Honda NSX Type S

None of these tweaks has changed the NSX’s essential personality, especially in the default driving mode. The Type S looks the business when you’re walking up to it, especially from the rear, but the doors open conventionally and the cockpit is very much what you would expect from a Honda. The A-pillars are at least fairly narrow for a modern car, even if the forward visibility of the original NSX can’t be matched.

The small (bordering on cramped) cockpit is well finished, too, but lacks the drama expected at this price. As a counterpoint, it will probably be drama-free for the next decade, which you possibly can’t say about the NSX’s Italian rivals. It looks and feels like a very nicely appointed Honda Accord and has the touchscreen out of the Civic.

One doesn’t consider the NSX if badge appeal or a glitzy interior are requirements. This is just a seat in which to get some work done, and the Type S is absolutely up to the task of pinning your ears back from the first press of the throttle.

Normal driving mode is designed for puttering out of a gated community in southern California, but the sharpest Sport+ mode is really what opens up the car. This is simply a shocking amount of pace from a driveline built around a lowly 3.5-litre V6, and the three electric motors provide near-instant torque whenever called on. There is, effectively, no lag.

Meanwhile, magnetorheological dampers and torque-vectoring four-wheel drive do a remarkably effective job of turning scaly pavement into what feels like glass-smooth Tarmac. The realworld grip is immense, and with so much torque on offer, the NSX builds and carries speeds that are positively eye-widening.

Happily, the carbon-ceramic brakes are also easily up to the task of hauling down this car’s not inconsiderable kerb weight. Even with the optional light-weighting package (carbonfibre engine cover, interior trim and carbon-ceramic brakes), the Type S is more than 1700kg – some 400kg more than the 1990s original.

As is becoming common throughout the car industry, its technology easily outperforms its weight penalty here. Particularly impressive is how pointy the front end feels, thanks in part to the torque vectoring. The NSX dives into corners eagerly and that wave of torque is there to combine with four-wheel traction and grip for it to blast out. It’s not exactly a fully mechanical experience, but the speed is immense. The best analogy is perhaps a modern fighter aircraft, which would fall out of the sky if not for a million algorithms working furiously behind the scenes to make the pilot’s directives possible.

The NSX, Type S or regular strength, works seamlessly to flatter its driver and provide performance rivalling that provided by cars costing multiples more. However, it doesn’t do so in a way that’s measurably better than that of the perennial supercar ego-puncturer, the Porsche 911 Turbo.

The Type S with the full lightweight package leaves off where 911 Turbo prices begin, but any NSX owner will have had to make a decision to not buy something more obvious. Over the run of production, many enthusiasts didn’t. That rarity is perhaps an unexpected boon to the NSX’s legacy as it exits stage right.

The 911 Turbo is, after all, just a 911, although quite a lot of it. Buying an NSX means becoming part of a fairly exclusive club, the members of which are pretty vigorous about their enthusiasm. The NSX is at least as interesting to look at as the Lamborghini Huracán, but that’s for the attention seeker, while the Honda is for someone more interested in actually driving.