How Car And Driver Crashed Both Of Their NSX Test Cars

What do an early Porsche 911 and the original Acura NSX have in common? If you lift off the throttle in a corner, you'll most likely crash, as the editors of Car And Driver found out twice in the 1990s.

The magazine's former editor-in-chief, Csaba Csere (yes, I know how to pronounce his name!) was at the first drive of the NSX in Japan in September, 1989. He learned that it truly was an expert's car that gave great feedback thanks to the lightweight aluminum construction and the lack of power steering, which Honda balanced out by pairing relatively small wheels with sticky tires to get enough grip despite the small contact patch. It also came with the best seats ever.

Car and Driver then got the car in some comparison tests, first in 1990 against the Lotus Esprit V8, the Corvette ZR1, the Porsche 911 Carrera 4 and the Ferrari 348. The NSX won, despite crashing into a rock after doing a 180 mid corner. The minor detail of the car's destruction did not make it into the article.

Once the competition got up to speed, Honda sent the NSX-T against the Ferrari 355, the Lotus Esprit S4S, the Porsche 911 Turbo and the Dodge Viper RT/10 in 1995. By that time, the Japanese supercar was seriously down on power in comparison, but somebody from Car&Driver still managed to crash it.

Here's more on how that happened, and what the NSX felt like when it hit the American market in 1990:

Well, shit happens when you party naked.