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ACURA NSX: 918 ON A BUDGET?

Honda is a manufacturer that likes to challenge other car manufacturers by making cars that cost a fraction of the segment-leading cars while still having the performance to beat them up. In 1990s Honda laid out the idea of making a car that would challenge the Italians, a “Ferrari Beater”, and they did it very successfully, with the Honda NSX, they marketed it in the American market under their sub-brand Acura as the Acura NSX, it was a rear-wheel-drive sports car that had a punchy 3.0 Litre V6 engine, and as for the performance, it was indeed a Ferrari Killer except for the top of the line Model like the Ferrari F50. After almost two decades later, Honda thought of reviving the NSX and thus they launched the Acura NSX yet again and in 2020 it’s available with All wheel drive, as for the powertrain it has a Twin-turbocharged V6 engine with electric motors coupled to it that in total generate a total of 573 Horsepower, the Acura NSX was intended to be a Supercar, but surprisingly it’s a supercar, and that’s even better.

You see, Honda likes to challenge everyone, they created the Civic type R to beat the Golf GTI by a huge margin, similarly for the NSX which costs around 160,000$ beats the Ferrari 488 Pista in acceleration, the company claimed figures are the same, but in the rear world, the electric batteries in the NSX provide it with a boost of power that helps it to launch like a rocket. In terms of the Design I have to say that Honda nailed it, it looks like a very expensive supercar, it’s sharp, it’s muscular, it’s angry and the perfectly smooth flowing lines from the front to the rear give it the ideal silhouette of a supercar. It has a quad exhaust layout that sounds good from the factory, unlike other supercars which are always in a dire need of exhaust upgrade. The Acura NSX even has a party trick, it called the pure EV mode, in which you can drive smoothly along the road without roaring that V6 down the streets, but it has a pathetic range of only 3kms, that’s nothing in today’s world, but ideal for getting silently into your colony if you don’t want to disturb your neighbors. The reason behind such a pathetic electric range is down to batteries, they are quite small and only function as to provide the acceleration boost while you are doing launch control. 476 Pound ft. is the total torque generated by the engine. It’s a healthy amount when you start considering that the engine is relatively small at 3.5 liters and is enough to get this car to a top speed of 191 mph, but I am pretty sure if Honda gave the NSX a power upgrade and made it lighter, the NSX might as well do more than 200Mph, it’s a capable car.

From the outside, no one will be able to tell if the NSX is a Honda Product but the moment you sit inside the car, you get the feeling of driving something which is from a lower price range, they have made their efforts, no doubt, but for example, the paddle shifters in the car feel like operating a cheap joystick. In achieving the affordability, Honda has for sure overlooked on some of the things, for example, the materials used in the car, literally feel very cheap, the side view mirrors feel like they might fall off if closed too hard, but even after taking all the good and bad things together, the good things outweigh the bad things by a large margin.

There is a reason why the Acura NSX is often called as the affordable 919, cause it is, it does all the things that the 918 does but at a fraction of the price. It doesn’t match up to the 918 in terms of quality or exclusivity, but that’s where the price difference comes in. At its price I seriously do think that the NSX is a strong proposal and for someone who wants to buy his/her first Supercar should drive and test the Acura NSX once, I am pretty sure they won’t be disappointed.

That’s it from my side guys

Thank you

Ciao

Photo by Tom Strecker on Unsplash

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