Driver's Notebook: One for the Road
October 1, 2005
With fewer than 75 sales projected for North America and only 150 worldwide, Acura’s NSX is one of the most exclusive sports cars available for 2005. This year is the last for the NSX, Japan’s first ultra-exotic and still one of the world’s most interesting sport cars. Introduced in 1989 and put into production by 1991, the NSX was a technological tour de force—years ahead of any competition—with the first all-aluminum unit-body, chassis subframes, and suspension of any production car.
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
(Click image to enlarge.) Fifteen years and more than 18,000 units later worldwide, the NSX still retains the qualities that made it such a gratifying car to drive, back in the day when Porsches still looked like Porsches and the most exotic thing from Japan was a Toyota Supra. Of course, today’s best Asian sports cars, like the overachieving Nissan 350Z, remind us how far Japanese manufacturers have come in the intervening years. But the NSX still has its chops, and as for looks, while some observers might call it dated, “classic” is the more appropriate word. This car is still a head-turner, even in jaded auto jungles like the freeways of Los Angeles. Colors like our Rio Yellow Pearl paint job didn’t do anything to diminish the attention paid to the NSX.
Assembled by a team of special technicians at a dedicated facility in
Tochigi, Japan, the NSX is a quality piece, and it remains a benchmark in the
fit-and-finish department. Other handbuilt cars should emulate the precision of
the Acura’s manufacture, and it is possible to imagine this car being as tight
and together with 200,000 miles on the clock as ours was with 5,000. This
observation underscores the NSX’s raison d’être: It offers its owner the
possibility of enjoying a perfectly delightful, neurosis-free driving experience
on a daily basis.
; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
(Click image to enlarge.) Settling into the cockpit also reminds us how much cars have advanced in the past decade. Free of electronic gizmos and multifunction screens, the NSX interior is on the one hand dated but also refreshing in its absence of stuff that neither abets comfort nor improves the driving experience. An Acura/Bose sound system with remote CD changer and a chilling climate control system provide all the necessary amenities. The driving position, sport seats, and view from behind the grand windscreen are as good as it gets. Rearward vision is merely adequate, but not fear-inspiring as on some cars that require back-up cameras or open doors to navigate a parallel parking space.
advertisement
