jaytip
26-01-2008, 06:24 AM
I don’t have a scanner so I have to do this the hard way (twice!!first time a thunderstorm cut off power to the house when I had only 3 sentences remaining)
Anyway I think it’s a good article and worth the time,plus it's in two parts because it's too long for one post.
Suburban Warrior or Switchback Slingshot?
Both,actually. Honda’s revised NSX is everything to everyone,the ultimate pragmatic supercar.In it’s new revised form it has more grip,an even classier chassis and,whatever Honda say to the contrary,it has a lot more poke.
“I hear” say’s the policeman who stops to check we haven’t broken down on the bleak Mooreland tarmac,” this is the most popular road in Britain for this sort of thing.” He eyes the camera we’ve attached to the car and smiles again.” Don’t know why, but still….. have a good day.”
The reason why wiggles off into the distance. Above Crickhowell, where the industrial south becomes mountainous mid-Wales, is a set of roads laid in a pattern dictated by the lower reaches of the Black Mountains. Clean and silvery-grey from frequent washing-down with rain, they tumble and curl round the moor’s hills and dips, making for tight comers, short open straights and decidedly odd cambers. The very place, motoring hacks tend to conclude, to test the mettle of a car that claims to be a contender.
Honda’s NSX has every right to do this. Among those who want, or dream about, a machine offering supercar performance with the reliability, running costs and build-quality of a quality saloon, the NSX has become something of a legend. At the time of its launch, the press raved about its technological advantages, the all-aluminium construction was an audacious move back then. It also loved the almost limitless dynamic qualities these conferred upon the car. It was exceedingly rapid and handled like a thoroughbred.
The trouble is, it wasn’t. On the nose was no badge of European motoring aristocracy. It was neither Porsche, Maserati, Lamborghini nor Ferrari and, as such, it was never allowed into the place in the hearts of the press that such prestigious badges open up.
“It hasn’t the soul of an Italian supercar,” moaned journalists, “that certain cachet that makes motoring at this level an affair of the heart.” Okay, but the excuse was that the Japs had built the thing using their minds and their-sharp intake of breath-robots rather than their souls and the spare time between fag breaks, so it was somehow unworthy, a betrayal of all that sports car manufacture is really about. Which meant that the NSX remained a car for those who knew the flipside to this kind of guff. A machine constructed thus won’t leave you stranded on an Alpine pass, out of mobile phone range, having manifested a ‘mystery electrical fault’. It’ll actually get you to Nice to meet your mistress. And, soul deficiency or not, it will provide you with big thrills on the way.
The 2002 revisions, the first really significant changes during the model’s decade-long life, should by rights elevate it to cult status. Especially as the car remains a special order-only product. You can’t just swan into your local dealer, drive one, then sign on the dotted line. Quite why is a mystery because I’m convinced that, if it was more readily available, this car would tempt a significant number of people away from something made in Zuffenhausen.
The modernisation is obvious. Those pop-up headlamps of the original NSX were, in this new age of lighting innovation, decidedly passé. The wrap-across rear cluster, too, had developed a fussy, cluttered, old-fashioned feel. The answer is the cleaner rear treatment seen here, completed by a revised bumper and lower splitter, plus a raised, enlarged spoiler. Up front, lovely enclosed lamp units take advantage of today’s high-powered, mini-reflectors to get not only twin lights but an indicator unit into the space the old ones used to emerge from. Bringing the indicators on-board has also allowed for an all-new bumper, lending a fresh appearance to the nose broken only by a large air-intake flanked by nacelles for brake cooling.
Revised side skirts join the two ends visually, and the roof area, on both the coupe and the targa-top models, is now finished in body colour rather then black. Combined with new paint colours and tasty, seven-spoke 17-inch BBS alloys, these changes do a great job of stripping back the years.
Well, they do to a degree. Small details betray the car. The radio aerial, for instance, could easily have been bonded into one of the glass areas, as it is in most cars now. But, instead, it’s a nasty chrome affair that rises from the rear wing when the unit is switched on – very last decade – as is the glossy plastic of the door handles. And, for that matter, so is the interior.
It may boast excellent new sports seats, a revised steering wheel and freshened-up dash bezels, but the whole environment, bedecked as it is in rather plasticky leather and, er, plastic, just screams: “I’m a ten year-old Japanese design”. Next to the beautifully-constructed office of Honda’s latest sporting hero, the S2000, it looks as though you’re sitting in a minicab with comfy chairs. The switchgear brings to mind some of the horrible crimes committed by Citroen, and the gear knob is a leather affair of truly unparalleled nastiness. Furthermore, the centre console readouts are utterly invisible during the day, especially if you have removed the targa roof.
However, this is a good thing to do because, unlike many cars, you don’t simply lob the panel untidily in the boot. It has its own special place sandwiched between the engine cover and a secondary shelf-wonderfully cunning design. In fact, the NSX is gifted with implausible practicality for a car of its type. The nose may be full of steering pumps, air-con gear and an uninflated spacesaver spare that leaves you wondering where the hell the real wheel would go if you changed it, but the boot is an exceptionally generous and practically-shaped space. You can get enough baggage in there for a dirty weekend on the Continent, leaving enough room for a half case of Dom Perignon to be stowed on the journey home.
More importantly, the boot swallows the goods and chattels required by a writer and a photographer during a day’s work and play in Wales. The snapper works, that is, while the writer, er, evaluates the vehicle. Thanks in part to suspension changes, the terrain we find ourselves traversing becomes a driver’s paradise. Front spring rates have been increased, as has the rear anti-roll bar stiffness. The rear track is also 10mm wider than before. The result is unbelievable poise, both in a straight line and through bends.
In general, in fact, the NSX rides like the class act it is. Sure, it’s firm, but minor bumps are dismissed with disdain. In an urban setting there is no indication, other than the low seating position, that you’re doing anything other than popping out to the shops in your well-made European saloon. Above 50mph, the ride becomes fluid and feline as the chassis begins to do what it was designed for – to allow extremely rapid progress across the earth’s surface.
Comers are taken flat and direct. Turn-in is instant, body-roll is all but eliminated and the car’s attitude through the arc is dictated entirely by right-foot inputs. At least, it is if you turn off the traction control system. Leave it on and the NSX sweeps majestically round in a neutral stance, leaving you to marvel at the velocity indicated on the speedo. I tended to switch it off.
Traction control deleted, you begin to appreciate the breadth of ability of the superb engine. The 3.2-litre V6’s output, we’re told, is the same as before – 280bhp, developed at 7300rpm. Maximum torque, available at 5300rpm, is 298lb. ft. Quite how, if this is actually the case, Autocar recently managed to generate the following figures is anybody’s guess: ‘60mph was passed in 4.8seconds, more than a touch quicker than the old car’s 5.3 seconds; 100mph arrived at the 10.9 second mark, as opposed to the former 13.9 seconds. Oh, and top speed is no longer 158mph, but 172mph’.
It looks a bit like the claimed power output is one of those ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ numbers, doesn’t it? The Honda press office, meanwhile, is ‘saying nothing’. What I’m saying, however, is that there is way more than 280bhp available to the driver. Editor Vincent and I both conservatively estimate 320bhp, given that it’s a 1320kg car. Mind you, it is rather slippery. Maybe the new bodywork’s gift of a drag coefficient lowered from 0.32 to 0.30 has conferred miraculous benefits on the performance…
Anyway I think it’s a good article and worth the time,plus it's in two parts because it's too long for one post.
Suburban Warrior or Switchback Slingshot?
Both,actually. Honda’s revised NSX is everything to everyone,the ultimate pragmatic supercar.In it’s new revised form it has more grip,an even classier chassis and,whatever Honda say to the contrary,it has a lot more poke.
“I hear” say’s the policeman who stops to check we haven’t broken down on the bleak Mooreland tarmac,” this is the most popular road in Britain for this sort of thing.” He eyes the camera we’ve attached to the car and smiles again.” Don’t know why, but still….. have a good day.”
The reason why wiggles off into the distance. Above Crickhowell, where the industrial south becomes mountainous mid-Wales, is a set of roads laid in a pattern dictated by the lower reaches of the Black Mountains. Clean and silvery-grey from frequent washing-down with rain, they tumble and curl round the moor’s hills and dips, making for tight comers, short open straights and decidedly odd cambers. The very place, motoring hacks tend to conclude, to test the mettle of a car that claims to be a contender.
Honda’s NSX has every right to do this. Among those who want, or dream about, a machine offering supercar performance with the reliability, running costs and build-quality of a quality saloon, the NSX has become something of a legend. At the time of its launch, the press raved about its technological advantages, the all-aluminium construction was an audacious move back then. It also loved the almost limitless dynamic qualities these conferred upon the car. It was exceedingly rapid and handled like a thoroughbred.
The trouble is, it wasn’t. On the nose was no badge of European motoring aristocracy. It was neither Porsche, Maserati, Lamborghini nor Ferrari and, as such, it was never allowed into the place in the hearts of the press that such prestigious badges open up.
“It hasn’t the soul of an Italian supercar,” moaned journalists, “that certain cachet that makes motoring at this level an affair of the heart.” Okay, but the excuse was that the Japs had built the thing using their minds and their-sharp intake of breath-robots rather than their souls and the spare time between fag breaks, so it was somehow unworthy, a betrayal of all that sports car manufacture is really about. Which meant that the NSX remained a car for those who knew the flipside to this kind of guff. A machine constructed thus won’t leave you stranded on an Alpine pass, out of mobile phone range, having manifested a ‘mystery electrical fault’. It’ll actually get you to Nice to meet your mistress. And, soul deficiency or not, it will provide you with big thrills on the way.
The 2002 revisions, the first really significant changes during the model’s decade-long life, should by rights elevate it to cult status. Especially as the car remains a special order-only product. You can’t just swan into your local dealer, drive one, then sign on the dotted line. Quite why is a mystery because I’m convinced that, if it was more readily available, this car would tempt a significant number of people away from something made in Zuffenhausen.
The modernisation is obvious. Those pop-up headlamps of the original NSX were, in this new age of lighting innovation, decidedly passé. The wrap-across rear cluster, too, had developed a fussy, cluttered, old-fashioned feel. The answer is the cleaner rear treatment seen here, completed by a revised bumper and lower splitter, plus a raised, enlarged spoiler. Up front, lovely enclosed lamp units take advantage of today’s high-powered, mini-reflectors to get not only twin lights but an indicator unit into the space the old ones used to emerge from. Bringing the indicators on-board has also allowed for an all-new bumper, lending a fresh appearance to the nose broken only by a large air-intake flanked by nacelles for brake cooling.
Revised side skirts join the two ends visually, and the roof area, on both the coupe and the targa-top models, is now finished in body colour rather then black. Combined with new paint colours and tasty, seven-spoke 17-inch BBS alloys, these changes do a great job of stripping back the years.
Well, they do to a degree. Small details betray the car. The radio aerial, for instance, could easily have been bonded into one of the glass areas, as it is in most cars now. But, instead, it’s a nasty chrome affair that rises from the rear wing when the unit is switched on – very last decade – as is the glossy plastic of the door handles. And, for that matter, so is the interior.
It may boast excellent new sports seats, a revised steering wheel and freshened-up dash bezels, but the whole environment, bedecked as it is in rather plasticky leather and, er, plastic, just screams: “I’m a ten year-old Japanese design”. Next to the beautifully-constructed office of Honda’s latest sporting hero, the S2000, it looks as though you’re sitting in a minicab with comfy chairs. The switchgear brings to mind some of the horrible crimes committed by Citroen, and the gear knob is a leather affair of truly unparalleled nastiness. Furthermore, the centre console readouts are utterly invisible during the day, especially if you have removed the targa roof.
However, this is a good thing to do because, unlike many cars, you don’t simply lob the panel untidily in the boot. It has its own special place sandwiched between the engine cover and a secondary shelf-wonderfully cunning design. In fact, the NSX is gifted with implausible practicality for a car of its type. The nose may be full of steering pumps, air-con gear and an uninflated spacesaver spare that leaves you wondering where the hell the real wheel would go if you changed it, but the boot is an exceptionally generous and practically-shaped space. You can get enough baggage in there for a dirty weekend on the Continent, leaving enough room for a half case of Dom Perignon to be stowed on the journey home.
More importantly, the boot swallows the goods and chattels required by a writer and a photographer during a day’s work and play in Wales. The snapper works, that is, while the writer, er, evaluates the vehicle. Thanks in part to suspension changes, the terrain we find ourselves traversing becomes a driver’s paradise. Front spring rates have been increased, as has the rear anti-roll bar stiffness. The rear track is also 10mm wider than before. The result is unbelievable poise, both in a straight line and through bends.
In general, in fact, the NSX rides like the class act it is. Sure, it’s firm, but minor bumps are dismissed with disdain. In an urban setting there is no indication, other than the low seating position, that you’re doing anything other than popping out to the shops in your well-made European saloon. Above 50mph, the ride becomes fluid and feline as the chassis begins to do what it was designed for – to allow extremely rapid progress across the earth’s surface.
Comers are taken flat and direct. Turn-in is instant, body-roll is all but eliminated and the car’s attitude through the arc is dictated entirely by right-foot inputs. At least, it is if you turn off the traction control system. Leave it on and the NSX sweeps majestically round in a neutral stance, leaving you to marvel at the velocity indicated on the speedo. I tended to switch it off.
Traction control deleted, you begin to appreciate the breadth of ability of the superb engine. The 3.2-litre V6’s output, we’re told, is the same as before – 280bhp, developed at 7300rpm. Maximum torque, available at 5300rpm, is 298lb. ft. Quite how, if this is actually the case, Autocar recently managed to generate the following figures is anybody’s guess: ‘60mph was passed in 4.8seconds, more than a touch quicker than the old car’s 5.3 seconds; 100mph arrived at the 10.9 second mark, as opposed to the former 13.9 seconds. Oh, and top speed is no longer 158mph, but 172mph’.
It looks a bit like the claimed power output is one of those ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ numbers, doesn’t it? The Honda press office, meanwhile, is ‘saying nothing’. What I’m saying, however, is that there is way more than 280bhp available to the driver. Editor Vincent and I both conservatively estimate 320bhp, given that it’s a 1320kg car. Mind you, it is rather slippery. Maybe the new bodywork’s gift of a drag coefficient lowered from 0.32 to 0.30 has conferred miraculous benefits on the performance…