Tribute to the NSX - the most important modern supercar

As mentioned earlier, the NSX replacement, initially set for launch in 2010 has been cancelled by Honda. Motorheads around the world, including yours truly, didn't react very well to that news. But it is not difficult to understand Honda's justification. Japanese automakers are seeing worst plunge in auto sales since the post-war era while financial houses and even countries (Iceland, once a financial services powerhouse is now technically bankrupt) around the world are falling over like a deck of cards. For a mass-market manufacturer like Honda to continue pouring money on an ostentious V10 supercar project like this is just plain reckless.

The plain hard truth is that now is not the time to discuss about products with high emotional appeal for brand building but to shore up resources and brace for the worst decade in the car business.

With no replacement in sight for the NSX, this could play into the hands of existing NSX owners. We could be seeing the making of a modern classic, whose value may appreciate in the future. But this is difficult to predict as the classic car market have not been very warm towards Japanese classics - case in point are 1970 Nissan 240Z (the original Nissan "Z" car), 1967 Toyota 2000GT (Japan's translation for a Jaguar E-Type) which was even featured in James Bond's You Only Lived Twice. Great Japanese cars from the 60s, but not appreciated as much as European classics at the concours shows / auctions.

NSX - rumoured to be short for "New Sports-car eXperimental." I love it for its slightly maverick reputation because it thumbed its nose against the Italians and Germans who thought they knew everything about building a supercar. NSX came out at a time when the Americans were blaming higher quality Japanese imports for the slump in the American car industry. The Europeans, have difficulty accepting that the Japanese can build a car that starts up without fail on every cold morning, with doors that are aligned properly. The Italians and the Germans continue to believe in their superiority in the power and speed game.


NSX debut in USA as the Acura NSX in the 1989 Chicago Auto Show.

When the NSX was launched in 1989, overnight it made a Ferrari 348 looked like an exercise for the mascohistic male who relishes a torturing drive. It made the widow-maker Porsche 911 looked like a car for those who loved to play a suicidal game of "who gets wrapped round a tree next by an engine at the wrong place" game.

“I think the company wanted a car that could bridge its mass production FF models and F-1 cars. They needed a car that would become the new face of Honda. Plus, we’d been contacted several times by those who were planning the Acura Division at American Honda concerning similar requests.”- Shigeru Uehara, NSX LPL (Large Project Leader, Honda's lingo for chief engineer). Uehara-san is also the father of S2000 roadster.

The NSX is docile enough to be driven by a grandmother, yet have enough muscle in reserve to be called up for when needed. It makes you wonder why must all other supercars look nice but must be such a pain to drive? And best still, none of the other competing Italian and German rivals can boast of having their supercar developed by a F1 world champion; the late Aryton Senna honed the NSX to perfection. It would be almost 2 decades later before Michael Schumacher developed the F430 and Enzo for Ferrari.

Even Gordon Murray, creator of the McLaren F1 liked the NSX so much that he bought one for himself and even used it as a benchmark in designing the Mclaren F1. It is safe to assume that had it not for the NSX, supercars breed would not have improved to today's standards.

"...the moment I drove the “little” NSX, all the benchmark cars–Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini–I had been using as references in the development of my car vanished from my mind. Of course the car we would create, the McLaren F1, needed to be faster than the NSX, but the NSX’s ride quality and handling would become our new design target." Gordon Murray, creator of McLaren F1, "automotive rockstar."

More on Gordon Murray's thoughts on the NSX here, translated from here.

Personally I am very fond of the original 1989 NSX. Yes there is the faster NSX-R later into the model life, but for many, the original version will always have a certain mystique to it. And if you have lived through the 80s, how can you not love those pop-up headlamps? Later models have a more conventional fixed headlamps due to aerodynamic, crash regulation and safety concerns.

The NSX was created at a time when Japan was awashed with great optimism. Japan was quickly picking itself up after the war. It started with the building of Tokyo Tower, hosting of 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the Shinkansen bullet train. Japan exported its culture via Sony Walkman, Nintendo video games, kaizen philosophy, etc etc. The NSX was Japan's expression that it is capable of taking of the world's best supercars, and then do it one step better.

Today, Japan has to resigned to the fact that it is no longer the economic powerhouse it once was. Japanese economic growth have been largely flat since the Japanese property bubble burst of the 90s. The most significant area of technology growth - the Internet is largely driven by Google and the other Bay Area start-ups, many of them Indian too, with very little Japanese input. China is where all the capital are headed to and Chinese universities are fast racking up patent registration to match American universities, never mind about Japan. Sony no longer makes the coolest personal music player, that honour now goes to Apple. Taiwan now manufactures most of the world's microchips. Socially, effects of their workaholic work-culture is finally getting back on them as Japan's birth rate is now the lowest in the world, with a social security time-bomb ticking away as there won't be enough young workers to pay for social benefits of the large ageing population.

In case you wondering of the Nissan GT-R, well the last R34 GT-R was killed by the Japanese themselves, as Nissan's bottom line went from bad to worse. It took a French-Brazilian-Lebanese by the name of Carlos Ghosn with French capital from the Renault to revive the GT-R badge. Yes it was built and designed by Japanese craftsmen, even driven by a certain Tochio Suzuki to lap around the Nurburgring faster than a 911, on its home ground. But the Japanese initially gave up on the car and it took a foreigner to rescue it. Come to think about it, GT-R is the best example of automotive globalisation. How much more global can you get?

Even if Honda were to resurrect the NSX replacement sometime in the future, it will never quite capture the same spirit as the original. The world has changed a lot from the time when the original NSX was released. Market pressures would dictate that the car will now have to appeal to fat rich playboys, oil barons and investment bankers who will form the bulk of buyers - meaning it must be large, most probably front-engined, more GT-cruiser, loaded with lots of toys. Honda never really made much money out of the original mid-engined NSX, simply because it was never really meant to. Instead it was meant to wow the public, to make a statement of Honda's technological prowess and Japan's coming of age to take on the best of Italy and Germany, never mind USA. Today's highly competitive industry however will have no space for any of such nonsense marketing bullcrap. The current rule of thumb for the industry is that there is no sacred cows, if the car is not making money it will have no reason to justify its existance in a car company's product line-up.


All images from Honda Motor Co and Nihoncar.

As Autocar once said on the NSX, "...like James Dean, it’s legend will only truly come alive after its death. And then it will become known as the most influential and important supercar of the late 20th century, the one that helped make all the others better."

NSX and Aryton Senna, two automotive legends, now immortalised after their death. Watch the video below, an amazing car and an amazing man gifted with the god-like hands and feet control.