Honda NSX

Radical supercar is as easy to live with as a Civic

- Matt Robinson

SUPERCAR buyers have never had it as easy as they have these days. Modern entries in the genre tend to be reliable, easy to see out of, and in some cases they even ride eerily well.

It wasn’t always like this. Just take the Lamborghini Countach for example. It’s difficult to get in and out of, rear visibility is pretty much non-existent, and whether you’re pootling around or driving hard, it’s a bit of a handful. Entry-level supercars weren’t much better, but one manufacturer Honda, of all of them changed things with its very own mid-engined wonder.

The project can be traced back to the early eighties. From the outset, Honda’s creation was to be midengined, which back then was completely new territory for the firm. A test mule based on a hacked-up Honda City laid the groundwork, before the first proper prototypes were put together in the middle of the decade.

Using steel would have been the easy option, but that would have made for a heavier car, and thus one requiring a bigger engine than Honda wanted to fit, while making it hard to include creature comforts like air-conditioning and electric windows. Instead, Honda chose aluminium, a decision that meant the machine was around 200kg lighter than it would have been if made from steel. Each and every gram was hard fought, though, with Honda having to develop a whole new process to make panels big enough. An innovative car needed a name to match, with NSX New Sports car EXperimental) fitting the bill.

Hey presto, a light and compact 3.0-litre V6 was enough for this new machine to keep pace with Ferrari models at the less spicy end of the spectrum, while also giving the Porsche 911 something to worry about. And here, of course, we have to talk about Ayrton Senna.