the Honda - Acura in North America - NSX. Included are road, comparison and long term tests, model introductions, updates plus comprehensive technical and performance data. Models reported on are the NSX R, T, GT & the Alex Zanardi Edition. Professional advice is offered on acquiring a pre-owned NSX. 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 with 2,997cc giving 270bhp. The engine capacity was later increased to 3,179cc with a power output of 290bhp. The NSX also had looks to vie with Italy's best and a maximum speed of over 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. There in lay the NSX's problem, which it also encountered in North America 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 gear-change 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 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 Germany autobahn. In 2005, with worldwide production down to a couple of hundred vehicles per year and the resulting high production costs, Honda decided that it was not financially viable to continue manufacturing the NSX.