Honda NSX

By Accident Or design, the return of the most important name in Japanese sportscars has an immaculate sense of timing about it, and no little symmetry. The original NSX was an aluminium-intensive mid-engined flagship that allied searing performance and immersive driver involvement with exemplary ease of use. It also came dusted with a little Formula 1 magic. Honda-powered Grand Prix cars were midway through a six-year spell of dominance, and Ayrton Senna helped hone the NSX’s driving dynamics. Now, 25 years later, and on the eve of Honda’s return to the F1 grid as an engine supplier with a hybrid turbo V6 the NSX is back; an aluminium-intensive mid-engined flagship (with hybrid turbo V6 power) that claims to ally searing performance and immersive driver involvement with exemplary ease of use.

Will the new car have the impact of the original? The law of diminishing returns says not but is such a criteria for success fair, or even relevant? Acura (Honda’s luxury badge in the US) boss Mike Accavitti sees the new car’s remit thus: ‘The original NSX was successful because it brought new value to the market; it was a reliable, usable supercar. The new NSX offers technologies that are already available in the marketplace, but they’re available on the £650,000 918 Porsche and the £1.2 million LaFerrari. We’re offering similar technology at a much lower price point’ (around $150,000, or £100,000).

Being far cheaper, the NSX naturally makes far less power than the aforementioned Europeans ‘more than 550bhp’ but it makes more than it did just a couple of years ago. Developed by Honda R&D America under chief engineer Ted Klaus, the production-ready NSX is evolved from the 2012 concept car. That car had a transverse naturally-apsirated V6, which was quickly deemed not enough. Accavitti: ‘In the first third of the programme Ted’s team realised the powertrain was going to deliver good but not outstanding performance. They suggested a solution and they were given the go-ahead to change the con guration. Now the performance is astounding.’

The heart of the powertrain is a longitudinal all-aluminium 75 deg twin-turbo V6 of an all-aluminium, dry-sumped design. It drives the rear wheels via a nine-speed DCT transmission, its output augmented by three electric motors; one in the transmission housing and also driving the rear axle, and two up front, independently driving a wheel each. The powertrain’s battery sits low in the chassis, behind and between the seats, but while the NSX can be driven on electric power alone, it is not a plug-in and its silent range will be modest. As well as making the NSX four-wheel drive when required, the three-motor set-up also enables independent, brake-based torque vectoring or Agile Handling Assist, in Honda parlance.

Just as 2014’s hybrid F1 powertrains heralded months of sleepless nights for the world’s best packaging engineers, so the NSX team spent no small part of the last three years shoehorning the car’s hybrid powertrain and its ancillaries into a shape the world and Honda had already decided it liked and didn't want corrupted.

As well as the big stuff  (engine, gearbox, battery, motors) the NSX also  nds space for no less than ten individual coolers, through which air must be fed and exhausted without compromising the carefully managed airflow so important to stability, particularly at speed. Klaus: ‘It’s been a tremendous challenge, to change the powertrain and re-think the heat management while also maintaining the styling motifs of the 2012 car.’ The production car is three inches longer than the concept and an inch wider. NSX 2.0 is bigger in every dimension than the original.

The core of the new car is an aluminium-intensive spaceframe with strategic use of high-strength steel, notably in the slim A-pillar. ‘The result is expansive outward visibility with the necessary strength and rigidity,’ says Klaus. ‘The chassis is aluminium, as are the suspension components and some of the body panels. The rest of the body is in steel and composite SMC, with a carbon fibre floor panel for additional rigidity.’

If the new NSX steers like a pig it’ll be a shock, not least to Klaus the car’s foundations were laid down with idealised weight distribution and a sweet chassis balance as the de ning objectives. ‘One of the points we took away from the meeting we had with the team behind the original car was the idea of out-performing the car’s on-paper power-to-weight ratio. When you plot power-to-weight ratio and lap time, some vehicles out-perform that metric and some under-perform. With the NSX we intend to outperform it that’s our heritage. It starts with weight distribution NSX has the lowest centre of gravity in its class.’

‘It’s great just to be talking about Ferrari and Honda in the same sentence’

The suspension is aluminium double-wishbone all-round. The brakes are Brembo ceramics. The wheels are 19 x 8.5in at the front and 20 x 11in at the rear. So far, so textbook supercar it’s the detailing that Klaus and his team believe will set NSX apart. Take the front suspension geometry. ‘There were challenges with the double-wishbone suspension, to ensure that the forces from the front twin motor units didn’t corrupt the steering. We arranged the suspension links such that there’s no toe-change and no loading due to the drive force, which might otherwise have corrupted the steering feel.’  

As for the steering itself, Klaus promises confidence-boosting agility and stability rather than a 458-esque front end of fiendishly fast direction changes. ‘From our standpoint there are instances where the Ferrari’s steering characteristics give more sweat than smile. The Ferrari is wonderful and it makes me happy just to be talking about Honda and Ferrari in the same sentence but sometimes in the 458, for brief milliseconds, you’re left wondering if the car’s still attached to the road. That’s not what we’re going for. We want driver confidence. If that’s mundane, and if that goes against people’s expectations that smiles come from fear then the NSX will be sorely misunderstood.’

Helping achieve this will be the Agile Handling Assist ‘Independent, pro-active, brake-based torque vectoring,’ Klaus explains. ‘The software understands the driver’s demands and looks at how well the car’s performing against the ideal cornering attitude. If there’s some deviation from that ideal then the system can slow the rear wheels independently and, thanks to the independent electric motors at the front, increase or decrease the torque at each front wheel. The key thing is that it’s pro-active. It’s not the kind of system where you’re really aware of it, ever. There’s no vibration, no sensation of high levels of longitudinal deceleration. It’s just quietly trimming the forces at each wheel.’ 

Klaus refutes suggestions that such technology dumbs down the driving experience. ‘It works to flatter your skill level, but you’ll go quicker if you’re a better driver. If you’re steering skillfully the car will be able to use AHA to maintain or increase forward momentum. With a driver making less skilful inputs, AHA will work harder to stabilise the vehicle, so there’ll be less speed through the corner.’

The Suzuka circuit has helped both generations of the NSX. Klaus reckons the new car shines through the fast and tehnical esses that define the first third of the lap. ‘It gives you a lot of authority to adjust your line with the throttle and, more importantly, you’re able to build up forward momentum earlier than in a traditional vehicle, and really cut through the apex with more speed. And whether you’re on the throttle or off , the torque vectoring gives you the direct response you need while keeping in check any over-rotation.’ Peer inside and the NSX’s interior is snug, elegant and devoid of any extrovert design drama. ‘We wanted this wonderful interior we’ve worked so hard to make to disappear from your consciousness as you drive,’ says Klaus. ‘The instrument panel is very simple. All the controls are on the centre console, there’s a prominent gauge cluster, to give you all the feedback you might need, and then we really tried to get out of the way.’ A prominent central rotary control switches between drive modes: electric-centric Quiet, the default Sport, Sport Plus and Track. These modes will adjust the usual parameters; acoustics, suspension, powertrain, steering and, potentially, the response of the electro-servo brakes.

Just as the new NSX was developed in the US (Honda Japan was heavily involved, not least on the powertrain), so it will be built there, in a purpose-built Ohio facility. Customers will be able to order their cars this summer. Production will begin in the autumn, by which time we’ll also know how Honda’s other great 2015 comeback has panned out.

● TWEAKABLE TFT DISPLAY
Interior is sparse, for an uncluttered, distraction-free cockpit. As with the original NSX, the objective is that the car gets out of the way of the driving. TFT instrument screen is reconfigured as you switch between modes. Cabin quality feels worthy of the car’s price point. Options as yet unconfirmed but expect myriad niceties  inside and out with which to swell the basic price.   

● WHEEL OF COMFORT
Rim of the oddly-shaped wheel has, if you believe the hype, been painstakingly sculpted to lit the human hand more comfortably, naturally and unobtrusively than anything previously fashioned by mankind. The implication is that steering’s quick enough to leave your hands in place, though project leader Ted Klaus is adamant it’s fast rather than nervous.

● FUNCTIONAL NOT  FLASH
Prominent rotary mode selector scrolls between Quiet, Sport, Sport Plus and Track modes, recalibrating everything from cabin acoustics and damping rates to throttle response as it does so. The design of the dash and centre console was apparently inspired by the frames of Honda’s sports motorcycles, but the end result is on the safe side compared to wilder Italian rivals.