{"id":28664,"date":"2012-10-18T17:41:03","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T16:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.influx.co.uk\/wordpress\/?p=28664"},"modified":"2022-06-14T12:19:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T11:19:18","slug":"honda-nsx-the-tao-of-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adrianflux.co.uk\/influx\/features\/honda-nsx-the-tao-of-tech\/","title":{"rendered":"Honda NSX: The Tao of Tech"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a project as big and complex as the development of a new supercar it’s hard to isolate the influence of an individual. As time passes the Honda NSX seems to be seen more Ayrton Senna’s supercar<\/a> than Honda’s.<\/p>\n

In truth, the NSX didn’t occupy much of Ayrton’s time and it’s unlikely that its engineers made it fifty per cent stiffer purely on his say-so after his first drive in a prototype between F1 pre-season tests at Suzuka in February ’89.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

But he did drive it, and gave his opinion, and drove it again to assess the all-aluminium double-wishbone suspension settings once the design had been frozen.<\/p>\n

It was the only road car he had any input into, and he ‘owned’ at least two examples, of which one, with his personal plate, remains in family ownership in Brazil.<\/p>\n

And for Honda and Senna fans, that’s enough: the car is the embodiment of the relationship between the utterly un-Japanese Brazilian, and the essentially Japanese corporation with whose engines he won world championships, and which loved him for it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

And Honda\u2019s engineers didn\u2019t really need the help anyway.<\/p>\n

Their 3.0-litre, quad-cam transverse V6 with variable valve timing making 270bhp at 7100rpm was hailed, from launch, as \u2018one of the world\u2019s finest engines\u2019.<\/p>\n

The NSX benchmarked the Ferrari 348 – not a particularly tough target – and ended up the benchmark for the brilliant F355, so it plainly caused Maranello to raise its game.<\/p>\n

Younger readers might not remember the years when a Honda regularly, naturally featured in car magazine group-tests alongside Ferraris and Porsches, and beat them. But in its day, the NSX wasn’t just the competition; in many respects, it was the standard.<\/p>\n\n\t\t