Should You Meet Your Heroes? I Drive an Immaculate 1991 Honda NSX

CarVertical: The History Checking Service
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Today I get to drive a 1991 Honda NSX with just 18,000 miles on the clock. I've driven early NSX before, but they've always disappointed me in the most unusual ways - fast, but not feelsome or engaging. Will this museum quality example change my mind?

#Honda #Acura #NSX

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[JayEmmOnCars]

CarVertical: The History Checking Service
Use this link or code "JAYEMM" for a discount!

[Docinaplane]

That car changed the automobile direction of my life! I had the money down on a new Corvette in 1998. I was out on my bike and saw a 1991 NSX drive into a close neighborhood. I went to the house and talked to the owner. He said come back later and I'll take you for a drive. I'm pretty chatty, but he drove to a curvy rural road and the NSX's performance silenced me. I cancelled the Vet and found a 1996 NSX-T. Kept it 25 years before I replaced it with my Lotus Evora GT.

[denshidirect]

I very much disagree with the idea that the NSX's rear looks too long. It has an elegant flow that reminds me of group C race cars like the Porsche 962.

[PSIOnTheDaily]

True and interesting story about the NSX: Chief Engineer Shigeru Uehara was tasked with developing it, and Soichiro Honda held onto some strict guidelines regarding its development, as it was to be his own personal “pet project” and a highlight for the entire company.

For one, the car had to be under 1400KG wet. For two, it had to be a high-strung V6. Unfortunately for Uehara-San, when the car was completed in prototype form it weighed over 1500KG wet. Despite their best efforts to reduce weight here and there, including with aluminum suspension arms and aluminum doors and hood, the team still could not achieve a weight under 1450KG. It was at this time that Uehara approached Soichiro Honda himself and suggested that the feasibility of producing such a car under 1400KG was impossible. Honda-San recommended to Uehara that the entire car be made out of aluminum, and that surely that would bring the weight threshold under 1400KG. Uehara was handed a blank check book, and told to find a suitable aluminum press manufacturer in the world that could make it happen, as aluminum wasn’t well known to be pressed to that size in the period. Uehara went on a 3 month tour of the world, approaching multiple industrial press manufacturers - all of whom said it couldn’t be done, and that the aluminum would warp and that a completely aluminum monocoque couldn’t support the level of stress that hard driving required of it. At one point, in utter desperation, Uehara even approached Ferrari in Italy to see if they could do it, only to be told that it was never going to happen, as long as Mr. Enzo was alive (and he himself would die only a few months later).

Tail tucked between his legs, Uehara-San was faced with the unfortunate burden of having to return to Honda HQ in Japan to relay the bad news to Soichiro Honda himself.

Honda heard the news, and pondered on it for a short while. Seemingly unfazed by bad news, he said to Uehara “Okay. Fine. We’ll make our own manufacturing process.”

True to his word, that’s exactly what he did. He dumped millions upon millions of development money into the project, and the NSX was the first mass-produced all-aluminum car that utilized stampings and presses of that size and magnitude for Aluminum extrusions and panels anywhere in the world. In fact, they did such a good job refining the manufacturing process that other manufacturers later approached them to license the rights to utilize their equipment schematics. Unlike Ferrari, however, Mr. Honda didn’t turn his competitors away and saw the value in manufacturing equipment sharing. One of the buyers of said equipment and their licensing rights was VW/Audi group.

As if to put a cherry on top, after all was said and done, not only did the car weigh in at a scant 1370KG, but for the first time ever, data was revealed about weak points and chassis fatigue on an all-aluminum chassis during development. Satoru Nakajima and Ayrton Senna both pinpointed areas of great concern during final chassis calibration both on and off track, where it felt like the car was “soft” and there was inertial reverberation/weakness. Senna really played on this, and insisted that the chassis should be almost entirely reworked, with all necessary suspension pickup points and firewall-to-floor and pillar-to-roof junctions being quadralaterally braced for optimal stiffness. He also insisted that the rear suspension should be stiffened as the car had a tendency to oversteer quite dramatically with little torque available to save it on decel through sweeping cornering, due to its long rear end.

In a last moment hurrah, the decision was made to incorporate Honda’s newly released “VTEC” cam profile technology to ensure optimal torque throughout the revband, giving the car a feeling more akin to a turbo car without the lag, and providing that bit more low-end torque to save it should things start to get hairy, as despite the rear suspension being stiffened, there was still no way to fix the inherent issue of MR rear snap oversteer, but there was at least now, in turn, somewhat of a way to compensate for it.

[CarGuyDK_GT_NSX]

I own an NSX na1 ‘91. I first saw this car as a young teenager in my local Honda dealership. Only six cars was sold in Denmark due to our high taxes. It was around 160.000 gbp new in 1991. A few years later I was lucky to have a passenger ride around a track with the king of Le Mans Tom Kristensen. He was driving for Honda at the time and he brought his own NSX. I was in love with that car. It has always been my dream car. Now at the age of 45 I have finally acquired one. One of only two registered NSX in Denmark. This is an investment you can drive.

[FinalVibes]

The 3/4 view is ironically my favorite view of the car. It screams midship in a subtle and elegant way. The whole package is perfect.

[ArloVidts]

Mine has 237000km and counting. Still drives like a new car. Try that with a 348 or 355 😂

[scottcarter]

Gordan Murray owned two Honda NSXs. Initially his benchmark car for the F1 was the 911, but after driving the NSX he was so impressed by how 'together' the car was it became his new yardstick.

[extra-dry]

They are reliable at 30+ years old. Members of the NSX Club of America, started the 300, 000 mile club. If wasn't too long before they changed it to the 400, 000 mile club. Mine was a daily driver for the first 20 years I've owned it. I have replaced the air conditioning compressor, and the starter. I have changed the wheels and tires, and in 2000, added a supercharger. It brought the power to 465hp, 401 at the wheels. In 2017, I got the second generation car. Both look great sitting next to each other.

[robmowe]

I like the idea of Ayrton Senna hammering out the aluminium panels in Mt Doom!

[jovialgent]

Was so futuristic when I was a kid. So sleek looking!!! Great days!! 😍

[C.Fecteau-AU-MJ]

My uncle has a very early NSX, the second one delivered in Australia I believe and it's identical to that example.

He'd always had Jags, which were well suited to a high end men's fashion shop owner in Surfer's Paradise, but then he got into Japanese machines when he was convinced to buy a Lexus LS400 and an NSX, the NSX he's still got. It was actually Mick Doohan, yes that Mick Doohan, who's a family friend, that told him about the NSX and recommended he order one. Perhaps he was getting some sly commission from Honda, he hadn't taken a crown home yet 😂

I gotta call him come to think of it, he's not been well lately and I should remind him how much I always loved that car. Oh and him too... of course 😊

[Grayxyz]

The comment about an ill timed commercial being interrupted by a commercial was beautiful

[dirtygrill]

I'm that lovely American fella! Great meeting you and love the video, although I fear it's gonna cost me an absolute bomb. If anyone out there wants to do me a solid and trade their NA1 NSX for my gated R8 V10 Spyder give me a shout. 😂

[rareblendcars]

Without a doubt one of the all time automotive legends of our lifetime! This has and still is my dream car. I was very lucky to drive one of the first NSXs in Jacksonville Florida back in 1990.
By the way production of these cars didn’t start until August 1990, so I’m not sure how all these people are claiming to have or driven a 1987, 1988 or even a 1989: They didn’t exist.
For the time being I am greatly enjoying my Honda S2000 and Honda Beat on the beautiful B roads of the UK! Keep up the great work James! Cheers!

[pauldavidson]

Was fortunate enough to drive one around 1996 - one of the best driving cars I've experienced. From memory everything just felt so 'right' - a perfect drivers car!

[MichaelRoss-do]

My father bought a new (here in the US) Acura NSX in February of 1992. It was a a gorgeous color: “Captiva Pearl Blue”, and a 5-speed. My father had only ever owned Corvettes, and Italian and German cars. The fact that the Japanese cars my mother owned were mostly extremely reliable and required only the scheduled maintenance was a big selling point for him in choosing to buy the NSX. The NSX was an incredible car, it did everything well, and you could use it daily without any problems or inconveniences. My father was a stickler for following the maintenance schedule to the letter, and the car never once left him stranded. It was a very fast car (it was also completely stable at 140 mph) and the sounds of the engine and exhaust when you got cooking was incredible. The incredible amount of research and development Honda put into the NSX was obvious.
How great of a car was it? After my father died in 1998 I took over ownership of it, and I still own it. It has 123, 000 miles on it, it gets serviced properly, and it’s still just as solid and reliable as when it was new. It has never seen snow because it stays garaged all winter, so that has certainly helped its longevity. But for any car to run this well for this long (especially a highly tuned sports car) says a lot about how it was engineered and constructed. I was looking forward to buying a new NSX when the second generation came out in 2016, but you couldn’t get it with a manual transmission, and to me one of the thrills of driving a sports cars is shifting through the gears.

[Tamde]

I love that rear end. Love that the spoiler blends into the rear trunk - i think it's an NSX trademark, what made it unmistakable NSX.

[laurentivoli]

omg the joy. Had a 1991 Prelude...best car ever.

[ernirose]

I was working for Acura back in “89” when we got word of a new special sports car coming to America. I still have the vcr tape from headquarters that was sent out to us to show dealers, and it had some narration done by Senna. This one is not the white socks and loafers one, but one with more technical details. I actually had one for a few months, that I shared with our IMSA driver Parker Johnstone. I would drive it to dealers all over Florida to show what was coming, and build excitement for the car, especially a Japanese manufacturer wanting $60k plus. A lot of new ground was laid with this car and its technology was unmatched at the time. The all aluminum chassis combined with V-Tech and titanium conrods plus a 8k redline was unheard of at the time. Acura was very excited because at the North American launch it was announced that a factory backed car in the prototype lights class would have an NSX race car. In early “91” a ride and drive was setup at Daytona. It was an amazing time getting a flat out lap in the street car driven by Parker Johnstone, the main driver of the factory race car. It also served as a tire test because the street car was going through a set of rear Yokohamas every 4-5 thousand miles. The engineering team was working on different rear camber and shock and spring setups. A lot of dealerships would joke about how the first oil change was free, but the second one at 6k miles would cost $1200. Why….the rear tires would be to the cords showing, and back then the Yokohama tires were around $500 each back then. To make things difficult they were directional, so you would need a right and left ones. This made for quite a few nasty letters to Honda/Acura headquarters. I had many comanpy cars over the years, but the NSX was very special.