"...But what about in 1990? Was the NSX ever a supercar? Of course I spent way too much time thinking about this.
First of all, since Evo brings it up, how did the NSX compare to a Ferrari in 1990? It was pretty slim pickings back then. There was the Mondial, the 348, the Testarossa, the F40 – and that’s pretty much it.
Where would the NSX slot into that lineup? First of all, we can toss out the Mondial, which was decidedly not a supercar. Then looking at the vitals (engine, horsepower, 0-to-60 time), the NSX (270 horsepower, V-6, 6.2 seconds) matched closest to the 348 (300 horsepower, V-8, 5.5 seconds). Factoring in chassis construction, handling and the other elements that have become important to our modern evaluation of supercars, the NSX would’ve easily outpaced the 348 and performed close to the Testarossa (400 hp, V12, 5.3 seconds).
What’s interesting is that Honda couldn’t have found a better time to release the NSX. Other than the Ferraris, the rest of your supercar market in 1990 looked like this:
1. De Tomaso Pantera
2. Lamborghini Diablo
(We’re done.)
If we extend our time frame to 1994, then we can throw in the Jaguar XJ220, the Bugatti EB110, and the McLaren F1. But still, how many supercars are we talking about? Eight?
That’s it, eight supercars.
Even if you lumped the NSX at the end of the list, it would still be one of the top 10 wedge exotics, which should’ve cleared it for supercar status in 1990. And this was before you put the cars on the track, where the NSX would have smoked all but maybe three of them."
source:
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/02/some-supercar-thoughts/#more-96
I guess you gotta have 500 hp to be on his list.
