HONDA NSX

Honda's alloy missile - a friendly firecracker

- DAVID ROBERTSON

HONDA'S FIRST FORAY into the upper stratosphere of high performance cars - the Ferrari-like NSX - isn't a good car. This tour de force in aluminium is a great one.

My exposure to Honda's new, mid-engined, two-seat beauty consists, so far, of an all-too-brief day behind the wheel on smooth. German roads. But if my senses are as good as I reckon they are, that's enough to determine there is no place in this report for damning with faint praise.

I'll just tell it like I found it... though I reserve the right to backtrack early next year, should the exotic all-aluminium, allindependent suspensioned "Ninja Ferrari" find local road conditions rather less to its liking.

Somehow I doubt it. For only the foolhardy would venture off the bitumen in a car like this and our made-roads aren't THAT bad. Our speed limits are, though, and I can't see any of the Aussies who will fork out more than $170,000 (yes, Virginia, I said $170,000!) for this exciting new Honda ever exploring its potential top speed. We are talking, you see, about a ferociously quick 275km/h!

The few who do - and Honda Australia is super optimistic in thinking there will be 200 of them a year will enjoy arguably the most user-friendly and economical to run exotic sports car manufactured anywhere, by anyone, ever.

Honda's NSX delivers. It's got the looks, the style, to mix it with dearer or comparable rivals - like the Ferrari 348tb and Porsche 911 Carrera 2 - and the performance and handling to boot.

It is capable of a zero to 100km/h acceleration split of less than six seconds and a standing 400m dash in under 14 seconds.

Its "supercar" tag is justified - the NSX is as quick off the line as a Ferrari Testarossa and faster than a Mercedes-Benz 500SL.