End of the road for Honda NSX

bazz26

Honda will stop building its NSX this autumn, the company announced today.

Only 12 examples of the ageing supercar remain unsold in the UK, 10 of them coupes and two of them Targa models with removable roof panels. The cars cost £60,300 each.

Each of the remaining models sports a unique paint colour never before used on UK models, and buyers will be invited to a handover at Honda's Formula 1 BAR factory in November, where F1 test driver Anthony Davidson will hand over the keys.

Since its launch 15 years ago, Honda has sold 18,000 NSX models but has now admitted it will struggle to meet increasingly tough safety and emissions regulations around the world - forcing the company to pull the plug.

The NSX was the first production car to be built entirely from lightweight aluminium and married Honda's typical ease-of-use and reliability with a fiery 276bhp 3.0-litre V6 engine and 170mph performance.

Plans are afoot to replace the NSX with another sports car, but it is unclear what type of vehicle this will be. In 2003 Honda showed the HSC, a similar supercar concept, but has since hinted that it will build a more obviously different sports car.

Source: Sky News/What Car?

Shame really, I thought this was a good effort by Honda, only let down was the interior, switch gear looked like it was straight from the Civic. Had the pleasure of seeing one of these up close and the sound from that sweet V6 was music to my ears anyway. There was a 1991 red one doing the rounds around my corner of the country recently. While 15 years on it is dynamically obsolete, it still managed to turn heads.

Hope this goes into the history books as a good effort at being another motoring classic in years to come.

stratos

Love the nsx, a possible super car i could own second hand before i die, or a Lotus Esprite. drools at english secondhand prices, recoils from vrt. oh well ya gotta dream they may let the vrt go in 10 years or so.

iregk

No concern here at all. The most hideous poorly designed and cheap looking super car ever! Come on, how many super cars would you see out hter with big black plastic moulding around a bloody ariel?

It was a cheap and tacky horror show so good riddance and now maybe honda can finally move on...

ciarsd

iregk wrote:

how many super cars would you see out hter with big black plastic moulding around a bloody ariel?

a car jointly developed by one of the worlds greatest drivers, Ayrton Senna, and here you are worried about an aerial?
ignorance!

iregk

Believe me the aerial is the least of my worries about that car. the driver who helps in the development does not a good car make!

Honda have kept that car going 10 years longer than they should have. They should have built it, realised what they did and moved on to something else instead of spending 10 years trying to fix it...

weemcd

It did get a bit long in the tooth tbh.

Would love to see honda produce the HSC or somthing similar:

ds20prefecture

iregk wrote:

It was a cheap and tacky horror show so good riddance and now maybe honda can finally move on...

It was far from cheap, and while the interior may not have been up to much - have you ever been in an early 90s 911? Or Esprit? Or Diablo? All were much worse than the NSX, with only the 911 getting close to the NSX's day-to-day usability.

The contemporary Ferrari was unquestionably prettier, with a better engine, cabin and looks. It was also very fragile, uncomfortable and difficult to drive fast. As a result, those that could drive it fast found it more rewarding. This and the badge doomed the NSX to relative obscurity. With typical Japansese efficiency, Honda made the perfect supercar only to discover that the last thing people want in a supercar is perfection.

This announcement will probably sound the death-knell for Honda's F1 participation too. Honda will move on - to building more MPVs, SUVs, blandsmobiles for the masses and hyper hatches for the chavs.

The NSX is already a classic.

ds20prefecture

iregk wrote:

They should have built it, realised what they did and moved on to something else instead of spending 10 years trying to fix it...

What exactly was wrong with it?

iregk

ds20prefecture wrote:

This announcement will probably sound the death-knell for Honda's F1 participation too. Honda will move on - to building more MPVs, SUVs, blandsmobiles for the masses and hyper hatches for the chavs.

Im not so sure. Rumour has it honday are replacing the NSX and coming back into the super car market. Hence the decision to cease production of the N. Acura have been busy penning a new style and is rumourd to be revealed at the 2006 tokyo motor show...

Jelvon

The nsx was a awesome car. Our neighbour was the main Honda dealer so he had one. Had it for a few spins up the road, serious speed and a beautiful noise from the engine right behind your head.