Image Credits: Honda UK
Words by Marcus Boothby
When you think of a supercar, you think of a Ferrari 488 Pista, McLaren 720S and the Lamborghini Aventador. These are all brilliant cars, with their successors being PHEV hybrid things with silly amounts of power, many of which are pushing 800bhp+ without any worries at all.
Hybrid supercars are coming thick and fast, with some manufactures even looking into electric and hydrogen speed machines. But, hybrid supercars are nothing new as examples have been tearing up the roads all over the world for nearly ten years now.
One of the first attempts at a hybrid supercar was the BMW i8 which could barely keep up with an E46 M3. Sure, it had concept car looks and apparently drove really well, but it wasn’t exactly a supercar by definition. The first true hybrid supercar in our eyes was and still is the second-generation Honda NSX, which came out back in 2016.
Unlike the first NSX, which was a 90s icon for Japanese sports cars, the current NSX was designed and built in America, with development handled mainly by Honda’s North America division, Acura. The current NSX was something of an oddity when it came out as it featured a 3.5 litre V6 petrol engine, mated to an electric motor, driving power to all four wheels, allowing for all-wheel drive. This is quite the opposite to the original NSX as that was a pure and light sports car being rear-wheel drive only.
However, Acura/Honda managed to bring a near 600bhp hybrid supercar to the market at a price of roughly £150,000 in 2016. Keep in mind that rivals at the time were still being powered solely by petrol engines. Sure, there were hybrid supercars about in 2016, but they were £1 million+ machines in the form of the McLaren P1, Porsche 918 Spyder and the LaFerrari.
So if you think about it, the current NSX is a lite version of the former Holy Trinity of hypercars, and when you look at it in that light, the NSX sounds like a bargain.
We are led to believe that the current NSX is a brilliant thing to drive, with good enough acceleration (0-60mph is handled with in just 3.3 seconds), and even boasts a balanced handling setup with direct and responsive steering. Would we have one over say, a McLaren 570S? Both seem to be very similar on paper and if the reviews from their respective launches are to be believed, they are very close when it comes to driving too. It would all depend on how much a slightly used one would cost and how it had been specced. Saying that, you can still buy a new NSX direct from Honda.