The Acura NSX: A Game-Changer in the World of Supercars

You guys have been begging for this one, so a billion of you better watch it (engine revving). The Acura NSX was Japan's first supercar, challenging the reign of Europeans and setting a new standard for automobilia exotica.

I just made that up, trademark. But in reality, the NSX was an innovative vehicle that pushed the boundaries of performance and design. Engines revving and tires skidding (sound effects) - this is what it's like to drive the NSX. Harsh rides, gone, poor visibility, no thanks, expensive maintenance, GTFO.

I'm not gonna put up with that crap just 'cause I wanna drive something shaped like a wedge with an engine behind my noggin. But the Acura NSX was designed with comfort and performance in mind, making it a desirable choice for drivers who want it all.

Oh, and did I mention that Senna helped make it dope? The legendary Formula One driver Ayrton Senna played a significant role in the development of the NSX, bringing his expertise to the table and helping to create a truly exceptional driving experience.

In the eighties, lots of sports cars weren't all that sporty. Ferrari was making some pretty hot V8s, but they were expensive. The founder and supreme advisor of Honda Motor Company, Soichiro Honda, knew his company had the chops to build something better than a Ferrari and for less money.

So, Honda called up Italian design house, Pininfarina, and was like, "You have a lot of work to do." And so, the Acura NSX was born - a car that would go on to revolutionize the world of supercars.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- You guys have been begging for this oneso a billion of you better watch it.(engine revving)It was Japan's first supercar.It challenged the reign of Europeansand set a new standardfor automobilia exotica.I just made that up, trademark.(engines revving and tires skidding)Harsh rides, gone, poorvisibility, no thanks,expensive maintenance, GTFO.I'm not gonna put up with that crapjust 'cause I wanna drivesomething shaped like wedgewith an engine behind my noggin.Oh, and did I mention thatSenna helped make it dope?This is everything you need to knowto get up to speed on the Acura NSX.What, you didn't know?(thunder clapping)You had (beep) better call somebody!(laughs)(eight bit music)In the eighties,lots of sports carsweren't all that sporty.I mean, Ferrari wasmaking some pretty hot V8sbut they were expensive.Founder and supreme advisorof Honda Motor Company,Soichiro Honda, very cool dude,knew his company had the chops to buildsomething better than aFerrari and for less money.So, Honda called up Italiandesign house, Pininfarina,and was like, "Hey, yeah,so we were thinking,"you know what we usually do."Yeah, front engine, frontwheel drive, yeah, yeah,"well we want to do the exact opposite."Yeah, uh-huh, midengine, rear wheel drive."I know, dude, sick, hold on, hello?"Actually I'm on thephone with Pininfarina,"can I give you a call backin like two seconds, alright."You still there, oh no, wait, hold on."Pininfarina, hello?"What they ended up with wasperhaps the most eighties carto come out of the eighties.A weird white door stop called the HP-Xwhich stood for HondaPininfarina experimental.It was aerodynamic AF andminimalist to the max,so much so that it didn't even have doors.You climbed in throughit the plexiglass rooflike Maverick and Goose.("Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins)And it wasn't just anotherboring display car, no way,'cause it had a motor in it, a cool one,a two liter V6 fromHonda's Formula Two team.While all this HP-X stuff was going on,Honda started racing in F1 againand their engineers weregetting more interestedin going fast, so they started playingwith mid-engine rear-wheeldrive test mulesmade from a first genHonda City and a CRX.They were also just about to launchthe luxury Acura brand in the USand decided that givingthe badge a halo carwould give it a leg up.The company was getting excitedabout building a sports carthat bridged the gap between F1 and Civicsbut it also needed to be comfortableso that you could drive it everyday.I mean, what good is an awesome carif you don't even drive it everyday.With the Ferrari 328 set as a benchmarkand using the HP-X as inspiration,Honda got to work on a newproject, code name NSX,which stood for newsports car, unknown world.Some people say the Xstands for experimentalbut Honda says it's unknown worldwhere X is the mathematicalsymbol for an unknown variable,and daddy knows a thing or twoabout being an unknown variable.Hiya!(Chinese kung fu music)Anyway, this ain't no algebraclass, put your books away.Driver's experience was amain focus of development.Honda wanted the NSX togreat 360 visibility.They kept the cab forwarddesign of the HP-Xand took additionalinspiration for the greenhousefrom F16 fighter jets, F1 carsand hydroplane racing boats,the coolest kind of boat there is.(water spurting)The new Japanese sports caralso needed a bigger engineto compete with the Europeans'cause that two liter V6just wasn't gonna cut it.The V6 from the Acura Legendwasn't quite there eitherso Honda took VTEC from the JDM Integraand combined it with theirFormula One race techto come up with (explosion roars)a glorious soundingall-aluminum three liter V6putting out 270 horsepowers.(engine revving)The pistons were forgedin the fires of Mount Doomand for the first timein a production car,the connecting rods were made of titanium.(laughs)Honda wanted the NSX to haveincredible, F1-like handling.(click)Oh (beep).And modern amenities like airconditioning, power windows,traction control and ABSbut having all that stuff in a steel bodywould make a pretty portlycar and they didn't want that.No judgment if you likefat cars, do your thing,Honda just wasn't into it.They were going to have to take the weightout of the chassis somehow.After experimenting withhigh strength steelsand carbon fiber, they decidedto do it using aluminum,a lot of aluminum.So Honda called up their metalsuppliers and they were like,"We want aluminum that wecan build a car out of.""Honda, there is no aluminum"you could build a whole car out of.""Huh, weird, what are wegoing to do about this,"oh, I have an idea, how 'boutyou frigging make me some?""What, uh--""If you don't make meenough strong aluminum"to build a car to beatFerrari, I will kill you.""Guys, we gotta makealuminum that can build a car"or Honda's gonna killme, he sounded serious."That's actually what happened.So five specific aluminumalloys were carefully chosen,special processingtechniques were developedand an entirely new plantwas built to produce the newlightweight monocoque chassis.In February of 1989,Honda had a few nearlyproduction ready cars in handand the Acura NSXprototype was set to debutat the Chicago International Motor Show.Honda was setting up for the big revealwhen the president of thecompany, Tadish, Tadashi,Tadashi Kume was like, "Ineed to inspect this car,"then he hopped in and firedit up and his team was like,"Stop, there's a Ford pressconference going on next door."and he was all, "What?"And they were like,"There's a Ford pressconference next door!""I'm revving the engine, Ican't hear you, it's too loud,"and his team was all, "Stop!"Meanwhile, in the Ford pressconference, Ford was like,"And I present to you...""Stop!""The world premiere of the new...""I can't hear a single word you're saying"'cause this engine is too loud."Word spread quickly that something specialwas gonna be at the Acura press conferenceand by the time thecar officially debuted,excitement was through the frigging roof.("Careless Whisper" by George Michael)At the same time over in Japan,a certain F1 driver you mayhave heard of named Senna,was testing another prototypeat the Suzuka race track.After claiming that hedidn't feel qualifiedto give advice on tuninga mass production car,he told the engineersthat it felt fragile.So Honda scrambled for eight monthsto give the aluminum chassis more rigidityand set up their first long-termoverseas testing facilityat the Nürburgring in the process.The end result was a chassis50% stiffer than the prototypeand 40% lighter than an equivalent chassismade out of steel.Further testing with Senna,F1 racer, Satoru Nakajima,and indie car champ, Bobby Rahal,turned the NSX into one of thebest handling cars ever made!(thunder clapping)Lightening, lightening,lightening, lightening.The suspension was a complexwork of forged aluminum art.Both the front and rearfeatured an intricate webof beautiful double wishbones.Mm, getting hungry.Up front Honda designeda unique compliance pivotthat maintained the same toesetting as the suspension movedto reduce bump steer.Wow.Even the tires got aridiculous amount of attention.Yokohama tried out 10 molds,100 different tire specsand 6000 different tiresbefore they thought they got it right.Honda was so exacting in it's fine tuningthat the front and rear compoundsended up being slightly different.(engine revving and tires skidding)The new Acura NSX was fittingly launchedto the automotive mediawith laps around LagunaSeca and the Nürburgring.The press raved aboutit's civilized demeanorand awesome performance ina reliable Honda package.Quotes, it is the bestsports car ever made.Quote, all of our current carsare now completely irrelevant.That's really impressivefor a manufacturerknown better for makingmotorcycles and Civics.Hiya!(Chinese kung fu music)In late 1990, the NSX finallywent on sale to high demand.American dealers werekeeping cars for themselvesinstead of selling 'em, and in Japan,people were put on a threeyear waiting list to buy one.Only a year into production,Honda invited owners to a track dayto give them driving lessonsand to pick their brainson how to make their groundbreakingsports car even better.The feedback they got went into creatingthe JDM only, trackoriented 1992 NSX Type-R.(engine revving)They stripped out the soundinsulation, the radio,the spare tire, the AC,the traction control.It got Enkei wheels and thecush leather seats were replacedwith Carbon Kevlar Recarosor as I like to call them,recarbon fiberos.The NSX-R dropped 265 pounds to becomea lightweight track day machine gun.After the first two years of production,US sales started to drop off pretty quick.In 1995, Honda replaced ourNSX Coupe with the NSX-Twhere the T stood fortarget top not turbo.(engine revving)Removing the roof reducedthe chassis rigiditythat the NSX was known forso they added some morebraces to stiffen things upwhich added more weight.I was fat and had braces too.(laughs)Sales spiked briefly butfell off again the next year.In 1997, engineers tossedin a bigger 3.2 liter V6making 290 horsepower.US sales coasted alongin cruise control sellingjust about 200 cars per year.For 1999, Acura brought back the Coupewith the super limitedAlex Zanardi Edition NSX.50 red cars based on theJapanese market Type-S were builtto commemorate Zanardi's back to backChamp Car championship wins.(engine revving)In 2002, Honda committedone of the greatest atrocities ever,they killed off the pop-upheadlights on the NSX.(It's So Hard To Say GoodbyeTo Yesterday by Boyz II Men)♪ And I'll take with me the memories ♪♪ To be my sunshine after the rain ♪At this point, even thoughpeople said they loved the NSX,not that many people wereactually buying the NSX.It stayed pretty muchthe same car for 15 yearsand only about 18,000 weresold in the entire world.2005 was the last year of productionfor the original Japanese supercar.You know the old saying,you don't know whatyou got till it's gone,well, as soon as the NSX was gone,people wanted another one.God, make up your minds!Do you want me, do you not want me,do you want me, do you not want me,do you want me, do you not want me, dad.Just two years later,Honda announced a future V10supercar was in the works.V10, dude.But by 2008, the economicdownturn had car manufacturerscowering in their khakisand the new supercarjust wasn't really on the agenda anymore.Luckily the car-pocalypse was shortand in 2010 there were already rumorsthat another NSX successor was coming.The V10 idea was dead just like my dadand now it would be a moreenvironmentally-friendly hybrid,say what?Hybrids were not cool cars in 2010.But after years and yearsand years of teasingin Marvel movies and Superbowl adsfeaturing my best friend, Jay Leno,(Jay laughs)an impressive new second generation NSXrolled out of an Ohio factory in 2016.The new NSX is all-wheel drivewith a mid-mounted twin-turbo 3.5 liter V6and three electric motorsputting out a supercarworthy 573 horsepower.(engine revving)Lead designer, MichelleChristensen, calls it,"An American muscle car in anItalian exotic car's body,"and it bares absolutely zero resemblanceto the original NSX.Like before it offersFerrari-level performanceat a lower priceand it won Road & Track's 2017Performance Car of the Year,but it'seh.Hiya!(Chinese kung fu music)Yo dudes, we make a newvideo every single day.To make sure you don't missanything, click on subby,he's my best friend,he's a subscribe button.You like Hondas, watch thisepisode of Up To Speed.You like other Japanesecars designed in America,check out this otherepisode of Up To Speed.You like this shirt?Go to shop.donut.mediaand get yourself one.Follow me on Instagram @jamespumphrey.Follow Donut @donutmedia.I love you.