Honda NSX 2016 Review

Honda NSX
International Launch
Lisbon, Portugal

All-wheel drive, nine-speed twin-clutch auto, twin-turbo petrol-electric mid-engined, multi-material space-frame, hybrid driver-centric supercar… Honda’s NSX flagship sports car certainly ticks the buzzword boxes. Aggressive styling with stellar performance to match, this is more a calling card for the Japanese icon than a serious attempt to steal sales from the most exotic supercar brands. Although volume will not be artificially capped Down Under, worldwide demand will cap sales. The new NSX's pricetag will also guarantee exclusivity but perhaps not investment potential. But if ever there was a supercar to be driven not debentured, it’s this one.

Honda says its new NSX provides a paradigm-challenging definition of a supercar. After this long a wait, there’s much riding on the claim.

We’ve joked, more than a couple of times, that the car that sits at the very front of the Honda corporation’s brag-book would need a facelift before it was released. Given the first glimpses of this car were of it being driven (albeit in roadster form) by Ironman Tony Stark in 2011 the joke has probably worn a little thin.

It was the Detroit show in early 2013 that provided the first proper look at the new-generation NSX, which like its Lexus LF-A counterpart had by that stage been through major mechanical if not conceptual iterations. Front engine, front-mid, V10, alloy, composite – plenty of experimentation thanks to the GFC and other macro issues.

After Motor City there followed tease after tease. We even saw one on fire…

Now, finally, in the metal and composite, the finished product is here – and arrives every inch a success. Make no mistake, in creating the new NSX, Honda has changed the way supercars are built and go about their business.

The NSX is fast; very fast. And it handles track work with aplomb, flattering average drivers and delivering millimetre perfection for experts. And yet it’s seemingly just as comfortable on bumpy narrow roads as the above-average hot hatch.

Undeniably a supercar, equally it’s undeniably a Honda. There are subtle styling links to more mundane cars from the Japanese icon both inside and out.

In this respect, the new NSX parallels its namesake from the early 1990s. At that time, that original NSX broke new ground – the first aluminium monocoque in a production car for example. However, it was both criticised for its cabin’s lack of ‘occasion’, and lauded for its real-world usability. That said, anybody who drove one understood its absolute ‘Honda-ness’…

In the 26 years or so since, however, Honda is a company that has lost its way. What was once considered Japan’s BMW has been barely able to keep itself Japan’s Honda.

There’s light at the end of the tunnel, they’ve promised. As I buckled myself into the NSX for my very first drive, I was hoping it was not a Shinkansen coming the other way. After half a lap of the Estoril track near Lisbon (Portugal), those worries were blasted away…

Honda has not been frightened of layering technology into the new NSX. ‘All-wheel-drive nine-speed twin-clutch twin-turbocharged petrol-electric mid-engined multi-material space-frame hybrid driver-centric supercar’ certainly ticks most of the buzzword boxes. About the only ones missing circa-2016 are plug-in and autonomous…

The Australian price has been the subject of much speculation. At a just-announced $420,000 it’s high, but after driving the car, I can say hand on heart that if I had the dollars, I’d have no hesitation paying them.

Yes, it’s that good.

Shunning the likes of McLaren, BMW and, indeed, the abovementioned Lexus’ carbon structures, the NSX relies on a largely aluminium structure. Honda calls the concept a “multi-material space-frame” and thus the NSX’s core combines various cast and extruded aluminium sections, hot-formed ultra-high-strength steel and even some carbon-fibre cored material (for the floor). Exterior panels are a mix of alloy and SMC (sheet moulded composites)

The end result, the company claims, is a structure that is twice as strong in static torsional rigidity and three times stiffer in dynamic tests than the “next highest competing vehicle evaluated by Honda’s engineers”.

That angular, ever-so-slightly stealth fighter, look is defined as ‘Interwoven Dynamic’ by the US-based team which designed the new NSX. If the first generation NSX aped the F16, this one’s gone all F22 Raptor.

There are claims that “every element” of that exterior serves a “distinct purpose”. Hyperbole? Maybe, but it is clear, the company’s engineers have sought to maximise downforce, minimise drag, lower centre of gravity and reduced inertia (no mention of radar signature) – all classic supercar tenets.

And thus the new NSX is also a tour-de-force in mechanical and aero packaging. There’s a total of 15 radiators, heat exchangers and/or coolers of various functions and essentially two complete drivetrains shoehorned into this compact, strictly two-seater sports car that’s more than 150mm shorter than the new Civic but at around 1800kg weighs a not inconsiderable 400kg (approx) more.

The flow to and from those myriad coolers and around the car is dubbed Total Airflow Management.

The heart of any performance car is its engine and the bespoke dry-sumped 3.5-litre twin-turbo petrol unit that powers the NSX is no exception. Mounted longitudinally (at right angles to the original NSX), the almost square (91 x 89.5mm) 75-degree V6 has a usually high compression ratio (10:1) for a turbocharged engine and features a combination of port and direct fuel-injection as well as variable timing on both inlet and exhaust cams.

Plenty of exotic materials and modest boost levels of just over 1.0-bar suggest the engine’s current output of 373kW and 550Nm (just over 100kW/litre) leaves plenty of potential for upgrades -- be they in years to come or via different versions. Did someone mention Type-R?

Providing a way of side-stepping the issue of turbo lag, another 89kW and up to 193Nm is delivered instantly by the NSX’s three electric motors. The front pair of 27kW motors are mounted in a common casing and provide the NSX’s AWD and torque vectoring ability and charge the NSX’s lithium-ion battery stack via regenerative braking.

The rear 35kW Direct Drive Motor is incorporated inline with the engine, upstream of the NSX’s nine-speed dual-clutch gearbox. As well as providing motive power, it also serves as generator and starter motor.

Thanks to a function of how and where in the vehicle speed and engine rev range the electric motors do their thing, total maximum output is pegged at 427kW and 646Nm. In the real world this translates pure and simple to instant response and spectacular in-gear acceleration.

In its most economical mode (see below), Honda’s new hybrid supercar can (theoretically) be driven up to 3km at speeds up to 80kmh in pure EV mode. Auto idle-stop is standard and Honda claims an ECE Combined fuel economy figure of 10L/100km for the NSX.

The NSX’s Sports Hybrid Super Handling All-Wheel-Drive (Sports Hybrid SH-AWD) system is claimed to be unique also. It uses the NSX’s twin front and single rear electric motors in combination with the twin-turbo V6 and its mechanical limited-slip rear differential to enhance dynamic aspects of the NSX.

Torque vectoring is not uncommon on performance cars, but this system takes it to another level, says Honda: “using the dynamic, instantaneous and continuous distribution of electric motor torque to enhance the precision of handling and cornering performance in all driving situations”.

The highest praise I can deliver to the system is to say that on both the track and on the road, it’s seamless.

It’s hard to explain how intuitive the result is without resorting to waving arms and gripping imaginary steering wheels while making the point. Simply, the car responds purely, instantly and goes exactly where you point it even in extremis (ie: at very high levels of speed and commitment), yet there’s none of the ‘borrowed’ traction feel that some other so-called user-friendly supercars display. Steering remains precise and uncorrupted by the vectoring forces. It’s quite remarkable.

In addition to regenerative braking, there’s fly-by-wire (electric servo) four-wheel discs with Brembo six-piston callipers and 368mm semi-floating cast-iron front rotors and four-piston/361mm rears. Honda has developed a carbon ceramic rotor set (same size discs) which rips a substantial 23.5kg from the unsprung mass of the car. The ‘black’ brakes, a costly option on many of the NSX’s contemporaries, are standard on Australian delivered NSXs.

Again, the praise here goes not necessarily to the hardware, but how it has been integrated. The NSX’s brake pedal has an entirely conventional sports car feel at both road and track speeds yet at lower G-loadings much of the braking is via the ‘regen’ function. There’s none of the dreaded hybrid ‘dead’ or artificial pedal feel.

Like the first-generation NSX, the new car’s suspension is fashioned largely from lightweight forged alloy components. The front double-wishbone and rear multi-link set-ups feature ‘in-wheel’ designs which Honda’s boffins say all but eliminates any torque steer – another reason the front-end feels so pure despite the fact that the torque-vectoring systems is active every millimetre the NSX’s wheels turn.

Dampers are adaptive using a magnetorheological fluid-based valve-less system to constantly and almost instantly allow changes in damping force. Springs are conventional steel.

Portugal’s bumpy and at times poorly surfaced B and C-roads are a fair approximation of many of ours and the standout feature was the quality of the NSX’s ride. I kept bracing for jarring impacts but none came.

Even the car’s 12.1m turning circle is ‘friendly’.

As you’d expect there are multiple drive modes from which the NSX’s driver can select -- via a simple rotary dial in the middle of the remarkably restrained cockpit. Dubbed ‘Integrated Dynamics System’, the set-up offers a choice of four driving modes: Quiet (semi EV), Sport, Sport+ and Track modes.

The system not only changes the characteristics of the Sport Hybrid SH-AWD but in addition changes the characteristics of 11 component sets including steering, brakes (via regenerative characteristics), engine and electric drive, throttle, gearbox, suspension (via adaptive dampers) and, of course, stability and traction control.

In Quiet mode the NSX moves from standstill using electric power only and when the engine chimes in it’s limited to 4000rpm in any gear. Throttle response is toned right down and as the name suggests exhaust noise is reduced. At the other end of the spectrum Track offers, instant throttle response, launch mode, the full orchestral manoeuvres of the active exhaust system and all the fire and brimstone the NSX can muster.

Which are indeed orchestral when the revs rise, but less dramatic in a launch mode start. There’s very little of the WRC-style histrionics of some cars and the NSX actually launches in EV mode for the first fractions of a second. When the V6 does chime in it’s a little flat aurally in the lower revs but certainly sings as the revs rise towards the 7500rpm redline.

When your boot’s into it, the engine sounds like no V6 I’ve ever heard – the wail sounds like it’s from a thoroughbred with twice as many pistons.

Honda won’t specify the NSX’s 0-100kmh stats, citing “too many variables”, but does state that the real-world time is “sub-3.0 seconds”. It claims a top speed of 308kmh for the NSX.

On the acceleration time, I’m not entirely convinced but seat of the pants impressions are far from scientific – we’ll need to wait until we get a chance to instrument an Aussie NSX and run the numbers.

On the top speed? The way it stormed to mid-200s on Estoril’s short straights with absolute stability and poise suggests the number is real, if not slightly understated.

I could write more about the nuts and bolts of the NSX as well as standard equipment and the like but I’ve run out of time and characters. There’s most of the things you’ll want, short of (perhaps) adaptive cruise and low-speed auto braking, and in Aussie spec it ticks all the boxes on Honda’s pricelist – including some sweet carbon-fibre aero and dress-up parts. Check out our pricing and specification news via the link above if you must.

And at this juncture I’ll also state the car is not, despite much praise, perfect. For example, I’d like more adjustment options to the driver’s seat; there’s bad windscreen reflections (although this blight on visibility is offset by the thinnest A-pillars I’ve experienced in a car for years), bugger all luggage space (110 litres) and only a 59-litre fuel tank. Oh, and some of the materials aren’t appropriate for a $420,000 car -- plastic shift paddles (WTF?)…

But there are too many other aspects of greatness for me to grizzle. The NSX is Honda at its very, very best. Not only great hardware, but an overall execution that is exceptional.

And this is the clue to the NSX existence. Honda won’t sell many of these – indeed, it can’t build many, given they are hand-assembled at a rate of eight per day on a bespoke small-scale production line in the USA.

This is a four-wheeled gold leaf embossed business card delivered with two hands and a customary bow from a company that has taken the first step to re-discovering its mojo.

Perhaps the highest praise should be reserved for the NSX’s dual-clutch gearbox – Honda’s first on a four-wheeler and a nine-speeder no less. The absolute precision of operation of this box; it’s ability to change seamlessly, exactly when you want and expect it to; its integration in and out of EV drive and stop-start, even when parking; is just so Honda… The Honda of old.

In multiple laps of Estoril circuit and four hours of spirited road driving and even stop-start traffic, it was faultless. I didn’t even think of manually shifting once.

For that level of perfection and man-machine integration, I’ll forgive the plastic paddles… Until the Type-R comes along, that is…

2016 Honda NSX pricing and specifications:
Price: $420,000 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 3.5-litre twin-turbo petrol V6 with hybrid
Output: 427kW/646Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 10.0L/100km (ECE Combined)
CO2: 228g/km (ECE Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested

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