Is The Legendary Honda NSX Actually Overrated? (JDM Legends Tour Pt. 27)

[Music] hello everyone welcome to Santa thought the UK's most famous drag strip I'm here today for show yes yes I know this is a celebration of the Japanese motorcar and I've got my very own stand you see my friends Dan and Dan decided to talk me into having my own stand I was a little bit reluctant at first but I'm glad that they did because we've got an array of almost 20 fantastic Japanese cars here now I decided to be a little bit cheeky and cheat and actually just come across the camera now is one of my dream cars the Mitsubishi 3000gt I love these things however I have decided to pinch for the weekend something rather iconic this this is Honda UK's very own 2005 NSX one of the very last of line this is pretty much the crown jewel in their collection and I am extraordinarily lucky that they have chosen to lend it to me for the weekend now officially speaking they've given it to me to bring it down here and for the manufacturer to have represented the show which i think is very sporting of them because well you'd be a bit pressures of this if you owned it wouldn't do however I thought that it would be almost criminal to not do a little bit of filming with it so that's what we're about to do now I'm gonna do another video later on talking through the other cars that are on the stand but it's actually a pretty good selection here today and the show hasn't even really started proper and just behind the camera there's also a beautiful initial D spec true no GTA pics as well but that's not what we're talking about today we're talking about this now the NSX was introduced in the late 1980s so this really was a fairly old car by the time it came out at price were new about 60,000 pounds priced today well there's one of these up for sale with a few less miles on this but the same color same age for a hundred and five grand and that's got me begging the question with the fact that every time you mentioned the NSX people start frothing at the mouth about Senna and how wonderful it was and how it you know gave ferrari a-- a right bloody nose is it possible that these have actually become overrated i mean there is only so much that a car design in the 1980s can actually do how good could it possibly be well until now i've not been able to find out and i have driven this and you're gonna see that very shortly but first let me talk you through the car now it's a proper sports car design and it actually was very ahead of its time in fact even in 2005 this is still a reasonably advanced car it was all aluminium and it's got double wishbone suspension front and rear which in my mind is the correct kind of suspension for a car like this now this car has a mid-mounted transversely orientated 3.2 liter v6 the early cars had a three liter engine with a five-speed box or an optional automatic and a depressingly large number of these especially if you go on the input website are auto and i just cannot imagine this car with an auto box in it you can also have a target op version but the coupe a is pretty sexy now this engine bay is immaculate look at that that kind of went down I wish I could claim that this is all me and I've spent you know the whole weekend getting this thing looking pristine but actually the weather up until now has been utterly atrocious so I'm glad that it's sunny enough today for us to give you a proper walk-around now this color which is called MLR orange is actually yeah suits this very well the earlier car seemed to look a little bit better in red with the black roofs hmm the easiest way to tell them apart is the fact that this has lost the pop ups in 2002 the pop ups went and replaced by the fixed headlights but otherwise they kind of say nothing really that major change beyond the engine the thing about the NSX and I must confess and this is a bit controversial I know I'm not actually a huge fan of the car all the way it looks because it's got these odd proportions it's really narrow and really long and it looks kind of tall now if you take this cars probably most famous rival which would be the Ferrari 355 this is just a little bit narrower it's exactly the same height to about a mil but it's that much longer it's it's big at the back here you see and there is actually a useful storage space here which I shall show you because well it's bigger than you think I mean you'd hope it would be big but I've known forever but I do know a few cars where you open up and you go oh where has the space gone but look at this my bag in there I've got camera care I got a jacket got bottles of water you could easily go touring in this car there's actually very comfortable as well it's even pretty good on fuel I haven't done the maths but the other day I did about 211 miles - about 35 litres of fuel so I'm gonna put the actual economy on screen now the interior of this car is actually pretty trick as well but before we show you that I just want to show you this lovely rear end it's pretty spectacular with this whole full width rear light and that's possibly one of the most iconic views of the NSX twin exhausts and this car as you might imagine being a Honda heritage item is pretty much bone stock let's show you the inside this is if I'm being kind to it what I've called up market 1990's JDM you have this classic mixture of some pretty nice feeling leather along with some less nice feeling leather and classic black plastic it smells like a 1990s Japanese car in here and you've got toggle switches and buttons and things hidden everywhere a couple of things that I don't like are the weird-looking again up here I prefer the metal item that I think I've done on the tie bar or the NSX R and me talk about car prices NSX ours now I've seen something go for over 200,000 pounds there's also a couple of blank switches here and I really don't know why I mean what could possibly have gone in there the cubby holes down here are also completely useless they are so ridiculously small what it's gonna go in there nothing same thing at the glovebox you think it's gonna be these in size it's not the way they switch as well as over here it says main on the edges to work out what that means it's actually a safety lock for the passengers window I mean what's the point in there but the view out near is pretty good I can't work out maybe you guys can tell me what you think whether the back of these dials is just a different shade of black to the rest of the car or it's actually a very dark blue I think it might be dark blue but I'm not sure now what you might also want to see is what's up the front because you'd imagine that there might be a little bit of storage space up there as well because there would have been in the equivalent Ferrari not here you have a collapsible spare wheel which of course it's thoroughly useless so all Porsches did the same thing as well very clever way of getting a spare wheel in the car but if you have to use it where in the hell do you put the full-size one that you've just taken off and you've got all the ABS gubbins and whatnot in here but in reality there is basically nothing to see here now the truth of it is that I don't really need to like the way that this car looks at all and I can't really complain about the price too much either because the market sets that under haven't told people what one of these is worth for about 15 years but fast Honda's aren't made by there on paper specs or they're not 260 times or anything like that they are made purely and simply on the driving experience and that is where this legendary car really really has high expectations set for it is it that good let's find out so how does one go about judging one of the most legendary drivers cars of all time it's certainly not an easy task now for full disclosure my frame of reference for this kind of car would probably be something like a Lotus Esprit of which I've driven a couple are produced at the same time as the NSX I've driven a few 911s of the period as well and of course the Ferrari 355 and 360 and those are probably the main cars that people think about when they're considering the NSX with any vehicle this legendary you of course have preconceptions about what it's going to be like and mine were as follows I didn't think that the car ought to make very much noise knowing that this would be a bone stock example or as close to stock as it could possibly be I thought the steering and gearbox would be excellent and I didn't really think that it'd be that fast and I thought the engine would probably be somewhat gutless in the lower half of the rev range as it turns out this car well it was quite different to what I expected that engine although you do really need to rev it out to its 8,000 rpm redline to get the best from it actually has plenty ago from low down if you're not expecting sort of modern turbocharged talk from it it's actually a real delight maybe the biggest surprise is the amount of noise in the cabin now this car is not only one of the early applications of VTEC although by the time this particular example was produced it was a very common system it also had a form of variable length intake manifold now the second of those opens up at about 4800 rpm and you get the most wonderful induction raw in the cabin I'm gonna do my best to give you as much of that as I can but honestly from the outside this car doesn't all that at least I don't think so I've not actually heard it going past I've just driven it with the window down and that doesn't really do all that much what'd you do get though is just this real mechanical noise in here you can hear the engine whirring away and doing this thing and no it doesn't sing like a Ferrari v8 does but has a tune all of its own and the best part is that it is all real genuine sound and it is music to my ears the pedals are placed pretty close together as you would expect them to be and that makes heel and telling this thing an absolute delight now I'll confess I'm gonna be exercising a large degree of course while driving this car as you can probably see the roads in places are still somewhat damp from earlier rains and I have absolutely no intention of returning Honda's prized possession on the back of a recovery truck that would be bad form the electric steering in this car apparently disables itself over about 30 mile an hour but there are differences in the steering rack between this and a manual example unfortunately my research would indicate that no car produced after about 1995 with one or two very small exceptions had a manual rack and as I've got no other experience in the world of the NSX I couldn't tell you whether this is decidedly better or worse than those now at low speeds you can certainly feel that electric assistance because the steering becomes unnerving li-like when you're parking the car and I believe that is basically why Honda introduced the system people were complaining about how difficult the car was to maneuver when they're in town and you know putting it in car parks and one on now the only other example of an NSX that Honda UK have is actually a pre-production car and is the oldest surviving official UK NSX unfortunately it is saddled with an early auto gearbox and I just cannot see one of these being any fun whatsoever with that box I suppose the good news is that if for whatever reason you physically cannot drive a manual and this is your dream supercar you can have one without having to butcher it add a curiosity I looked at a couple of Japanese auction sites for NSX's and I was shocked at just how many war automatics now I couldn't say whether that tells me that many originally sold were automatics or the fact that the manuals have just all been snapped up and a mostly hidden away in collections now really couldn't say but I did find it quite surprising I really would have thought that for a car like this the author would have been a very unusual option box to tick how wrong I was other things I learned when I was doing a bit of research on this car include the fact that this car's body shell was actually 50% stiffer than the equivalent on 11 of the time now what they consider to be an equivalent 911 I don't know but that is still very impressive in fact even through the lens of my 2019 eyes and let's be fair to it in real terms this is pretty much a 30 odd year-old design he rides quite well it's actually a lot stiffer than I expected it to be I was thinking it was gonna be quite soft and quite compliant and although it is the latter it's certainly not the former and that does give you a little bit more confidence when pushing on unfortunately the steering isn't actually quite as pinpoint-accurate as I expected it to be and that really is a surprise now it's give you a little sample of that v6 noise I'm talking about [Music] the car is geared relatively long second is essentially good enough to reach the speed limit on this road so you do have to be a little bit careful it actually makes it a quicker car than you think you're working through the gears and you realize that you are carrying quite some speed now the steering does actually pick up some weight when you're in a car like that or when I can feel it dancing around a little bit I have been warned that these cars are not quite as friendly on the limit as you might think and I've got honestly no intention whatsoever of approaching it now at this kind of speed the steering does give you a little bit of texture through the wheel but it seems very mixed in its responses sometimes it talks to you and sometimes it just doesn't it is unfortunately a real weak point in this car I've no doubt there are plenty of people out there sharpening all sorts of garden tools ready to obscure me and tell me how wrong I am about the greatest drivers car that ever was and the fact that you know how could I know more about the karlon centre well Senna's involvement I think is often a little bit overplayed he certainly talked it in here's a little bit about the car but he certainly wasn't there from day one and I think really it's the engineers at Honda that should take a lot more credit for putting together such an astonishing and historically important car but also amazes when you get in this thing is just how it feels I as I'm sure you have have seen so many NSX's and you're aware that it has this big fighter jet inspired glass cockpit which is all wonderful but it's only when you actually drop down into one you move out onto the road do you realise quite how special this thing feels it's ridiculously Airy in here and I've got a carriage in front of me it's it's quite wonderful it does feel like the other side of the car is miles away although in truth this is actually a pretty narrow vehicle you look over here like actually I can touch the passenger side window without much effort at all your visibility for at least the the front half of the car is brilliant you can see over your shoulder quite easily cos the b-pillar is quite far back there is no C pillar in here and rear visibility is not too bad either your rear view is sort of bisected by this nice Imel or orange wing but this is actually a really easy car to drive you do have to remember the fact that it is actually quite long but it's also very easy to place another design feature that you only really appreciate when you're actually sat in the car on the move is the bonnet for whatever reason I always thought that the bonnet on an NSX was actually quite flat it's not in the least it's actually got some very well-defined haunches and it really does remind me of my old Lotus Evora [Music] I've seen quite a few people draw comparisons between the NSX and the Evora and I can kind of understand why they're both aluminium chassis de mid-mounted transverse v6 powered cars which are famed for their handling and reasonably light weight without you know two bigger power figures and they have manual gearboxes available to them and I can kind of see why people would sort of compare them in truth it's a very unfair thing to do because they are well worlds apart the Evora for my money is a better car it's more modern it handles much better the gearbox is better it's faster it makes it better noise and all that jazz but that's not what we're here to talk about but I knew people would want me to because the comparison seems to keep being drawn and now I'm glad to say that I can actually compare an NSX with an evolved 100-something i genuinely thought would probably never happen when I got in this car earlier today it was absolutely chucking it down and it was well not the conditions that I had in mind but I love there from a Civic type-r owner as I was saying when I picked the car up earlier today it was heaving it down and the the conditions were not what I'd really hopeful for my first drive of this wonderful legendary car it does get quite a few stairs but fortunately it's a very easy car to drive it's not at all intimidating and for doing the kind of boring slog that was required to get me from Honda UK to home it's actually been a very good companion one real similarity between this and the Evora is the trick that the car plays on you because of the way that it's been designed you do initially feel like you're sat actually a little bit high in this the truth is that you're not it's just the fact that that nose is so low to the ground but even though you're sat pretty low down you still feel high up now the 6-speed box in this is not quite as brilliant as some of Hondas modern boxes up as an example the one in the fk8 is better however when the age of the car is taken into consideration it's very good indeed and it certainly doesn't hinder your progress for that more boring motorway stuff it's actually quite well geared you're doing less than 3000 rpm at motorway speeds which means unlike a old-school Civic the car isn't buzzing its head off when you're trying to make just normal progress having sample those contemporary Ferraris I do now thoroughly understand the impact that this must have had on them when the NSX came out this does really feel like a car which has a bit of a mass-produced quality about it and I don't mean that in a derogatory way at all I mean that as in a everything's nice and it works and it feels solid in it it goes together and nothing in here is rattling or shaking it's amazing this is a Honda you kind of know that it will go pretty much forever if you look after it I'm sure these aren't perfect cars because in reality for you things are but it is an absolute joy to drive Yesi this is a real supercar my Evora simply here as a result of the time that he came out was sort of a almost super car this thing in the mid 90s I want to say was a full-on card-carrying supercar it at the same power as a Ferrari three four eight near enough I mean the three four I allegedly have a little bit more but they were Italian horses that we're talking about and I think Japanese horses tend to be a little bit bigger especially when we're looking at 90s car figures the NSX is greatest trait becomes clear after you spend just a little bit of time threading it down your favorite B Road and I know this might sound a little bit odd when I'm talking about one of the greatest supercars of all times one of the most important cars in the last three decades and arguably the most famous JDM car of all what happens is you just start to forget the car you see it does what any truly brilliant drivers car should it just does everything you tell it to and you don't think about what you're in you just think about you and the road and your destination if you even have one and this is exactly the kind of car in which I'm quite happy to go driving without any idea about where I'm going to end up its sized perfectly that I'm not really that worried about oncoming traffic down narrow roads and it's not got too much power that I'm gonna be worried about putting my foot down but it's good enough that I know I can have a bit of fun when I find a decent Road the view you have out the front is dominated by the road and not the car it's a wonderful place to do the business of driving from everything in here has been calibrated to just give me driving joy [Music] I'm never gonna home an NSX certainly not on old one the new ones greatly interest me but I still haven't driven one hopefully that will be able to happen soon but we shall see the looks of this older car although it's growing on me just don't sit quite right and they are at a price point that I just can't get on with however in a world where people will pay just as much for an old Ford as they will in new Aston Martin I certainly can't place blame at Honda's feet for the values of these cars going up after all they only do that because they're a car that people really really want and unlike some other iconic cars that I've driven in the past if you're in the position where you've spent your entire life lusting after having one of these and you've finally found yourself able to pull the trigger and buy this brilliant car you're not going to be disappointed it is what everybody's ever told you and I now I'm very happy to place the NSX in a list of cars that I don't necessarily love but I thoroughly and completely respect Honda engineers I tip my hat to you you pulled off something quite remarkable with this car thank you all for watching I would love this car to reappear on the channel at some point in the future hopefully with some better conditions and the best way to make that happen is for you to share this video with all your friends get plenty of views because you know the guys are Honda they're realistic if they can see that the effort that they've put in and I thanking them again for lending the car to me it's being rewarded then I'm sure we can make some magic things happen and they do also have some other very cool stuff hidden away in their toys yet so please do share the heck out of this and I will keep the content coming in the meantime thank you all so much for watching it's been a pleasure hit the like button comment below subscribe if you haven't already if the next one bye-bye [Applause] [Music]

Channel: JayEmm on Cars

Views: 101,231

Keywords: Diary, VLOG, Car, Sound, Test, video, Review, Comparison, JayEmm on Cars, Honda NSX, NA2 NSX, NA1 vs NA2, Acura NSX, Honda NSX Review, Old NSX, Original NSX, Acura NSX Review, NSX 3.2, Auto vs Manual NSX, MY05 NSX

Id: I7hMihFEi8w

Length: 26min 13sec (1573 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 18 2019