The Honda/Acura NSX is a fabled car, few can dispute that. A lot has been written and said about how game-changing the car was both for the overall car industry and for supercars. Even more has been said about how the car whipped Ferrari (and its ilk) into proper shape, scaring them half to death in the process. But I find that the driving experience has been lost in all the plaudits about the car's technical make-up. So here's my take, FWIW.

First of all, some benchmarks for comparison

I've been driving legally for over 30 years, and illegally (on private property) for nearly 40. I've always been a "spirited" driver, but never one seduced by outright speed. My instinct for self-preservation has always kept me from driving recklessly on the road - I tend to explore cars' limits on track instead of the public highway. I like the twisty stuff, where the finesse of a car's chassis and powertrain is exposed. And I particularly value well-engineered cars with a lot of character. Brute force is uninteresting to me. The overwhelmingly high grip levels of modern sportscars make them inert in my opinion.

All that said, it wouldn't be a surprise that the cars I've owned and targeted driving all share similar characterstics: not the most powerful, not the fastest, but the most interesting and best engineered drivers' cars. Cars built for the twisty stuff. Cars that can be made to slide safely at modest speeds. Cars like the Alfa Romeo GTV6 3.0, as a prime example of the breed.

"The Elise S2, Alfa Romeo GTV6 3.0 and E60 M5 are my benchmarks for describing the NSX driving experience"

As benchmarks I will refer to a few cars which I hope will resonate with most readers: my Lotus Elise S2 (a Sport 135), the E60 BMW M5 I owned in the USA, and the Alfa Romeo GTV6 3.0. All three are RWD, have either a 50:50 (Alfa) or a rearward bias (Lotus, BMW) to the weight distribution, and represent 3 different power/weight ratio levels (Elise is modest, Alfa is middling while the BMW is high). 

The Elise is also considered one of the best-handling, best-driving sportscars ever built. So rather an approprriate benchmark, in my mind. And, FWIW, I have owned my Elise since 2006 and have driven many tens of thousands of miles in it over the years. I've had track driving instruction in it and spun it on track more times than I can remember while exploring its performance.

Get on with it, man, what's the punchline?

The NSX is like a grown up Elise: all the best parts of the fabled Elise driving experience with none of the rough edges. All the delicious feedback, tactility, delicacy, directness and purity without the visceral rawness and extreme lack of refinement. It feels as light and nimble on its feet as an Elise, but simultaneously feels much more solid, unbreakable and stable. The controls (apart from the steering) are similarly light and precise: the clutch action is almost identical, the gearchange is smoother and more precise than the Elise, and the powertrain is similarly smooth and linear to the Rover K-Series in Sport 135 guise. 

"Where the Elise punishes inexperienced drivers with catastrophic under- and oversteer, the NSX only flatters and forgives"

Where they differ, they differ markedly: the NSX is MUCH faster than the Elise, much much faster in every dimension. And the faster you go, the faster the car seems to accelerate - as if the laws of aerodynamic drag don't apply to the NSX. Where the Elise punishes tentative, non-committal driving inputs with catastrophic understeer and threatens catastrophic oversteer at the other extreme, the NSX flatters any driver with flawless, effortless performance. Where the Elise is hair-raising to drive at 9 or 10 tenths - demanding full focus at all times - the NSX is supremely easy; you don't need to focus 100% like in an Elise, but if you do focus on it, it rewards good driving immensely and forgives bad driving politely. It's that good.

The NSX's is a serene, relaxed and composed experience. The car isn't easily flustered or destablised but it can pull extraordinary lateral G and change direction alarmingly fast without ever losing composure. Want to slide the tail? Easily done, you just need to tell the car clearly what you want to do and it will happily oblige.

It's all cars to all people, in the best possible way. A raving lunatic when you want, a refined and reserved aristocrat when you don't. Never brutish or crass. And I think that this aristocratic, high-brow demeanour is the source of most of the NSX's criticism - critics somehow expect an uncouth, antisocial and demanding reprobate for a sportscar.

"The NSX is a perfectly-groomed, Savil Row suit-wearing hitman - not an uncouth football hooligan tanked up on beer and looking for a fight"

Put another way, when they hire a hitman they expect a football hooligan who will batter their intended victim; instead, what they get is a well-groomed aristocrat in a Savil Row suit armed with nothing more dangerous than an umbrella and a bowler hat - and they don't like it. Except, they don't realise that the umbrella hides a light sabre, the bowler hat is a flying blade, Goldfinger-style, and the aristocrat is ex-SAS and can kill you with a flick of his wrist. If he wanted to, of course. 

Continued in part 2....