Is the NSX really that good?
I guess it's a whole lot easier to talk about if you've driven one because everything makes far better sense as to how and why it feels the way it does inside and on the road because people automatically see the name Honda and have instant expectations as to how it must be, I thought the same but those thoughts were laid to rest quite quickly. I'll try my best!
In the flesh
I've only ever seen a gen 1 NSX once in my life and that was in an ASDA car park of all places and it was driven by a woman doing her shopping. I was driving looking for a parking space myself so didn't get the full view of exactly how small the car is in height so when I stood next to the red one above it was surreal. The roofline was up to my chest and I'm pretty sure if I gave it a chest bump that I'd be rubbing my nipples on it.
The doors are heavy and open and close with a similar feel you'd expect from something German from the late 90s to early 2000s.
The cabin is padded in leather and soft materials. the dash itself isn't leather but is stitched in faux leather that is still very convincing. There are no rattles when pressing things in and the buttons and switches are all angled in a way that when you reach over to touch them your fingers naturally fall into their place. I'm told the faux dash is because of the heat stresses it would otherwise have on normal leather.
This one was a pre-facelift and had the 3 litre engine and manual gearbox. The groomsman who owns it is a tall bloke but because of the way the seating is laid out he managed to sit in there with mere cm to spare and had the NSX-R steering wheel fitted which folded up to allow him to get his knees through. It had cruise control, climate control, a CD player, electric mirrors and windows. It looked really quite cool but sadly I have no interior pics as it was too dark and I had no tripod or lighting kit with me as I forgot them in the excitement.
Everything is nicely driver focused, the gearbox being on the right was no problem for me at all, previous nights I'd already driven the new Focus ST so quickly got used to changing gears with my right hand
When you sit inside you realise just how low to the ground you are and the first thing you notice is how much of the road you can see in front and around you. I read about this in magazines before where the designer wanted a panoramic style view and used an F16 fighter jet as inspiration, the A pillar is quite thin and there are no real blind spots to worry about either side.
On the road
You can't start the car up without holding in the clutch, bit weird for a manual of this age I thought but there you go. When the engine turns over it's got a nice rumble to it. The car had the stock exhaust but it all sounded meaty. Not the boomy rumble of an IL6 nor the quieter rumble of a Jap V6 either, it sounded more raw and sporty.
There is no power steering or driver aids here, you're on your own and I was a bit concerned at first because the roads were still cold, it was around -2 degrees out and snow had fallen and the salt spreaders in Ontario were out in full force multiple nights in a row.
Thankfully the road surface was fine that night if a bit heavy on the salt side but grip levels were great all round.
The steering had brilliant feel to it, at speed the lack of power assistance was a non issue, the feedback from the tyres and road was exactly what you would want to know what's happening. At lower speeds and when parking you do have to muscle around a bit which is expected, a good workout for those who have one as a daily driver I'm sure.
It's not a powerful car by any means producing 270 BHP (290 from 1997 models) and 200 something lb/ft but the way that power is delivered was a new experience. Because you're so low to the ground and because it's a mid engined car with classic 40/60 balance you get that speed feeling from all the senses very often and combined with the sharp handling and that engine noise from inches behind you, it's an event that sticks around.
I think to sum it up I'd say it's an experience of the mechanically analogue kind. The kind everyone should have at least once in their lives if they enjoy cars. I said before that I doubt I'll drive a car that has that same feeling again where almost everything just comes together nicely and just makes sense and nothing electronic gets in the way.
I'd love to own one, a generation 1 especially but I checked the other day and only 7 were on sale and the 2 I liked the look of were in the £30k region. A facelifted model is £60k and even though the facelift brings more modern touches and a revised body (and with that comes more weight), the gen 1 that Senna helped develop would still be the one I'd want.
