2017 Acura NSX

GREG CARLOSS: A few months back we took our first drive in the highly anticipated 2017 Acura NSX, and in our limited seat time we came away impressed with how it performed on the track and on the smooth flat highways of California. But truthfully since it is an everyday supercar, we were still curious about how it would do in day to day driving specifically on the winding congested roads of our home state of Maryland.

PATRICK LUCAS: So Acura sent us this NSX to satisfy our curiosity so let’s hop in and go for a quick spin east coast style.

PATRICK LUCAS: Alright here we are behind the wheel, finally and the first thing I noticed right away is seat comfort, they’re way more comfortable than I thought they were going to be. 

GREG CARLOSS: Yeah absolutely, they’re still supercar spec, they’re narrow slightly aggressive bolstering and the cushioning is really nice soaks up a lot of bumps, which brings me to the suspension and in its most compliant setting it handles it pretty well. 

GREG CARLOSS: And if you want to go into more aggressive settings pop it on up to Sport Plus mode then you’re pretty much at a race spec, I mean you feel everything.

PATRICK LUCAS: So as we’re winding our way through these tight really slow speed turns, I’m not noticing the 9-speed transmission at all the shifts aren’t really that aggressive.

GREG CARLOSS: So the NSX uses a similar system to the RLX Sport Hybrid, where you have 2 electric motors, each one dedicated to a specific front wheel. The rear wheels are powered by that 3.5 liter twin turbo V-6 plus a third electric motor all told outputting 573 horsepower. 

PATRICK LUCAS: Alright, so here we are on the city portion of the drive, which means lots of red lights, lots of stop and go, lots of transitioning between battery power and the engine, and I’m not really feeling a jarring jolt, which is a good thing. 

GREG CARLOSS: No, yeah the actual physical change momentum isn’t bad at all, and the only indication that you’re switching modes is when the engine fires up behind you, which is actually a pretty cool noise and that’s what you want to hear in a super car, which brings me to whether or not this is the choice for a car enthusiast. This car is very very easy to drive, and it really can be a daily driver but is it something a real true car enthusiast would want. I just don’t think there’s enough here. I don’t think it’s hard core enough to really be considered that enthusiast’s supercar.

PATRICK LUCAS: I agree, to some point. If you’re the average guy who just happens to have a lot of money to spend this would probably be one of my top choices. It’s not too much power, its plenty, it’s a lot, but it’s not overly aggressive, you can drive it every day, and hey if you want to hit the track every once and a while or impress people, you can certainly do it in this one.

GREG CARLOSS: So let’s also compare it to some other cars that may be in its segment if it really has an actual segment. I’ll throw out the Audi R8, I would say the BMW i8, and the Nissan GTR, similar pricing, fairly similar power, how do you compare this one to those?

PATRICK LUCAS: Well, this one is a lot more technologically advanced I think. There certainly are a lot more computerized goings on in all of those the R8, the GTR, especially the i8, but this just feels to me, the NSX just feels to me like the next step of what a super car in 5..10 years is gonna be.  

GREG CARLOSS: Yeah, and I think if you were going to cross shop this one between a BMW i8, they both use similar systems in that aspect, they use hybrid power, but this one does offer more performance than the i8, and I don’t really think you could call the i8 a supercar, this one you can definitely call a supercar but it just so happens you can drive it every day.