SUNSET SCENE

WITH DAYLIGHT FADING, ACURA MAKES ONE LAST ATTEMPT TO SHOW THE WORLD WHY THE NSX DESERVES LOVE.

- Mack Hogan

THE FINAL CHAPTER of the divisive second-gen Acura NSX was never going to be easy to write. The expectation to embody its name (a New Sports eXperimental) in the same way the original car did was impossible to meet. The first generation introduced to the world the concept of the daily-driver supercar, a midship master class that could pass 300,000 miles without incident. Lionized since its death as an analogicon, the original NSX demanded a sequel. But replication or revision wouldn't be enough. The initials required total reinvention.

What eventually arrived, after an excruciating series of teases and concepts, bore the hallmarks of clean-sheet thinking. The V-6 sported two turbochargers and three electric motors to ensure broad-spectrum thrust. Power went to all four wheels, with a trick torque-vectoring setup that would overdrive the outside front wheel to provide supernatural on-throttle cornering. The braking was entirely by wire, and the suspension was adjustable, a far cry from its ancestor. Everything was new, even the Ohio factory that built what was, in some respects, the most advanced supercar in its class.

The response to such ambition was radio silence.Those who were laser-focused on the NSX waited in vain for a continuation of the original formula; everyone else was distracted by the new Ford GT, announced with a deviously timed mic drop at the same auto show. Early NSX models offered to the media had unfinished software and unimpressive rubber that disguised the car's underlying goodness. Acura fixed the teething issues quickly enough that the final production car, on optional stickier tires, won our 2017 Performance Car of the Year, but not before public opinion hardened. The NSX, to many, was already a failure.