"The NSX has just become the standard for the world. It's the best sports car the world has ever produced. Any time. Any place. Any price...It's far better than any Ferrari or Lamborghini ever built; it makes the Corvette ZR-1 look like something contrived under a shade tree."
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We published those words in the September 1990 issue ofMotor Trend, and continued to gush: "There are at least a dozen items in the NSX such that, if even one of them were to appear in a domestic product, it would be a major news announcement."
What were we talking about? Revolutionary technology including all-aluminum construction, forged titanium connecting rods, four-channel ABS, and electronically controlled variable valve timing, not to mention chassis tuning input from the likes of Satoru Nakajima, Bobby Rahal, and Ayrton Senna. Of course, these technological breakthroughs have been subsumed by 22 years of automotive progress, but we still can credit the Acura NSX with the shocking comfort, reliability, and day-to-day driveability of the modern supercar.
While I hope the second coming of the NSX will change the sports car landscape as much as the first, it isn't the main reason I look forward to its imminent arrival. For that, we must go to Takonobu Ito, president and CEO of Honda Motor Co., Ltd., and the announcement he made at the NSX concept's debut at the 2012 North American International Auto Show:
"A vehicle that is closely based on this NSX Concept will come to market within three years on a global basis. I am excited to announce that this new Acura supercar will be developed by an R&D team in the United States, and we will build it in Ohio as well."
To reiterate, an all-new Acura NSX will be here by 2015. It will be designed by a team in Torrance, California, developed at Honda R&D (HRA), in Raymond, Ohio, and built somewhere nearby.
Think about that for a second. In the next three years, we shall see not a Honda NSX imported from Japan and rebadged as an Acura, but an Acura NSX designed and built in this country for home consumption and export abroad. Now think about all of the other "foreign" automakers that have production facilities in our country. Has any one of them ever put such faith and confidence in our brothers and sisters to deliver its flagship supercar?
The Acura NSX made its debut 22 years ago. When the 25th anniversary comes around, we will have more than one reason to celebrate.
I can't wait.
I used to go kick tires with my dad at local car dealerships. I was the kid quizzing the sales guys on horsepower and 0-60 times, while Dad wandered around undisturbed. When the salesmen finally cornered him, I'd grab as much of the glossy product literature as I could carry. One that still stands out to this day: the beautiful booklet on the Mitsubishi Eclipse GSX that favorably compared it to the Porsches of the era. I would pore over the prose, pictures, specs, trim levels, even the fine print, never once thinking that I might someday be responsible for the asterisked figures "*as tested by Motor Trend magazine." My parents, immigrants from Hong Kong, worked their way from St. Louis, Missouri (where I was born) to sunny Camarillo, California, in the early 1970s. Along the way, Dad managed to get us into some interesting, iconic family vehicles, including a 1973 Super Beetle (first year of the curved windshield!), 1976 Volvo 240, the 1977 Chevrolet Caprice Classic station wagon, and 1984 VW Vanagon. Dad imbued a love of sports cars and fast sedans as well. I remember sitting on the package shelf of his 1981 Mazda RX-7, listening to him explain to my Mom - for Nth time - what made the rotary engine so special. I remember bracing myself for the laggy whoosh of his turbo diesel Mercedes-Benz 300D, and later, his '87 Porsche Turbo. We were a Toyota family in my coming-of-age years. At 15 years and 6 months, I scored 100 percent on my driving license test, behind the wheel of Mom's 1991 Toyota Previa. As a reward, I was handed the keys to my brother's 1986 Celica GT-S. Six months and three speeding tickets later, I was booted off the family insurance policy and into a 1983 Toyota 4x4 (Hilux, baby). It took me through the rest of college and most of my time at USC, where I worked for the Daily Trojan newspaper and graduated with a biology degree and business minor. Cars took a back seat during my stint as a science teacher for Teach for America. I considered a third year of teaching high school science, coaching volleyball, and helping out with the newspaper and yearbook, but after two years of telling teenagers to follow their dreams, when I wasn't following mine, I decided to pursue a career in freelance photography. After starving for 6 months, I was picked up by a tiny tuning magazine in Orange County that was covering "The Fast and the Furious" subculture years before it went mainstream. I went from photographer-for-hire to editor-in-chief in three years, and rewarded myself with a clapped-out 1989 Nissan 240SX. I subsequently picked up a 1985 Toyota Land Cruiser (FJ60) to haul parts and camera gear. Both vehicles took me to a more mainstream car magazine, where I first sipped from the firehose of press cars. Soon after, the Land Cruiser was abandoned. After a short stint there, I became editor-in-chief of the now-defunct Sport Compact Car just after turning 30. My editorial director at the time was some long-haired dude with a funny accent named Angus MacKenzie. After 18 months learning from the best, Angus asked me to join Motor Trend as senior editor. That was in 2007, and I've loved every second ever since.
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