Robert Carroll comes to the door with his Acura NSX’s steering wheel in one hand. Our attempt at shaking hands turns into the equivalent of steering a lap of Exhibition Place.
We’re simpatico, though, when it comes to the Formula Red NSX parked downstairs, and recalling its particular charms. A new 2017 Acura NSX has commanded top billing in recent auto sections and sites. Reviewers have been unanimously praising everything but its pricing – $189,900 for the base model, up to $250,100 with max carbon fibre.
Review: 2017 Acura NSX - a supercar is reborn
But the second coming wouldn’t be getting nearly as much play had the original NSX, which sold for $79,000 at introduction in 1990, not so comprehensively upset the supercar apple cart. It matched the Ferrari 328 in looks – yet was as reliable and easy to drive as a Civic.
No sports car has steered more precisely, before or since, Carroll and I agree. Changing gears benefits, in his words, from “probably the nicest gearbox on the planet.” Stability at speeds beyond 200 km/h may be the best part: sublime as a magic carpet ride save for the smudge of illegality.
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Beyond all this, the NSX that Carroll owns is the gold standard of the model, an Alex Zanardi Edition, the eighth of 50 that Acura sold in 1999 honouring the two-time Indy car champion. His precautions with its steering wheel are understandable given the car’s rarity; left in the car, the quick-release wheel might quickly disappear.
Carroll, a service consultant at an upmarket Toronto auto dealership, knows what he likes. He has owned several Japanese sports cars – RX-7, 240Z, Celicas – and raced an MGB and a Honda CRX, among others.
He was working at a Honda store when he cadged his first drive in a NSX in 2000. “It wasn’t the looks or the sound that caught me,” he says. “It was how well sorted the car felt: Honda’s engineers knew enough to listen when Ayrton Senna, the world champion, told them it was too flexible, needed to be stiffened, after he drove a prototype of the car.”
The Japanese manufacturer seemed capable of any task it chose when its engines powered Nelson Piquet, Alan Prost and Senna (thrice) to Formula One world drivers’ championships between 1987 and 1991. Turning to Indy car, Honda propelled Jimmy Vasser, Zanardi (twice) and Juan Montoya to consecutive titles between 1996 and 2000.
A chance conversation with Mike Hull, manager of the Target Ganassi Racing team during all four championships, led Carroll to this NSX. “I was introduced to Mike at the 2010 Toronto Indy, and learned that he had a Zanardi Edition, but because racing kept him away from home 48 weekends a year, it was up for sale.
“When I got home I saw on eBay that bidding had stalled at $40,000. Wait a minute: a Zanardi Edition and no takers? Me being me, I thought, there had to be something wrong with it.”
He flew to Indianapolis. At the back of Ganassi’s headquarters the NSX sat, dusty from disuse, on the floor – or so it looked with its suspension lowered well beyond Zanardi spec. Hull accompanied him on a test drive, Carroll thinking, “He’s driven with Zanardi,” but before he could worry too much about that, the NSX’s bone-shaking ride came to the fore. What would it be like on Toronto’s craters?
“It’s set up for the track,” Hull said. As for it not selling, as a guy from Los Angeles, Hull thought he knew why. “This is the mid-west; they just don’t get it,” he said of the V-6 engine, 290 horsepower and high-gearing that conspire against painting the pavement with tire rubber. A Ford F-150 pickup can produce more smoke and noise.
Back in Toronto, Carroll phoned to say he’d pay $41,000, and drove to Indy to tow the treasure home. Going on six years and 15,000 kilometres later, he considers himself fortunate.
The latest valuation from Hagerty Classic Car Insurance, based on recent Zanardi NSX sales, ranges from $85,600 to $141,000 for a car in concours-winning condition. His is at least a Condition 2 car, at $99,300 or more.
As a racer himself, Carroll relishes the lengths Honda engineers took in pursuit of lightness. “It’s nuts how everything is made out of aluminum,” he says, meaning body, chassis, suspension maxing nimbleness. He’s made it even lighter, ripping out the sub-woofer, fitting specialist brakes and new coilover shock absorbers.
The high-gearing is to his taste. “You can break the speed limit in second gear,” he says, meaning 100 km/h, not 60, and at that point the titanium shifter knob yields another four gears. “I’ve seen 270 clicks,” he says, having driven at the Children’s Wish day at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park last summer, and on the Grand Prix circuit in 2014.
What’s truly nuts is realizing an hour has passed, almost two – sitting in the car in the basement going nowhere because it’s still March and Carroll fears winter has one more blast coming – yet talking about another summer’s driving has been enough.
Mark Hacking takes the new NSX for a spin on a California racetrack