History of Honda/Acura NSX

Honda/Acura NSX, the 1990's legend, one of the best cars ever produced, the car Ayrton Senna was working in collaboration with Honda/Acura, a car that gained huge fame among gearheads all over the world, a car that makes you drool all over it when you see it, even 28 years after production.

I don't have any other words to describe this car so lets get on this article and see the amazing history of this amazing car.

The NSX is two seaters sports car with a mid-engine produced by Honda. The Acura name comes from Honda's decision to sell Honda models in the United States under Acura name. So in the U.S. the NSX was sold as Acura NSX and on the other markets it was sold as Honda NSX.

The idea behing NSX was making a car that would be rival to Ferrari models. So Honda in 1984 created HP-X prototype with 2.0 l mid-engined V6 to rival the Ferrari's V8 engine models.

HP-X had the mission to offer customers cars that are significantly cheaper and much reliable that Ferrari models and that idea led to production of NSX in 1989. The project was pioneered by engineer Shigeru Uehara and chief designer Masahito Nakano and it used adopted technologies from other aerodynamic models including the F-16 cockpit.

PRODUCTION OF NSX

In 1989 Honda gave a clues how NSX should like, first in sketches and then in sheetmetal at the Chicago auto show in February. Spec are still unknown but it is familiar that Aryton Senna was called for final tuning.

Down below are pictures of sketches and the debut of the car in 1989 in Chicago.

When it rolled out from factory in 1991 it became the first mass-production car with all-aluminum body kit. It was powered with 3.0 l VTEC V6 engine that developed 270 HP and it was offered with 4-speed automatic or 5-speed manual transmission. 

In 1995 new edition of car arrived and it was called NSX-T. The letter "T" in its name meant that the car had removable targa-style roof panel and optional 4-speed automatic transimission.

In 2002 Honda prepared facelift of NSX. The new model came with refreshed fixed headlights and rear valances and suspension tweaks.

In 2002 Honda also introduced special edition of NSX called NSX-R- This car had updated, 3.2 l V6 engine with 276 HP and 304 Nm of torque. Suspension was tweaked for better handling and it had 6-speed manual transmission.

In 2005 another special edition was introduced, the NSX R-GT. This car was practically celebration of production of NSX and its huge glory and domination in car industry. It was based on NSX-R but it was dramatically changed. Multiple carbon fiber pieces, including dramatic front air dam and massive rear scoop that extends way beyond the roof. It used the same engine as NSX-R, the 3.2 l V6 engine. Only 5 examples were ever produced and when it was new it costed $500 000.

After this model the end of production of NSX ended. Honda announced that they won't produce NSX again and they kept their word until 2015 when they introduced newest generation of NSX.

The new NSX raised huge dust when introduced. It was in one hand revolution in car industry. It had new longitudinally mounted, dry-sump, twin-turbo, four cam. 75 degree 3.5 l V6 engine and two electric motors that powers rear and front wheels. The total power of car is 570 HP and over 500 Nm of torque. Real Ferrari hunter. It pulls from 0 to 100 km/h in only 2.6 seconds and the top speed is 305 km/h.