HONDA NSX

Model Honda NSX NA1

Engine 2977cc V6 (900), dohc, 24v

Max power 201kW @ 7100rpm

Max torque 285Nm @ 5300rpm

Transmission 5-speed manual

Weight 1365kg

0-100km/h 5.6sec (tested)

Economy 10.0L/100km (claimed)

Price $159,900 (1991)

WAS THE HONDA NSX a failure? Bit of a loaded question, but consider this. In 16 years on sale, it shifted 18,685 units worldwide. By contrast, between 1989 and 2004, Ferrari sold nearly 38,000 examples of the V8-powered 348, F355 and 360 models, the very cars that the NSX had been designed to shuffle off into obsolescence.

Of course the alternate view is that Honda came from nowhere to carve out a significant part of the junior supercar market, which would tend to ignore the fact that the Porsche 996 alone sold over 175,000 units between 1997 and 2005. It would also ignore the fact that the NSX was never a car defined by mere numbers. By today’s standards, its power and performance figures are those of a respectable hot