Two NSX generations shared a name but almost nothing underneath
Honda's NSX came in two very different forms. The first, made in Japan from 1990, was a light, rear-drive car with a high-revving V6 and no turbos. The second, built in Ohio from 2016, was a twin-turbo hybrid with electric motors and all-wheel drive. Even the letters changed meaning between them.
It began with a 1984 concept, the HP-X, styled with Pininfarina. Honda aimed to match the V8 Ferraris of the day while beating them on reliability and price. Renamed NS-X, for new sports car experimental, it went on sale in 1990 as the first mass-produced car with an all-aluminium semi-monocoque. Its three-litre V6 used Honda's variable valve timing, and styling drew on a fighter-jet cockpit. A targa roof followed in 1995, a 3.2-litre engine in 1997, and in 2002 fixed headlamps replaced the pop-ups.
Enthusiasts often label early cars NA1 and facelifted ones NA2, but the codes actually describe the engine. NA1 means the original 3.0-litre unit and NA2 the 3.2. Because automatic versions kept the smaller engine to the end, a late car with fixed lamps can still be an NA1. Fewer than 20,000 first-generation cars were built before it ended in December 2005, which keeps used prices high.
The gap before a successor was long and bumpy. A V10 replacement announced in 2007 was cancelled a year later amid the economic downturn, surviving only as a racing car. A hybrid concept appeared at Detroit in 2012, and the production car arrived in 2016, now expanded as new sports experience. Designed, engineered and assembled in Marysville under chief engineer Ted Klaus, it paired a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 with three electric motors for 573 horsepower, used a nine-speed dual-clutch gearbox, and, unlike its predecessor, had no variable valve timing.
Its body mixed aluminium with ultra-high-strength steel in a space frame. The final version, the Type S, revealed in August 2021, raised power to 602 horsepower. Most of that limited run went to the United States, and the NSX bowed out in November 2022.
Source: Honda NSX
