The NSX is making a return...

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More size comparisons:
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It looks like the new one is a bit larger all around, but will still be diminutive when compared to a normal sized vehicle.
 
It seems the the reason the NSX steering is being considered "numb" is because of the torque vectoring going on on the front wheels. The steering feedback can't be directly coupled to the wheels because to do so would be to feed back torque steer. That's a real challenge for engineers going forward. I seriously doubt the answer would be to eliminate torque vectoring on front wheels. Instead the shift will be to provide the driver with steering feedback not based on what's actually happening, but based on what's intuitive to the driver.

This is what I love about human interfaces. Purists like to distill it down to "I want to be as involved as possible in what's really going on", but that's an over-simplification. You don't actually want to be as involved as possible in reality, you want a false beautiful reality presented to you that you respond positively to. In the old days, "real" and "beautiful" were the same. But as we find crazy ways to improve track performance we more and more drift toward "real" being something counter-intuitive.

Fighter pilots have had to deal with this for a long time. For a fighter pilot to be really directly connected to the control surfaces of the aircraft means that they have to reverse all of the controls in their head once they go super-sonic. Not knowing this led to a few crashes in the early days. It turns out, fighter pilots prefer to be presented with an intuitive set of controls that doesn't necessarily connect them intimately with what's going on, but instead gives them a pleasant false reality which gels with their mental expectations.
 
That price tag slots the NSX in between the R8 V10 Plus (£134,520) and 570S (£143,250). On the bright side, the number of units allocated to the UK is smaller than either of those two which should help with resale values.
 
honda_nsx_large.jpg

AUSTRALIA has had its first taste of Honda’s reborn NSX supercar, with a pre-production version of the company’s hybrid hero rolling into a Melbourne dealer yesterday.

While it is technically a pre-production model, sources told GoAuto that the display model, bathed in a deep red (Honda calls it Curva red), is about 99 per cent close to the Australian-spec model.

The sole NSX in Australia rolled off a truck and into the showroom at Yarra Honda in Melbourne’s inner north where it will stay for a few weeks for customer events and general display before moving around to other parts of the country.

Yarra Honda is one of five dealerships in Australia that have been nominated by Honda to handle sales and service of the ultra-exclusive US-built supercar.

The other four include Scotts Honda in the Sydney suburb of Artarmon, Austral Honda in Newstead, Brisbane, Nordic Honda in Glen Osmond, Adelaide and Burswood Honda in Perth.

Honda Australia general manager dealer business Robert Thorp told GoAuto that the pre-launch interest in the NSX has been strong.

“We’ve got some dealers that are holding some pre interest,” he said. “That is all conditional on spec and pricing and further details to be confirmed. But there are a number of interested parties out there that dealers are keeping warm for us.”

While he would not detail the number of pre-orders, Mr Thorp added that “there has been a couple” of keen buyers that have already put down “small deposits” for the NSX.

The NSX will go on sale in Australia in the final quarter of the year, but pricing is expected to be released in the coming weeks.

It is understood it will sit somewhere between its UK pricing of £155,000 ($A267,000) and the US pricing of $US207,000 ($A276,000), pointing to a circa-$270,000 pricetag.

In 2004, its final year on sale in Australia, the priciest version of the NSX set buyers back $256,500 plus costs.

Mr Thorp said while many Honda fans and owners are unlikely to buy an NSX, it will act as a brand halo and draw people in to dealerships.

“It has got technology all the way through it. It’s a demonstration of what we can do. Directionally you will start seeing that filter through a lot of our products and while this is going to be aspirational and probably out of reach of some of our customers, we have got the new Civic, which is equally stylish and is certainly a vehicle that is going to appeal to our customers.

“To some degree this is going to drag interest to Honda that will hopefully benefit what is an exciting and developing product range.”

Mr Thorp added that he did not think traditionalists would be turned off the NSX’s hybrid powertrain, rather people will be drawn to the car because it offers the latest in hybrid technology.

“I think it actually will bring people to it because it is unique,” he said. “There is nothing else in the county, in fact the world that has this technology that can actually deliver this driving experience. As the technology progresses you are probably going to see more and more of it.

“And people want to catch up to it and probably emulate it and beat it, but the reality is, is that this is a unique driving experience that you can’t get anywhere else. I think that alone, as well as the fact that it has such a rich name, is probably going to drive people to have a look at it.”

While only five dealers have been chosen to sell and service the NSX, Mr Thorp admitted that it was a hotly contested opportunity among the Honda dealer network.

“There was probably no shortage of dealers that were keen to participate. But we were very selective in the way we went about that. We wanted to make sure we selected dealers that had a reasonable location and coverage and presented it well.”

He added that it was unlikely that the selected dealers would have to hire new specialist staff to manage the NSX sales and servicing, but said Honda Australia had committed to supporting the selected dealers.

“Whilst we will sell some cars (NSX), it is not the bread and butter of what they (dealers) are going to be selling so we are careful to make sure our dealers invest accordingly and clearly we are going to be supporting them centrally through our head office just to make sure we can deliver that unique customer experience that these customers are going to demand.”

The NSX is powered by a 3.5-litre mid-mounted turbo V6 engine with three electric motors for a combined total of 427kW/646Nm, and it also features all-wheel drive, a nine-speed dual-clutch transmission and carbon-fibre/aluminium construction
Click to expand...
 
If the Type R does without the costly hybrid tech, would it still be more expensive than the regular NSX?
 
FT-1
If the Type R does without the costly hybrid tech, would it still be more expensive than the regular NSX?
Click to expand...
Easily. Just look at how BMW, Porsche, Ferrari, etc. etc. do it. Remove parts to build track model, kick the price up a notch to pay for that & in this case, the Type R name.
 
I've seen the Honda/Acura NSX GT3 car on Facebook a few days ago. If you were to give me only its silhouette, I would be shocked to think it is an Audi R8 GT3. The two have nearly the same silhouette. The NSX is still a car I want to see in person. I've been around the 1990s NSX as well as the early 2000s NSX, but never around the new NSX.
 
Hopefully, this damn heat isn't too bad in October. One of the stops we usually make at the State is at the Auto Show So I hope to sit in that Acura NSX.
 
Without the hybrid gubbins, there's really no case for the Type R costing more. I know Porsche do it, but they don't remove whole motive systems from the Carrera to make the GT3 model.

The Type R would only justify a premium if it was built of lighter materials and even more powerful.
 
VXR
Without the hybrid gubbins, there's really no case for the Type R costing more. I know Porsche do it, but they don't remove whole motive systems from the Carrera to make the GT3 model.

The Type R would only justify a premium if it was built of lighter materials and even more powerful.
Click to expand...

The V6 without the e motors makes only 500hp, so Honda still got plenty of room to play with the twin turbo V6.
 
So I saw the new NSX on display at the Honda Indy Toronto. I actually quite like it after seeing it in real life.
Indy 2016 (1).JPG Indy 2016 (2).JPG Indy 2016 (3).JPG
 
I have actually seen 5 different NSXs in Toronto since 2012. 2 different concept cars, 2 preproduction prototypes and one I think was a production car during the yorkville exotic car show last month.
 
Drove behind the new NSX yesterday. The one I saw was red and man that paint looks cool. You don't get a good feel for the proportions ins a lot of these photos, but it's low and wide, supercar looking in person for sure.

But what are they doing with that paint? It has a strange sort of depth and intensity to it. You can kinda tell in this shot:

Tesla-Model-X-Acura-NSX.jpg


The one on the left is red. The one on the right is... different depths of red depending on sunlight and viewing angle.
 
It's Acura's premium paint system called Andaro which in their words:
is a nano-particle aerospace innovation applied to the NSX to create automotive art –the ultimate supercar finish. The premium, durable pigment is applied in a series of tinted clear coats for incomparable chromatic color and bottomless layered depths.
Click to expand...
Explains why it's also a $6,000 option for the two colors this is applied to, which in your picture, is Valencia Red Pearl.
 
McLaren
It's Acura's premium paint system called Andaro which in their words:

Explains why it's also a $6,000 option for the two colors this is applied to, which in your picture, is Valencia Red Pearl.
Click to expand...

Well I gotta say... it makes an impression. It was as though all of the cars around it were flat boring 2D cars and it was living in a 3D world. It caught my eye from a long ways off.
 
Danoff
Well I gotta say... it makes an impression. It was as though all of the cars around it were flat boring 2D cars and it was living in a 3D world. It caught my eye from a long ways off.
Click to expand...
We have a repeat client of ours that sold his A/C company and bought a blue example, and you're spot on describing it. For all the flack this car gets, it's still a really gorgeous car.
 
McLaren
It's Acura's premium paint system called Andaro which in their words:

Explains why it's also a $6,000 option for the two colors this is applied to, which in your picture, is Valencia Red Pearl.
Click to expand...
That kind of reads like an option on a menu at a fancy restaurant. :P
 
Last edited:
McLaren
It's Acura's premium paint system called Andaro which in their words:

Explains why it's also a $6,000 option for the two colors this is applied to, which in your picture, is Valencia Red Pearl.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing that's the colour of the one I drove in Japan? I thought it looked absolutely stunning frankly - I'd been guilty of being one of those people who got bored with the car after seeing it at so many auto shows, but in the metal and on the road it's a fantastic looking car and absolutely a proper supercar.

8s4a7838.jpg

Bonus pic for size comparison - I think I've posted this elsewhere on GTP but worth showing again. New is definitely larger than old (mainly in width), but new is still pretty compact. I've just double-checked, because I've been driving about in a BMW i8 over the last few days: the NSX is both shorter and lower than an i8, and about the same width - and the i8's proportions already look quite dramatic. I'd say the NSX has far better visibility though, a trait it shares with the original NSX.

8s4a7942.jpg

Incidentally, both new NSX and i8 share a trait not common to the old NSX, which is that from more or less directly behind (like the image below but not the one above) they look a bit too squared-off and bulky. The classic NSX is a lovely example of what designers call "tumblehome", which is when the sides and roof taper significantly the further up the car you go. It makes the old car look quite dainty (that, and the larger glass area).
​
One of my best-ever days at work, that...
 
@homeforsummer

Could have been curva red or valencia red? Valencia red is the high end stuff. I'm guessing?!? that's what I saw.

Check the vid at @1:29



Two reds here:

paint-intro-swatches-medium.png
 

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