How this cute little Honda NSX destroyed a Ferrari

Dreams! Dream of all automobile engineers is to create a sports car. But, Honda engineer’s dream? Made lazy engineers dream and awakened manufactures from sleep. Because Honda’s sports car offered practicality, reliability, drivability, perfect performance and safety at half price, which was not in a supercar at that time. At that time no one had thought and ever done a perfect car like this, so it beat supercars and changed the definition of a supercar. It created a new era and shocked the automobile industry. This is the story, how Honda’s sports car dream came true by beating supercars like Ferrari and Lamborghini.?

Ferrari and Lamborghiniin 1980

People say that a supercar means a powerful engine, fast, exotic looks, expensive, rear mid engine with rear wheel drive, and no practicality. But what defines a supercar? According to me there is no exact definition for a supercar. The definition differs over time and people’s understanding. But in the 1980s supercar had only two meanings, Ferrari and Lamborghini.

There cars like the 348, 328, Countach, Testtorossa had big powerful engines. These cars are hot, fast and expensive too. But, when it comes to practicality, they are zero. We can’t drive these cars daily. Because it had poor visibility, you can’t feel the AC when it’s ON, poor driver ergonomics, and needs a huge effort to change gears. So you need huge effort while driving these cars. In fact, we can’t fully open the window of a Countach. And they don’t know the meaning of reliability. Because components fail easily and frequently.

Honda in 1980

But Honda is completely the opposite of them. Honda made most practical and budget friendly cars. There cars like Prelude, CRX, City,Civic and Accord were front wheel drive cars. Front wheel cars are cheap and efficient, mainly we can drive them daily and are reliable as well. Not only this Honda supplied engines for F1 & F2 racing teams and won races. But this is not enough for Honda. Honda thought of proving their ability to the world by creating a new car. Because until then they have made only front engine FWD cars and had no experience in making a rear mid engine RWD car. In fact they hadn’t even made a proper sports car. So now they should start from scratch.

So Honda engineers started working on a new drive system. They took a 1st gen city, placed the engine at the rear and converted it as a rear wheel drive car. The team got a shocking result while testing it. The driving dynamics completely changed. It gave a unique handling while comparing it to the FWD city. So the excitement of the team hit the roof. But the problem is, Honda lacked the required technology to create a new drive system. So the project was put in hold. But, the excitement from the RWD City made the engineers make it anyway.

Now their competitor is not a BMW or a Mercedes, it is a Ferrari. Team lead of this project Shigeru Uehera told the team that he needs a car that beats a Ferrari 328. But not like a tough Ferrari, reliable, driver friendly and practical Honda like a supercar. So they named the project as NS-X. Honda says “N- New”, “S- Sports car” and ‘X’ stands for ” the unknown world” similar to the “X” that we use in Mathematics for an unknown variable.?

Design of NSX:

Its design is made by inspiring the “F16” fighter jet 360 degree visibility, aerodynamics, style and cockpit. While the Italian manufacturers were in sleep Honda is making History with the help of a graph paper. In the graph paper they started plotting the power to weight ratio data of its rivals.?After plotting the data there is no big difference between each rival and it looked like a Milky way. So Honda named it “Milky way diagram”. When they put the data of a F1 car there is a huge difference compared to the rivals.

Now Honda got a clear idea that they need a high performance midship car with the power and weight balance of an F1 car. So Honda thought of making the NSX with their front engine FWD cars ride quality, reliability, practicality and a F1 cars high dynamic performance and power to weight ratio. Also this should be Honda’s new face.?

If they have done this car, it will stand alone from all other sports and supercars of that time. Power and weight should be balanced to make a car that no one had ever done before.

Honda thought to give modern features like fully automatic AC, power windows, ABS, traction control. So using the traditional steel sheets will increase the weight of the car. So Honda should find a new material to reduce weight. But suddenly a train hit their brain while they were struggling to balance the power and weight. At that time engineers traveled between two Honda R&D centers in Japan in Bullet trains and got the solution. The fastest bullet train is made with aluminum. So Honda engineers understood that power and weight can be balanced well by making this car using aluminum.

Aluminum causes less pollution, easy to recycle, lightweight, corrosion resistant and absorbs shocks well during a collision compared to steel sheets. But there is a problem in using aluminum. High cost and steel processing techniques cannot be used for aluminum. Not only this, no car manufacturer had made a fully aluminum car at that time. So they had to make new processing techniques.?

Honda’s material suppliers took this as a challenge. They chose 5 specific aluminum alloys that are fit to make cars, and created new processing techniques and required technologies. And Honda made a separate factory to manufacture the NSX.

So NSX is the world’s first all aluminum monocoque mass production car. And today Honda is the reason why aluminum is largely used in automobile industries. Do you know the result of using aluminum? It weighed 200 kg less than its equivalent steel body. It’s really a big difference. Honda and their material suppliers were amazed by this huge difference.?

NSX Powerplant:

NSX’s body is ready, now it needs to be alive, so they gave a SOHC, V6 engine from the Acura Legend sedan. Toyota has Lexus, Nissan has Infinity likewise Acura is the performance and luxury division of Honda. Especially for the American market.?

In 1989, this Acura NS-X prototype was showcased at the Chicago auto show. But no one really cared about the NS-X. So Honda’s president Tadashi Kume cranked the engine and revved like hell. The people who were busy at other brands’ press meets, came towards the NS-X because of the engine sound. Everyone is amazed by the NS-X, meanwhile Kume is dissatisfied. Because he found the absence of Honda’s revolutionary VTEC in this engine while revving. The engineers told Kume that VTEC is only planned for 4 cylinder applications. But Kume couldn’t accept this so he told the team to make a VTEC V6 engine.?

So they made this C30A engine. It’s a 3L, DOHC, VTEC, V6 engine. In this engine aluminum block and variable volume induction system were used. This system increased the torque curve. Not only that, this is the first mass production car to come with titanium connecting rods. Because of its lightweight nature it redlines at 8,000 rpm. So the result is 270 hp and 285 Nm.

Suspension and Tyres of NSX:

Suspension of this car has aluminum parts which resulted in losing 20 kg. And it is designed similar to a F1 car’s suspension. F1 cars lack ride quality and generous wheel travel, but this suspension is designed to have it as well. The NSX has 15 inch tyres at front and 16 inch tyres at the rear. To offer a good ride quality, durability, less noise, high speed stability, handling stability, and accurate steering response, Yokohama tested over 600 different tires in 100 different specifications.?

Testing the NSX:

This is how Honda engineers sculptured the NSX and were confident about their work. But an incident broke their confidence. Ayrton Senna, Mclaren’s F1 driver and he is a legend. Honda was Mclaren team’s engine supplier. While Honda engineers were testing the NSX in the Suzuka circuit, Senna came to Japan to test Mclaren’s F1 machine. So they told Senna to test the NSX. After testing the NSX, engineers were stunned by his words. He said “I feel a little fragile”.?

The engineers decided and tested the car in the Nurburgring circuit to find all the problems. So Honda is the first Japanese automaker to test a vehicle overseas. Data from the test was sent to R&D centers. The chassis was stiffened by 50% and the suspension was perfected using supercomputers.?

Now this car is ready to launch and Honda thought of changing its name. But the NS-X name is familiar and changing the name doesn’t make any sense. So the team removed the hyphen symbol in the middle and named it NSX. And Honda’s American team changed the meaning of X as eXperimental.?

How the NSX made an Era

In 1990, this hand made car launched and had a huge hype. Production started with 400 more patents. Its F16 fighter jet inspired design gave excellent aerodynamics, visibility, driver ergonomics and comfort. Its F1 car inspired power to weight ratio and suspension offered an ultimate handling and performance. Clutch was lightweight and easy to use. Gearbox was slick and worked accurately. Engine was ready for anything, responsive and gave linear power delivery. Did 0-100 kmph in 5.7 second and the top speed was 270 kmph. More than these, this was the safest sports car with four channel ABS, traction control and airbags which was not seen before.?

The automobile journalist who drove this NSX said “It will increase the standard of modern cars” and “It’s a revolution”. Because it was not very easy to drive a car faster until then. Customers were amazed to see a fast, sleek and elegant car from a budget car manufacturer. Shigeru Ughera’s Ferrari beating car became true. It stood alone, above Lotus, Porsche and Lamborghini. Because it was fast and fun, hot looking, comfortable, reliable, futuristic and cheap. Daily, you can drive this car happily and on the weekend, you can take it to the track and win a Ferrari at half the price of a mid level Ferrari. This practical, drivable, reliable and safe sports car changed the automobile industry.

On paper, under 300 hp this V6 NA engine will be laughable compared to modern standards and the Lamborghini, Ferrari of that time. NSX is not about the numbers on papers. It’s about excellent balance, agility, accuracy, response and refinement. A well balanced sharp knife. It is about the person who has it. If it’s in the right hands, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche will be in the rear view mirror.?

In fact, Formula 1 car designer the legendary Gordon Murray said, NSX is his favorite and the best car he has ever experienced. So he made the Mclaren F1, fully inspired by the NSX. Gordon Murray’s F1 car became the first hypercar in the world. It’s a piece of art and automobile perfection.

Because of this NSX, Lamborghini felt low quality and unrefined. Ferrari had to be even faster, driver friendly and reliable as well. They have to do something because here is the car at half the price of their supercar that offers equal performance. So Ferrari, Lamborghini and many other cars in the world have changed. But for 15 years, NSX struggled to survive with no major changes. NSX needs no change, because it is perfect already.?

NSX, the best handling sports car in the world, destroyed supercars in seconds.