Why the NSX Is the Best Car Honda Ever Made

The Honda NSX is a car built on a simple but radical idea: a supercar that a human being could actually use. Not just on track days or dry Sunday mornings, but every day, in traffic, in the rain, without drama. That philosophy produced two generations of mid-engine machine, and the question worth asking is whether it makes the NSX the best thing Honda ever built, or just the most ambitious.

Because the competition inside Honda's own catalogue is real. The S2000 is a purer driver's car by some measures, lighter, simpler, analog to the bone. The DC2 Integra Type R remains one of the most focused front-wheel-drive cars ever put into production. The FK8 Civic Type R rewrote what a hot hatch could do at the Nürburgring. If 'best' means driver reward per dollar, or accessibility, or sheer breadth of talent, any of those three has a legitimate claim. The NSX has to earn this argument, not inherit it.

What tips it, if anything does, is engineering ambition applied at every level of the car simultaneously, not just the engine, not just the chassis, but the full stack, and the fact that it did this twice, in two completely different eras, without losing the thread of what the car was supposed to be.

The Engine That Started a Conversation

The original NSX launched in 1990 with a 3.0-litre V6 producing 270 horsepower. Those numbers look modest against today's benchmarks, but context matters. Ferrari's 348, its closest rival at the time, used a 3.4-litre V8 producing somewhere between 296 and 316 horsepower depending on variant, meaningfully more peak output, and from a larger displacement engine. Its kerb weight ranged across variants from roughly 1,360 to 1,500 kg, broadly comparable to the NSX's 1,370 kg. The 348 was also notoriously temperamental in daily use. The NSX was smoother, more reliable, and asked less of its driver on an ordinary Tuesday.

Power was only part of the story. Honda engineered the NSX with an all-aluminium monocoque chassis, a first for a production car at that price point. The complete aluminium structure, including doors, hood, and deck lids, came in at around 210 kg, and Honda's engineers noted at the time that the aluminium construction saved approximately 200 kg compared to an equivalent steel structure. Total kerb weight came in at around 1,370 kg. That figure, combined with a near-perfect 42/58 front-to-rear weight distribution, is what made the original NSX feel alive in a way that heavier, more powerful competitors simply couldn't match.

VTEC, Torque Vectoring, and the Technology Underneath

VTEC had actually debuted a year earlier, on the 1989 Integra XSi and its B16A engine, so the NSX was not its inaugural application. What the NSX did was put the system in a mid-engine sports car where its character at high rpm mattered most. By switching cam profiles under load, VTEC allowed the engine to behave like two different units: efficient and docile at low revs, aggressive and responsive when pushed. The technology improved both horsepower and fuel economy in the same package, which was genuinely unusual in 1990.

The second-generation NSX, which went on sale in 2017, pushed that engineering ambition considerably further. A 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V6 is paired with three electric motors, one on the rear axle and one on each front wheel, producing a combined 573 horsepower. That front-motor arrangement isn't just about adding output; it enables Honda's Sport Hybrid Super Handling All-Wheel Drive system to vector torque between the front wheels independently, sharpening turn-in and correcting understeer before the driver registers it. A nine-speed dual-clutch transmission handles gear changes and helps the car reach 60 mph from rest in 3.1 seconds.

The hydraulic suspension system on the second-generation car deserves mention too. Unlike electronically controlled setups that respond reactively, the NSX's hydraulic system uses interconnected front and rear circuits to resist body roll proactively, without sacrificing ride compliance.

Why the Mid-Engine Layout Changes Everything

Placing the engine behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle does something no amount of electronic intervention can fully replicate: it centres the car's mass between the wheels. Both NSX generations use this layout, and both benefit from the predictable, neutral handling it produces.

The second-generation car carries that balance forward in a heavier, more complex package. At 1,725 kg, it is nearly 355 kg heavier than its predecessor, and that weight is the honest counterargument to calling it the superior machine. The torque-vectoring hardware compensates with a precision that feels engineered rather than frantic, but compensation is still compensation. Drivers who have spent time with both generations often describe the newer car as more capable but the original as more communicative. Both are correct, and that gap matters if you weight driver feel above all else, which, for the enthusiast argument, you probably should.

It also matters to note that the second-generation NSX is no longer in production. Honda ended the run in 2022. So the question of which generation defines the car is also, now, a historical one.

A Supercar You Can Live With

What separates the NSX from the rest of Honda's lineup, and from many of its supercar rivals, is usability. The original could be serviced at any Honda dealership, started reliably in cold weather, and driven to work on a Tuesday. Its cabin, while not luxurious by European standards, was well-built and ergonomically sensible.

The second-generation car extended that practicality into a hybrid powertrain that, at low speeds, can run on electric power alone. It also brought modern infotainment, improved visibility, and air conditioning that actually works. A base price of around USD $157,500 when new placed it below the Ferrari 488 and Lamborghini Huracán while delivering comparable performance.

The S2000 is a better analog experience. The Integra Type R is purer front-drive than the NSX is at anything. The Civic Type R is more accessible to more people. Every one of those concessions is real. But none of those cars attempted what the NSX attempted, in either generation, to build a machine that competed with Europe's best on technical terms, that you could actually own and use, and that wore a Honda badge without apology. That is the argument. It is not that the NSX is perfect. It is that no other car Honda built asked as much of itself.

Key Takeaways

The original 1990 NSX used an all-aluminium monocoque structure, doors, hood, and deck lids included, weighing approximately 210 kg, saving around 200 kg over an equivalent steel structure, with a total kerb weight of approximately 1,370 kg.

Honda's VTEC variable valve timing first appeared on the 1989 Integra XSi; the NSX was an early but not inaugural application, deploying the system in a mid-engine context where its high-rpm character was most relevant.

The second-generation NSX produced 573 horsepower from a twin-turbocharged V6 and three electric motors, with a 0-60 mph time of 3.1 seconds. Honda ended second-generation production in 2022.

The Sport Hybrid SH-AWD torque-vectoring system on the 2017 NSX vectors drive independently to each front wheel, providing handling correction beyond what a conventional AWD system offers, though the added complexity brought a 355 kg weight penalty over the original.

The case for the NSX as Honda's best is not built on a single number. It is built on the ambition to do all of it at once, twice, across thirty years of the company's history.