Acura NSX Is Extreme

The Acura NSX, Japan's self-proclaimed aluminum-chassis "supercar" has been around for 16 years. In 2002 it received its biggest change: an updated exterior. The 290 horsepower 3.2 litre V6, with its six sweet titanium connecting rods, remained the same.

My friend Tonton, who used to be a product planner for Honda Canada, was lucky enough to acquire this orange 2002 Acura NSX as his company car for a short period of time. This particular NSX with targa roof was the display car at the 2002 Canadian International Auto Show, so the hood was adorned with lovely racing decals.

As was the custom back then, Tonton would come for a visit and we'd take his company car for a spin. We zipped around in the Acura TSX, the RSX, and others. We pretended to be lost and used the TL's nav system to find ourselves again. We blasted past my annoyed neighbours in the convertible S2000, at 8,000 rpm.

We had hybrid adventures too. We cried at the Civic's super-creepy CVT transmission, and we consumed extremely small amounts of dead dinosaurs in the Insight.

Although the S2000 and Insight were rare and awesome to drive, the car that garnered the most hoots, hollers and yelps was the NSX. With a list price of $145,000 Canadian, the NSX cost slightly more than my house the day Tonton showed up with it. Honda's rules for driving this "company" car were specific.

No crashing.

Tonton and I had a great deal of fun as we tested the limits of the super-cool aluminum suspension. It wasn't as fast as my 400 hp*Talon, but it sat 2.5 inches lower, so the fun was in the twisties.

(*Edit note: added '400 hp' in BOLD to clear things up)

Unfortunately, Honda (Acura) has discontinued the NSX, a technological wonder that brought VTEC to the masses of teenagers who think stickers make you faster.