The Honda that thinks it’s a Ferrari

Much has been written about the first Honda NSX being so advanced that it prompted plenty of soul-searching in the supercar world.

The impact it made is best seen in two ways. Every Ferrari is now made of aluminium, after Honda proved in 1990 that the light, strong material could replace steel in cars. It also took the NSX to show that high performance and day-to-day practicality were not mutually exclusive. People who now drive their supercars to work every day can thank the user-friendliness of the NSX.

TURNING DRIVERS INTO DRIVING GODS

That same spirit of wanting to move things forward has helped define the new model, said Jason Bilotta, the engineer from Honda’s research centre in the United States who led the development of the new NSX.

“It’s very similar to what they were doing with the original NSX. They were experimenting with new technologies,” Bilotta told TODAY at the car’s press launch in Portugal.

But with 25 years of development to draw on, particularly with electric motors and torque vectoring systems, Honda has taken a new approach with the NSX.

It now aims to upstage existing supercars by flattering the skills of the person behind the wheel.

Other car makers harness electric motors to make cars either faster or more fuel efficient, or both, but the NSX uses them to make life easier on a hot lap.

“It truly makes the driver better,” said Bilotta. “You can really focus on the driving experience instead of battling the car.”

DEVIL’S IN THE DETAILS

Yet, driving the NSX goes beyond playing with assistance systems, he explained. Honda mapped the palm pressure of many hand sizes to make sure the steering wheel would feel just right, for example. Parts of the cabin have extra padding to cushion occupants’ legs during the high lateral forces of a fast lap on a racing circuit.

Honda even invented a new way to strengthen steel so that it could slim down the car’s A-pillars (the metal rails on either side of the windscreen) by 35mm. A car that you can see out of properly is one that you are more comfortable driving fast, goes the thinking.

The result of this is a car that feels completely different to drive from a contemporary supercar, so much so that Honda kept the car’s initials but subtly altered its name. “NSX stood for New Sports eXperimental, and as we were trying to bring this into the next generation we were building on the same concepts, but we found that we were generating a new experience,” said Bilotta. NSX now stands for New Sports eXperience.

Just as the first NSX targeted the V8-powered Ferrari model of its time, the new one has been benchmarked against Ferrari’s 458 Italia, a car no longer on sale. The Honda is ahead in areas like acceleration and lap times, according to charts Bilotta showed us. “NSX” may stand for something new, but it’s clear that Honda’s mission for the car is the same.