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Angus MacKenzie
The Big Picture The law of averages: Sooner or later er you’ll make a mistake behind the wheel
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t’s the law of averages. Spend enough time driving cars at or near the limit, and sooner or later something will break. Or, more likely, you’ll make a mistake. And if you don’t end up rolling the thing into a ball of crumpled metal and crushed glass, chances are you’ll have one of those wake-and-wonder moments that will have you staring at the ceiling in the quiet hours. Trust me, I know. Flashback to late 1990, to the Honda R&D Proving Ground at Tochigi, 80 miles north of Tokyo, and an early media drive of the Acura NSX. On the serpentine handling track Honda’s first-ever mid-engine supercar was a revelation, from the smoothly responsive 3.0-liter V-6 mounted transversely amidships to the slick gearshift, accurate steering, and crisp chassis. Then it was time to see how fast it was. The high-speed oval at Tochigi isn’t really an oval. Rather, it’s two 0.6-mile flat straights, connected by steeply banked 180-degree turns at each end. The NSX ripped through the gears to the accompaniment of a cammy snarl from the 270-hp VTEC V-6, the speedo climbing past 120 mph and on to 130, 140, and beyond as I came off the banking on my out lap. I’d only ever driven on one banked track before, the 2.9-mile bowl at the old General Motors-Holden Proving Ground outside Melbourne, Australia, and that was perfectly circular, with a constant banking all the way round. Making the transitions from the flat straight to the banked curve was a little intimidating at first, especially as the Honda was touching 160 mph as a wall of tarmac reared up ahead of me. I’d lift momentarily, just before the transition, then get back on the gas. It was a confidence lift, really, or at least that’s what I decided after noticing the NSX was touching 150 mph around each 180-degree turn, absolutely nailed to the track. “You know what?” I said to my colleague riding in the passenger seat as we pulled back into the staging
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area. “I reckon you can take the turns flat.” He looked d across and grinned. “Yeah, I reckon you could.” And next time out, that’s exactly what I did. I kept my right foot buried as the wall of tarmac rushed d at me. The NSX went through the transitions like a fighterr jet breaking left and rim-fired around the banking. I could feel the g-forces pulling at the side of my face ass the car hunkered down on its suspension and the enginee dropped 400 to 600 revs as the loads built. Physics att work. That should have been the clue. I did two full laps without lifting and, resisting thee temptation to do a third, pulled into the staging area.. My colleague and I were grinning at the sheer thrill of itt as we cruised to a halt, an army of white-coated Hondaa technicians emerging to give the car a onceover, as they had done after every run. It was only after I’d climbed out of the car and taken off my helmet that I noticed there was now more than the usual number of technicians milling around the NSX, and they were paying close attention to the tires on the right-hand side. I glanced over and instantly understood why: The outer tread blocks looked like giant blisters, all bubbled up and almost detached from the carcass. The chief technician looked me in the eye and grimly muttered: “Over speed.” The NSX was quickly taken away. I knew instantly what had happened. The load and heat buildup from the massive g-forces had started to melt the tires. But it was only later that the enormity of it all truly sank in: Had I done that one extra lap, both tires would have almost certainly disintegrated, probably midway through one of the banked turns. And at more than 150 mph, it would have been like an aircraft crash. With about the same chances of survival. All these years later, I still sometimes wake up and wonder. Q
With a fully equipped interior that worked and Honda reliability, the Acura NSX was a revelation, proving a midengine supercar needn't be difficult to drive.
