Top Car

January 2016 |TOPCAR.CO.ZA 71``````If the NSX sounds like a complicated car – and itsspec sheet, prolonged gestation and sh eer weight wouldsuggest it is – that feeling lasts only as long as openingthe door and sliding over the slim sill into the low-slungbut comfortable cockpit. Take a moment to appreciatethe panoramic forward visibility – low dashboard, slimA-pillars – start the engine (if it stays silent you’re inEV-biased Quiet mode), grasp the oddly sh aped wheel(pronounced bulges where you grasp it) and go.For a car weighing more than 1700kg (a gluttonous300kg more than a McLaren 570S), the NSX makes agood fist of feeling fast. ‘Zero delay’ might be a slightexaggeration but with the hybrid drivet rain deliveringadditi onal torqueand all-wheel-drive traction, theHonda launches with a refined violence that can makeyou feel mildlyunwell. There’s no need for any throttlemodulation – just put your footdown and the low-slungcoupe hooks up without aflicker of the traction controland gathers speed with a heavy insistence. It’s a job tokeep the thing in gears, so closely stacked are the ratios.After the initial getaway that ferocity does bleed awayas the car’s weight and the e-motors’ ab ility to helpdiminishes, butthis remains an effortlessly fast car.A shame then the gearbox itself isn’t nicer to use, andthat the cacophony of acceleration is both a little uglyin note and dislocated from what the engine’s actuallydoing. The cheap-feeling sh ift paddles pull home witha disappointing ‘clack’ and offer little of the McLarenunit’s feel-good tactility. And while the exhaust noteis nothing more than a muted if potent purr in normaldriving, twirl the drive mode selector around to Sport orSport+ and the racket from the artificial acoustics is lessthan spine tingling.Take a moment to get the measure of the steering. Thesystem is neither hefty and nuanced like a Porsche 911GT3’s, nor exhilarating in its speed and responsivenesslike a Ferrari 488 GTB. Deliberately so, argues projectleader Ted Klaus – ‘We wanted driver confidence anda sense of complete control.’ True enough as you buildspeed and slide into Sport+ (the third offour modes,which ramp up from Quiet to Track) you grow to admirethe accuracy and reassuring paucity of slack in the NSX’ssteering. Response to your demands is immediate andaccurate, and it’s during these tentative enquiries thatthe first flickers of chassis magic make themselvesknown. At speed the car changes direction with analmost surreal ease, as if the physics that normallyinterfere with doing so have beensubtly but tangiblyre-written in your favour.Soon you long to get stuc k into a meaty complex``````of corners, happy that you have the car beneath you tomonster them. Here the NSX’s mixed-media powertrainpromises unique advantages, beingable to trimthe forc eat each front wheel for an ideal cornering attitude withoutdrive-sapping applications of the brakes. At the wheelyou’re vaguely aware of the car’s intelligent powertrainat work butmainly there’s just a sense of neat, composedtogetherness, the Honda driving where you expect a slide.Ultimately the NSX is inseparable from its hybriddrivet rain. Without it the Honda would be a lighter,less powerful, less complex car, and one closer in spiritto its namesake. But Honda, perhaps more than anyother manufacturer, is a believerin progress throughtechnology. Do the advantages of the NSX’s hybridpowertrain negate the weight penalty? Given the car’sreal-world remit, Klaus is adamant that they do, and theway it powers out oftighter corners, shrugging off earlystabs of throttle and translating them into big corner-exi tspeeds, would certainly seem to back himup, as wouldthe car’s eerie sense of agility without the instability. Butstill the NSX can’t ou t-think 1 725kg.An extended road drive –as opposed to this all-too-brief first encounter – will answer a lot of questions,and perhaps banish the lingering fear that this car justdoesn’t feel as special as it should. Job done, Ho ndaargues, if ‘special’ means obtrusive NVH, tiresomesteering and a chassis prone to spats of oversteer. This isan everydaysupercar, remember, butsurely the game’smoved on – what’s not everydayaboutan R8, 570S (okay,the doors perhaps) and the 911 Turbo? Technicallyfascinating, impressively resolved and unfeasibly easy todrive fast, if the NSX has a failing it’s that its ro ad-biasedremit has left it feeling a little aloof. The original’s subtlebrilliance emerged with time and miles. Perhaps it’ll bethe same story with its complex, enigmatic and fiercelyambitious successor.tc``````There are threeelec tric motorsin here. Three!2016 ’s MOST WANTED