NSX vs Cayman GT4 and F355 Autocar 21 October 2015 - Matt Saunders

[Shawnsx5]

This is the best tribute to the NSX I have ever read from a UK journalist - but I am happy to be proved wrong of course.

The article focusses on whether the GT4 has the hallmark of an all time great and uses the NSX (Honda UK's 2005 IOP car MY05 NSX) and a F355 as the benchmarks.

The author Matt Saunders rates the NSX number 1 - no surprise to most of us - but it probably will be to most of the Autocar readership. To be fair he rates the GT4 very highly in 2nd place but concludes it is the NSX not the GT4 that:

"....shone the brightest....made the greatest impression."

Some other quotes from the article about our NSX:

1. ...simply one of the best handling road cars you're ever likely to experience...

2. ... the gear change an utter joy.

3. I'll be amazed if there has ever been a more stable, secure, accurate handling and communicative mid engined sports cars than this.

4. Visibility simply phenomenal.

5. A car of such singular vision and execution it's place in our folklore can never have been in doubt.

6. It's how preposterously easy the car makes the business of driving at high speed, on the road, it's gift to us.

7. ..steering becomes ideally geared to work fast at cross country pace, and its perfect weight and wonderfully detailed feedback

8. It's configured to be fast, to inspire the utmost confidence....

9 ....awe-inspiringly capable and forgiving.

10. ...you can understand why we raved about it - especially if the next thing you drive is a car....like the F355.

11. Of the GT4.... it's gear change and accelerator aren't as tactile as the Honda....Rare quality indeed.

12. ...a car I could own and drive forever...

13. The stuff of landmarks? Of Legend? I'd Say so.

The one thing he gets wrong is suggesting you would pay £60k for a similar 2005 NA2 25,000 mile NSX. Anyone with a 2005 car willing to part with it for £60k should contact me please.

Three cheers for Matt Saunders and Autocar.

[marknsx]

Had my 1991 NSX 3 weeks and done 700 miles in clear dry conditions until today, drove in the wet and have loved each and every mile.
All those highlighted quotes of yours sum up my emotions.( except the GT4 - never driven one)

[marknsx]

had a look at the article on M3 Forum.net. I find that the Americans prefer a bigger BHP. I like the subtlety of the NSX performance. I want sure handling against raw power.

[AR]

I find that a few writers have the Honda fanboy disease that precludes them from an objective point of view.

[AR]

IMHO here is where the ( stock ) NSX is nowadays, love it as the "best" cars of the day but don,t sell nostalgia as performance!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IrJH6gz0ug

[Nick Graves]

For convenience:

http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=536213

I've long maintained the Coxster is a poor man's NSX!

Interesting read. I wonder how the Evora 400 would fare?

[goldtop]

IMHO here is where the ( stock ) NSX is nowadays, love it as the "best" cars of the day but don,t sell nostalgia as performance!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IrJH6gz0ug

What's that got to do with anything? First, that's an older, less powerful Ferrari, one that will have lost a lot of its horses (cf Honda's C30/C32). Next, that's a simple 1/4mile boot-it test, which has got the square-root of FA to do with the way the Ferrari (or the Camry, or the NSX, or the GT4) goes round corners.

Why would you discount the NSX chassis? Gordon Murray (among many who know their stuff) know that the NSX chassis is sublime. The NSX in that 3-way test was the least powerful, least torquey, slowest, heaviest and yet ... somehow ... the most exploitable car. Something else (other than the stupid 1/4mile-type test that you posted) explains that. Now go away and think about it.

[AR]

What's that got to do with anything? First, that's an older, less powerful Ferrari, one that will have lost a lot of its horses (cf Honda's C30/C32). Next, that's a simple 1/4mile boot-it test, which has got the square-root of FA to do with the way the Ferrari (or the Camry, or the NSX, or the GT4) goes round corners.

Why would you discount the NSX chassis? Gordon Murray (among many who know their stuff) know that the NSX chassis is sublime. The NSX in that 3-way test was the least powerful, least torquey, slowest, heaviest and yet ... somehow ... the most exploitable car. Something else (other than the stupid 1/4mile-type test that you posted) explains that. Now go away and think about it.

Miaow!

C'mon man all I am saying is that some of you guys are not content with the NSX as a Classic Car, but want to chase any article in which it may fair better than the current crop of sports cars and exploit it in a selective exposure way.

The NSX, was at the time of it's introduction a ground breaking vehicle, no discussion about that! But many cars will trounce it in a objective test. Don't bring emotions and feelings into it or we will be driving old rust buckets that evoke memories of times gone by!

[AR]

Now go away and think about it.

Rudeness for the sake of it

[Ewan]

The one thing he gets wrong is ...

Well, not quite - he does say that the NSX in question - the Imola MY05NSX - "... may be the best-kept example in the UK."

Wasn't that practically written off by a journo a couple of years ago, necessitating NSX2000's car to be brought into service on the stand at Goodwood FoS?

Anyway. I was surprised at the warmth of Matt Saunders' reaction to the NSX - certainly surprising when compared to the GT4, from Porsche Who Can Do No Wrong...