The job ultimately fell to a small team in Honda's US division, backed by engineers from Japan who had been involved with the original NSX.
This combination, backed by luxury vehicle manufacturer Acura's heavy investment in the US market, has produced the same result: a contemporary supercar intended to compete on price, performance, and usability with anything built in the Old World.
To do that, it's a hybrid in the McLaren P1 sense (there are three electric motors sprinkled throughout) and uses a newly developed 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6 engine amid an alloy spaceframe.
The car is intended to perform as well on the roads of Palm Springs as it does on circuits in England – which are very short distances as you can imagine – and is equipped with all-wheel drive.
It also costs £143,950 on the road, meaning you can get a McLaren 570S for around £500 less. Honda's ambitions, at least, are undiminished.
RIDING & HANDLING
The original NSX set the bar incredibly high in this department, to this day being one of the most exciting and impeccably rated fast road cars you'll ever drive.
The new version is 400kg heavier. It needs a firmer suspension setup, wider tires, more power steering assist, and several other things to match its current rivals in terms of handling response, lateral grip, and body control.
The chances of achieving all that, and matching the car's legendary predecessor in terms of fluency and tactile sensation – even taking into account the low center of gravity afforded by the new NSX's low-set electric motor and engine dry sump – are always slimmer.
So, of course, the new NSX isn't as smooth to ride, soft to handle, or easy to place as the old one.
It's much more responsive to direction than its predecessor, with flatter handling, quicker steering, better balance, and better grip around corners – enough to make you feel as nimble, poised, and hunkered down as an Audi R8 or the Mercedes-AMG GT, even though it weighs almost 1.8 tonnes.
But the Honda is also more trustworthy and confidence-inspiring than its rivals, thanks to weighty, communicative steering and good throttle stability.
In Sport+ and Track modes, you'll feel the ride aggressively damped and suddenly encounter sharper intrusions. It's not enough to make it hit a B road traveling at a reasonable speed, but it will make you realize how hard the suspension has to work to keep the car's mass under control.
In SSports the dampers allow more vertical body movement, making the car quieter and more comfortable but a little too soft for our tastes. The result? That ideal highway driving compromise for a car like this isn't quite on offer here.
That's OK because what you get is very close to brilliant in any case: handling that's sharp but remains predictable and feels natural once you get used to it, a stance that's sometimes a bit rough but never tiring or disobedient, and plenty of relatability and award.
The wide front track and front electric motor with independent torque vectoring keep understeer in check, which only happens when the tires are asked to work their magic. The car's attitude can be adjusted well when cornering at the maximum limit and the steering remains undamaged, precise, and smoothly communicative.
Larger slip angles are not recommended; That rear axle is carrying more than a ton of weight, so it will wear out quickly when you take liberties.
The drive battery's condition is stronger than we've found in other performance hybrids. It charges very quickly and, after six rounds, it is still more than 50% charged.
ENGINE & PERFORMANCE
If you've ever directly compared the Honda Insight and Vauxhall Ampera from behind the wheel, you can probably estimate how different the new Honda NSX's powertrain feels and operates compared to, say, a BMW i8 or a Porsche 918 Spyder.
It may be a super hybrid sports car, but it's not a plug-in hybrid. It doesn't start from cold temperatures on pure electric power and rarely runs with the combustion engine off for more than a few hundred yards at a time. That is, it doesn't have the duality of character or futuristic appeal of a space capsule like a BMW or Porsche.
Typically, Honda aims to integrate the influence of the car's electric motor more carefully into its motif repertoire – to produce a more up-to-date junior supercar driving experience, albeit supported and augmented by electrification.
And it turns out that this approach has the same benefits as other approaches.
A super-sports car capable of 3.3 seconds from rest to 60mph and a standing time of 11.4 seconds may not seem extraordinary by today's class standards, but in the case of the NSX, that's just a hint of the whole story.
The NSX's combined system output of 476 lb-ft looks, on paper, like it could easily be produced by any performance car with a healthy turbocharged V8 engine.
But what Honda's raw performance stats and spec sheet don't reveal is that the torque figure isn't particularly high, but rather a near-permanent provision of pulling power.
Floor the accelerator pedal with the car locked in manual mode and you can watch the car's 'Assist' meter rise and fall as the three electric motors 'load torque' through the lower and upper rev ranges.
Beyond 5000rpm, where you'd expect a car like this to be very quick, it is. But below 3500rpm in low gear, where many modern rivals will go all out before charging off into the distance, the NSX's instant, big grunt never fails to hit you hard.
The powertrain's character also has real depth, although it doesn't have the most seductive soundtrack you'll ever hear from a mid-engined exotic.
The NSX's V6 comes across as more raw and raw than soulful or rich while layering many of its dramatic solos with turbo sound.
But the more you try to connect with it, the greater the benefits this combined propulsion system provides. Honda's nine-speed paddle-shift gearbox is good in automatic mode and quite effective in manual mode, shifting so quickly it's almost seamless.
The brake pedal feel is excellent, allowing you to dive into braking zones with confidence. Meanwhile, the wide range of car potential, and the many variations of ways to make a car feel energetic and exciting, continue to tempt.
The launch control isn't as snappy as it could be, so the NSX takes 3.3 seconds to reach 60mph from rest, but it feels like it should be quicker — but it also feels like it could be launched from the drive every morning without ever showing the service light.
Interiors
In a class where the McLaren 570S is our five-star car, experiencing conventional hinged doors like the NSX is almost a novelty.
The roofline is low, so you have to swing quite far, and once undercover, you realize that the cabin you're sitting in isn't from a European manufacturer.
It feels half American, half Japanese here, which isn't surprising but isn't necessarily the most reassuring feeling you'll have when approaching £150,000.
There's shiny black plastic and shiny silver plastic, both of which try to give the impression of higher quality and different materials than the original but never quite succeed.
However, most of our testers found the seats comfortable, and considering the main market is the US, this again isn't a big surprise. The BMW i8 seats are narrower and flatter, and the McLaren seats are sportier.
Therefore, the NSX's cabin is a pretty reasonable place to spend a lot of time. The seat adjustment is quite good and, although the steering wheel is rounder and can be pulled closer to the driver, it's easy enough to find a good driving position.
The instruments and main dials are clear. Swap between the various driving modes and the instrument cluster also reacts accordingly, but you'll always have the rev counter front and center, with a digital speedo alongside.
So as a place to do business, the essential things are right. These are just some of the neighborhoods that could be improved.
No Honda has a particularly good infotainment system, so we think it's a bit much to expect one of the manufacturer's lower-volume models to get a bespoke setup. As a result, the NSX struggles to impress. It has DAB but immerses you in the ensemble and takes a long time to update its station list so it might not be annoying.
Meanwhile, the navigation system appears to be from Garmin, only the interface is much easier to use than if you bought a stand-alone system for £70 and stuck it to a window. The big button at the bottom of the screen isn't the controller; rather it adjusts the driving mode. The infotainment is controlled by a touchscreen with annoying complexity.
DESIGN & STYLE
Honda states that the NSX is a globally developed car – using teams in Japan and America – but it's no secret that its main market will be North America, where it will be branded as an Acura and should act as a halo model. for that brand.
As a result, the look is intended for the US, so the NSX wears shiny black plastic and a bit of chrome without any apologies.
It's also low and wide, with a body width of 1940mm (wider than the 570S), and an overall width of 2217mm, which is wider than most things on the road.
Beneath its beautiful body, which is part aluminum and part plastic, is a mixed-material space frame. Design-wise, the spaceframe is similar to the aluminum spaceframe under the Audi R8, but there are a few different materials used here and there: steel for the A-pillars, for example, so they can be narrower, and carbon fiber. floor.
Suspended at either end are aluminum subframes that hold the suspension and powertrain, which is more complex than the first NSX of years ago.
There are magnetorheological dampers on the double wishbone suspension, while power is distributed to all four wheels.
Behind the cabin is a low-slung 3.5-liter V6 petrol engine, with the turbocharger positioned outside the vee to keep the center of gravity low. The engine revs to 7500rpm and produces a peak of 500bhp and 406 lb-ft. The V6 engine is paired with a 47bhp electric motor, and behind it is a nine-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox, all of which drive the rear wheels.
Meanwhile, upfront, there are two 36bhp electric motors, one driving each of the front wheels and giving the NSX a wide range of torque vectoring properties (and also meaning that, along with some of the NSX's 10 radiators, there's no luggage space underneath). hood).
The NSX is a hybrid, but you can't plug it in, and don't expect to get too far on electric power alone; The motor is there to improve performance and offer a slight increase in fuel economy. This is not an eco-friendly supercar.
MPG & ROAD COSTS
The NSX falls into a category where we consider 'buying' and 'owning' simply an addendum to 'owning' and 'driving', but it's worth reiterating here that sticker price has landed it.
As mentioned, the NSX competes closely with the McLaren 570S, meaning it's much cheaper than a Ferrari 488 in the mid-engined supercar category and much more expensive than a BMW i8 in the hybrid sports car equation.
Likewise, its CO2 emissions are far less than the Ferrari – around 32g/km – but almost five times more than Munich claims for the i8.
Falling somewhere in the middle of these two examples is probably where the NSX excels and how one should think about it in terms of efficiency.
For the record (sadly, not True MPG, but our tester's own experience), the Honda drains its super unleaded power at 7.2 mpg on the track – about the same as a Porsche 911 Turbo – and returns 31.7 mpg at constant speed, once again matching Porsche.
INDICTMENT
The last thing you'd expect from a cutting-edge hybrid super-sports car is a lasting sense of familiarity.
However, while a less cautious automaker might have used the NSX's pioneering powertrain to create tricks and gimmicks in the driving experience and force it to be the leader in its class, Honda has succeeded in implementing the world's first powertrain technology at an extremely lightweight. touch.
They have used unconventional means to improve, rather than reinvent, the conventional junior supercar.
As a result, he has produced a very rare kind of mid-engined exotic: one that doesn't overstate its potential or impose itself on your senses but is a very mature and complete driver's car that simply says: “I've covered the bases. Come on, enjoy yourself.”
Although it goes a different route, it does exactly what the last NSX did.
It could be better equipped, more comfortable to travel with, and a touch more engaging at times, but for its combination of blistering speed, innovative technology, dynamic sophistication, and natural, tactile driver appeal, the NSX gets the nod above all its competitors except one – and that's the powerful McLaren 570S.
