Photo Credit: YXS10/Flickr

The NSX, launched in 1990, was remarkable for its low roofline of only 46": a bare six inches taller than the Ford GT40 race car. The GT–R, on the other hand, is a full eight inches taller than the NSX.

Under the aluminum, the difference is even bigger. The GT–R is 850 pounds heavier than the NSX, which weighs in at 2,950 lb: an increase of 22 percent. There is, of course, an even greater increase in power, with the Nissan’s twin-turbo V6 producing almost twice the horsepower of the Honda’s V6 VTEC, with a resulting climb in power to weight from 216 bhp/ton to 277 bhp/ton.

But while the NSX our Wes Siler reviewed for Jalopnik is the balls-out Spoon version with 420 HP, his words about lightness and simplicity are probably true of the original as well:

[The] NSX-R GT doesn’t just feel as good as I expected, but better than I could ever have hoped. Unlike other classic super cars, the passing of time has been kind to the NSX. It suffers from neither high weight nor over complication of modern super cars, but adapts their up-to-date running gear, brakes and tires to give itself modern performance.

The trend is much the same with sporty roadsters. Witness the 1964 Honda S600 versus the 1999 Honda S2000:

Relentless growth in size is not limited to the Japanese car industry. If you were to compare Ferrari’s entry-level car from 1968 to its successor 31 years on, this is what you’d see:

The rather lithe and low Ferrari 360 Modena is practically a battleship when compared to the little Dino 246 GT.

And so on.

Photo Credit: Honda fórum (NSX’s and GT–R), VWvortex Forums (Honda S600 and S2000) and the author (Ferraris)

The Esprit’s status in underwater history was cemented in the wonderful chase scene from The Spy Who Loved Me, where Roger Moore drives his Lotus into the water where it promptly turns into a submarine:

The NSX is known more for being fast. Very fast. If you need to not only beat the clock but beat even your expectations of beating the clock, look no further than Harvey Keitel’s stepping on the stage of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, a movie only slightly younger than the 19-year-old NSX:

Nine minutes and thirty-seven seconds. But what if you’re not in sunny Southern California but in a region affected by torrential downpours, like the Western Ghats in India—or Orange Park, Florida? It turns out the NSX has another trick up its sleeve as you'll see from this video:

We've got 40 years of Honda ads here, from North America, Japan, and Israel. Civics that love leaded gas, 600s that force towns to resize all their parking spaces, and NSXs marketed with Honda nameplates. Just click on the thumbnail to head straight for the original post.
When you're done here, you might enjoy our favorite VW ads, then continue your car-advertising overdose with the Datsun, Toyota, Renault, General Motors, British Leyland, Ford/Lincoln/Mercury, and Chevrolet ads.

1984 City Turbo	1988 Cyber Sports CRX	1969 1300
1978 Civic	1978 Civic	1971 600
1994 VTEC	1991 NSX	2004 Civic
1988 Cyber Sports	1995 Civic	1986 CRX

Indeed, the rumor has it development's been killed on the world-ending 600 HP 5.5-liter V10, and instead Honda will drop an advanced new engine into the car, a "valveless throttle" 3.5-liter V6 which gets hybridized with the system from the next-gen Acura RL for a total of around 450 HP. The resulting car wouldn't have quite the colossal performance as the previous version would have, but it will hold that sadly important green trump card against its competition. Since this is a major powertrain change, obviously, the timing on the car will inevitably be pushed back to match the development cycle.

We've got mixed feeling here. Should this rumor prove true, the return to a Honda V6 puts the car right back into the NSX tradition and it'll be potentially lighter weight and more nimble as a result. But at the same time, we already miss the notion of a high-strung Japanese V10 wailing away under the hood. Then again, we shouldn't be looking a gift horse in the mouth. (Thanks for the tip Morgan)
[7Tune]

Come back in an hour for more interesting iron parked down on the San Francisco street!

We can't help but hear the strains of Queen's Another One Bites The Dust ringing in our ears this morning as we discover even the engineering supermen at Honda will bow to economic pressure and cancel the much anticipated Acura NSX. Takeo Fukui made the announcement in his annual end-of-year speech. In addition to axing the companies first V10-powered supercar, the Chairman also announced plans to cancel the roll out of the Acura brand in the Japanese domestic market, further signaling a return to a more conservative Honda marketing strategy.

It ran 7 minutes, 37 seconds on its first attempt around the Nürburgring (as a prototype!), it was set to shake up the established supercar brands. It was going to be this generations Jaguar E-Type! And now, to learn the Acura NSX has been killed to focus on hippy cars and fuel misers? Oh, the humanity! [AutoCar]

Those performance claims probably don't account for the upcoming Nissan GT-R Spec V, which may be a bit more hardcore that the NSX, but will likely be closer in price point and exclusivity than a standard GT-R. Then you've got to figure King Kong, the Corvette ZR1, into the mix too. Of course, we're not really sure exactly which aspect of performance Honda is bragging about, but if they start making claims about Nürburgring lap times, we're sure Porsche will complain argue that they're lying. Though if Honda is talking about acceleration figures, they probably don't need to worry about it, since GT-R owners apparently can't use launch control without their car losing all hope of manufacturer-paid product support. [Automotive News (sub. req.) via MotorAuthority]

2010 Honda NSX replacement at the Nürburgring Nordschleife from MrBTG on Vimeo. [BridgeToGantry]

We caught our first glimpse of Honda's Acura NSX replacement earlier in the week, and now, adding to our 2009 Porsche 911 'Ring footage from earlier, the guys at Bridge To Gantry have snapped these new shots. They think there's a high-revving V10 under the hood, but whatever it is it's gonna be fast. How do we know this? Because Honda CEO Takeo Fukai has demanded that the development team make the NSX faster than both the Nissan GT-R and the Lexus LF-A. That would mean a Nurburgring lap time better than the GT-R's 7:29, though the LF-A may be even faster than that. Of course, the NSX having the 5.5-liter V10's 550 HP connected to Honda's Super-Handling All-Wheel-Drive has to help.
[BridgeToGantry, Inside Line via WorldCarFans]

See that car next to it? That's a Honda/Acura NSX, the most recent Japanese supercar to grace the US from sea to shining sea. And while the NSX was of the extra light and nimble European mid-engined supercar variety, the new GT-R is decidedly more American (lots of power, engine in the front, gigantic proportions). [i-club via MotiveMag]