Acura, Honda's luxury division, isn't known well for it's sports cars. It's known mostly for it's luxury sedans. But 25 years ago, it debuted a mid engine car that changed things in the sports car world.
Designed by Pininfarina and powered with a V6 engine, this was Honda's answer to Ferrari and Porsche. Since there wasn't a name for this new car, the people at Honda just came with something at the last minute. It was called the New Sportscar eXperimental, or NSX for short. It made it's first appearance at the Chicago Auto Show in February 1989 and at the Tokyo Motor Show in October 1989 before going to dealers in 1990.
It was the first car ever to have a body made entirely out of aluminum, something most car makers are starting to do today. Using technology from Honda's Formula One division, this was meant to be a race car that could be used on the road, and it actually worked. It looked fantastic, and the 3.0L V6 with only 270-hp could hit 0-60 mph in around 5 seconds with an insane 8000 rev limit.
When news of the NSX success came out, Ferrari decided to fight back with it's F430. Instead of trying to make the NSX go after the Ferrari, Acura decided to stop making the NSX in 2005. There are still NSX's on the road with high miles, but thanks to great reliability from Honda, they still keep going.
