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

Not what we drove, believe us. We had a great time at the Dream Cruise, but we didn't have a really great time getting there (or back!) because we drove Bumblebee/Phyllis/Edith, our bright yellow Camaro, and frankly most muscle cars are hell for long trips. Once we got back, dropped Phyllis/Edith/Optimus McBumblebee off, and cabbed it home, we realized the cabs were by far the comfiest yellow cars we'd ridden in all weekend. Which explains our first choice:

Chevy Caprice-or really any big American body-on-frame sedan

Occupants: Up to four down-to-earth friends with extensive cassette-tape collections

Attitude: Relaxed, with ample stops for gas-station souvenirs

Slouchy comfort is the strong suit here. You get big bench seats fore and aft to stretch out on, a sort of floaty wallowy comfort, and a huge trunk for storing enormous 256-ounce collector's drink mugs, petting-zoo T-shirts and silver naked-lady silhouettes. It's unquestionably American without being a grandiose flag-waving statement, and some of them are still mistaken for cop cars in many regions. A great car to use when the trip matters more than the destination, but the drive matters less than the trip, if you will.

Photo Credit: Geocities

Volkswagen Camper Van

Occupants: Two in comfort, but up to four with increasing probability of hippies occurring

Attitude: Face-first and wide-eyed into the eternal now of the North American continent, or other such pseudopoetics

The VW van is really a very serviceable little automobile, within its limits, but those limits are defined as much by metaphysics as physics. Something about its ambling rate of progress, its right-up-front driving position, and of course its heritage, all combine to make this car a spiritual pitfall. People have been known to become cut-rate Ken Keseys after a week traveling in one of these, which is too bad. They really are pleasant and functional little things to putt around in, if your tie-dye inoculation is up to date.

Photo Credit: Motivemag

Mercedes E-Class Wagon

Occupants: Married couple with 2.4 kids

Attitude: Don't Make Me Turn This Thing Around, You Spoiled Ungrateful Brats

The point here isn't Mercedes style or quality or comfort or any of that, though it's nice to have those conveniences and comforts as possible on a family vacation. Any wagon would work just fine here as long as it had, as the Merc does, the rear-facing bench seats for the wee 'uns. The backwards bench is plain awesome to ride in when you're a certain age (roughly 7-65) and your mean dad won't stop at the petting zoo. It's also a good barometer for judging the behavior of your little darlings. Just belt them in, give them some juice, and set out for the other coast. If a Peterbilt rear-ends you and kills you all stone dead, your children were hellions who have learned to give The Finger. If not, they're probably pretty good kids.

Photo Credit: Motorward

Mazda Miata

Occupants: One thoughtful loner or two people who are deeply and genuinely in love and have good nonverbal communications skills

Attitude: "I am just going outside and may be some time"

This is really the only hairshirt option on this list. Usually we love the Miata because of its balance and handling, but if you're the sort who can travel with a single big duffle bag and you're not limiting yourself to Interstates, the Miata is a brilliant tourer. The seats are good for moderately long stints, there's just enough weight that you don't get buffeted by trucks, and you can put speakers in the headrests so your music is audible over the wind noise, mostly. Believe us, driving through the mountains in a nimble convertible with the top down feels transcendent, like getting away with something. Of course, you'll become really familiar with American wheelcovers, and driving through a thunderstorm with the top up feels like spiralling down the Norway maelstrom in a tent, so there are tradeoffs.

Photo Credit: Automotive

Ford Bronco

Occupants: 1-3, plus huge dog with bandanna around its neck (not optional)

Attitude: Roads are nice, but not really necessary

Who wouldn't love a good old Bronc? It's the perfect cross-county ride for people who take the phrase literally. Plus you sit up nice and high, so you can see over bridge railings and the like, and you can roll the rear window down and feel rugged and raffish. And everyone loves them so you'll instantly make friends with the locals, especially when you stop to take snapshots of the petting zoo and your huge dog with the bandanna around its neck jumps out.

Photo Credit: flickr

Infiniti FX35

Occupants: Up to four adults with luggage or two with a darling credenza

Attitude: Before we leave, make sure all the NPR stations are pre-programmed in

There are some people who simply must have an SUV, so if you must, take this. It has the ride height to give you good views, it drives more or less like a car, it returns fair fuel economy, and it can even carry a few tasteful pieces back, for those who are too button-down for kitschy road-trip crap but aren't above a bit of modest antiquing. Just don't bring kids, who tend to leave unsightly smudges on the glass as you drone right past waterparks and petting zoos and giant roadside dinosaurs. Come to think, don't bring us either.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Cadillac Sedan DeVille, 1994-1999 models

Occupants: One.

Attitude: Stern, plus must be starting in upper Pacific Northwest, Upper Midwest, or Upper Northeast, and be heading for Florida

This is a seriously comfy car: good leather, nicely done LED lights, arctic air conditioning, very smooth Northstar V8. God alone knows why they stopped making it, but it's no surprise because there hasn't been a sane day in this country since Eisenhower. Ashtray's really too small for the cigars, but that's why Christ created power windows. Damn if Rush doesn't sound like he's right in the car with you, and the music would sound okay too if it all didn't sound like some loon bangin' on a can anymore. How many more miles to Fort Lauderdale?

Photo Credit: picasa

Converted School Bus

Occupants: Up to 30, but who's counting?

Attitude: Either "Taking a year off to see a game in every great American ballpark" or "If it's really and truly terminal, this is better than a hospital bed."

Sometimes a transcontinental journey is both a specific goal and a way to say To Hell With Everything. In those cases, see of your local school district has a Bluebird they're not planning on using and go to town with whatever tools and batty ideas you have lying around. The example in our photo is a bit extreme, but you don't have to have a camper van welded to the top. Cutting off the roof aft of the wheel humps to make a porch works, as does adding alfresco seating in the middle section, as is installing a hang-glider launch ramp on the roof. Once you finally trundle it out there, just don't be in a hurry. Be willing to let "across the nation" become "around the nation." And watch for hippies.

Photo Credit: hackedgadgets

Acura NSX

Occupants: 1-2

Attitude: Understated, underappreciated, and well over the speed limit.

There may be better and faster grand-touring cars, but we just love this thing. Honda couldn't convince people their exotic really was an exotic, but we get it. Most know its reputation as a very balanced car, even with "only" 300 horsepower-less than the FX35. But it's also a supremely comfortable car, with some of the all-time great seats. It'll only hold two carry-ons in its "trunk," but you're not going camping in an NSX; have the coincierge send your clothes out to be cleaned and pressed while you take dinner. If we were to make a serious attempt at a fast but sane personal transcontinental record, this car would be hard to pass up.

Photo Credit: gotbroken

Mustang GT

Occupants: 1-3

Attitude: One man drives while the other men scream

We repeat: Muscle cars are terrible long-distance transportation. But if we had to pick one, it'd be the Mustang GT, with its combination of good outward visibility, ride quality, driver comfort, and survivable back seat room. If you have to play Third Cylon in a muscle car, as we did on our recent Detroit trip, this is the muscle car to do it in. But seriously, after the first gas stop, you'll be thinking about trading it in on a nice '94 Sedan DeVille.

But whatever you go in, go! We've given you the best states to drive across, discussed the worst, and now a list of vehicles and ideas. Now get out there on the road and make our country a great destination again. Those petting-zoo animals ain't gonna pet themselves!

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

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!

In an effort to cut development costs, Autocar says it looks like the US could finally get the same Honda Accord as the rest of the world. Currently, a separate model is developed for the North American market while the Euro model is sold as the Acura TSX. This policy has always confused us, subtracting many tens of millions of dollars from Honda’s bottom line. We don’t know when this would happen or even if it will.

Autocar goes on to report anything seen as wasteful or unnecessary is being cut from Honda’s development cycle. This includes a V8 engine, something Honda engineers have long resisted building, and a slew of rear wheel drive Acuras intended to drive the brand upmarket.

The saddest loss will be the convertible version of the forthcoming Honda CR-Z hybrid sportscar. That means there’s no direct replacement on the cards for the S2000 when it ceases production at the end of this year.

Honda will now concentrate on building fuel-efficient models like the 2010 Honda Insight and the world’s first hybrid city car, based on the Honda Fit. [via Autocar]

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]

It's bad enough shoving a Japanese car into the PCH ring with a Ferrari, but a Honda? However, when you want an NSX yet you don't want to spend more than 20 grand… well, you have to figure that the Soichiro Stamp Of Approval was probably removed from the car (with 50-grit sandpaper) a few years back. And so it is with this 1992 Acura NSX (go here if the ad disappears), which has a "FIRM PRICE" of $18,000. That's below the Kelly Blue Book price, as the seller is quick to point out, and don't worry about mechanical condition because "there were some mechanical problems but they have been fixed." Well, actually, the "clutch needs to be replaced soon and the air conditioning is not running too good," and you can put the interpretation of your choice on that, depending upon whether you're a glass-half-full or glass-bone-dry sort of person. The seller has given all the information he's ever going to provide, so "PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT ME UNLESS ARE REALLY SERIOUS ABOUT BUYING THE CAR!" You got it? We're a little disappointed that the traditional "NO TIRE KICKERS MONEY TALKS BULLSHIT WALKS" part was missing, but at least he knew about the obligatory CAPS LOCK key.

If you've got 18 grand to spend on picking up your Hi Rolla Vegas Shuttle, shouldn't you go right for the Ferrari? A red Ferrari, in fact, like this '86 328GTS, which is currently bid up to a mere $15,100. The pit bosses will be putting on their bulletproof vests when you toss the keys to this car to the valet and step onto the casino floor, and that's no lie. Of course, you have to get the car to the valet in the first place for that, and that means you'll need to spend years some time making with the wrenches first. This car has only 38K miles on the clock, mostly because it has spent "5-7" (which is eBay-ese for "12-15") years sitting… waiting for you to rescue it! The glass is clean and the "under carriage is spotless!!!!!!!" The paint, however, looks like what you'd find on an '85 Chevy Sprint abandoned in a Greyhound station parking lot, and the interior appears to have been used for a few years as a hobo jungle, including campfire. Does it run? Well, it ran when parked, and that should be good enough for anyone? How hard could it be?

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]

After the flotsam is stripped, the upgrades begin including a full underbody aero tray, monstrous sway bars, a rear diffuser and more speed by way of a remapped ECU and a shorter final drive. With a curb weight of just 2800 lbs, this rejiggered NSX will be a terror on the street. We'd be mighty amused if Spoon's version of the old, V6-powered NSX could go toe-to-toe with the newly-designed, V10-powered 2010 NSX. High power, meet light weight. [JPCNews via AutoFiends]

Maybe it looks like that because the renderings appear to come straight from an artist using the Detroit Auto Show concept as a cheat sheet. But, Edmunds' buddies do have some method to the madness. They claim Honda has employed their recent experiences with F1 to create a design generating maximum downforce and straight-line stability. That's why they claim the 2010 Acura NSX was able to drop a lap time of 7 minutes, 37 seconds on its first attempt around the Nürburgring — and will more than likely give the GT-R a run for the money shot on the sub-7:30 time.

How're they going to do that? Well, Edmunds Inside Line also claims the new NSX will weigh in at around 3,256 pounds. That's over 500 pounds lighter than the GT-R. Plus, the rear section of the coupe apparently acts like one big rear wing. Also, there's that 5.5-liter V10 expected to run at over 600 HP and 433 lb-ft of torque. And of course we'd also heard it's expected to get cylinder deactivation — you know, to help with fuel economy and stuff.

Jalopnik Snap Judgment: There's no reason to believe the new NSX won't be faster than the GT-R and the 2009 Corvette ZR1 considering the blistering fast numbers it's already posting. However, we're really truly hoping they do something to those horizontal slits on the front fascia. If not, we're hoping Acura will give us a check box for the leopard-print camouflage.

[via Edmunds Inside Line]

The speculation on power is unconfirmed at this point, but sources are placing the figures at around 590 HP and 430 lb-ft of torque. Considering the original got up to about 290 HP and 240 lb-ft of twist, this represents one hell of an upgrade. Speaking of upgrades, the other rumor we're hearing points to the possibility of some form of special 2009 Acura RL fitted with the same NSX V10. Obviously such a car would bend our fragile little minds to the breaking point and cause droplets of sweat-like dew to form on every other performance sedan's hood. Although this'll certainly help potential RL buyers interested in performance, unless it comes to market with a less-toothy grille, it won't do much for those looking for something better to look at. [7Tune.com]

Silly foreigners, calling an Acura a Honda. [auto motor und sport via Youtube via WCF]

If the 2010 Acura NSX's Nürburgring lap didn't hit the right spot, take a look at this new shot showing off the interior for the first time. We're a little disappointed that the stylish Zubaz-esque exterior camo isn't reflected on the inside of the cockpit, but then again, who cares, those gauges look so purdy we want to bring them home to Momma. And check out the paddle shifters.

[CarTribe]

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]