Why do car companies build the cars they do? Understanding a brand’s motivation helps to shed at least a small amount of light on its products. What is the philosophy behind a car? For mass-market, mass-produced A-to-B transportation devices, the rationale can be dismissed easily as being “for the money.” And sure, you can take the cynical view that all corporations only get out of bed in the morning for the money. But let’s reject that notion for the moment.
Certain cars are built for reasons other than fat and happy shareholders. Especially, perhaps, sports cars. The people who design and engineer a truly great driver’s car do so for reasons that are not necessarily so obvious. To get to the bottom of this—to figure out why a car company builds what it does—we pitted the super-limited NSX Type S against a perennial Goldilocks, the 911 GTS.
Features editor Scott Evans and I set out upon the magnificent canyon roads above Los Angeles not only to figure out why these cars exist but also to learn which is the best to drive. One more question before we get started: Is the NSX Type S a supercar? If it is,
