I took my NSX for a road trip up to Jersey this weekend for a wedding and was able to catch up with a friend of mine who is also a car enthusiast. As he owned and daily drove an R8 for a while I was very interested in his perspective on my ride and he was eager to get behind the wheel of what he felt was the "spiritual" predecessor for his former R8.
He loved the ride position, crisp steering and engine note but I could tell he was a little underwhelmed. The conversation turned to the "only" 290HP and I mentioned that superchargers and turbo chargers and fairly common mods to resolve that issue.
I then hopped behind his modded out S6 which had some ungodly amount of horsepower; the thing was just a BEAST! However, it still drove a lot like a sedan and didn't give the same connection to the road as my NSX. While it got from point A to point B extremely fast, the journey just didn't light up your soul the same way as a car with a more sports car position does. He completely understood and it is one of the big things he misses about his R8 (which he sold for financial reasons and replaced with the S6).
His S6 had a paddle shifter and I kept telling me to upshift. We realized later that I was settling in to a 3-4000 RPM cruising zone and he advised me to stick with a 2-3000 RPM zone instead. I commented that I have fallen in to that RPM range on my NSX as my happy spot which he found interesting as he was running my NSX in the 2-3000 RPM range when he drove it.
So, it was time for drive #2 and this time I encouraged him to run the tach up a bit higher. BAM! "Oh my, this is an entirely different car!" Then we got out on a highway with the NSX and he got it in to the 6-7500 range. "Holy #(*&%, this is sweet!" While he had heard the "VTECH just kicked in yo!" phrase around the internet, this was his first real experience with it and now he understood the phrase. After that drive he felt that a turbo charger would make this car just insane (in a good way!), but had a completely different feel for the car.
While he will still end up with an R8 if he gets his finances back in order (he's a big guy, 6 3" size 12 shoes and heavy set and just doesn't fit well in the NSX), he is officially a big fan of my car and will happily grab the keys anytime I offer them and go out for a spirited drive.
He loved the ride position, crisp steering and engine note but I could tell he was a little underwhelmed. The conversation turned to the "only" 290HP and I mentioned that superchargers and turbo chargers and fairly common mods to resolve that issue.
I then hopped behind his modded out S6 which had some ungodly amount of horsepower; the thing was just a BEAST! However, it still drove a lot like a sedan and didn't give the same connection to the road as my NSX. While it got from point A to point B extremely fast, the journey just didn't light up your soul the same way as a car with a more sports car position does. He completely understood and it is one of the big things he misses about his R8 (which he sold for financial reasons and replaced with the S6).
His S6 had a paddle shifter and I kept telling me to upshift. We realized later that I was settling in to a 3-4000 RPM cruising zone and he advised me to stick with a 2-3000 RPM zone instead. I commented that I have fallen in to that RPM range on my NSX as my happy spot which he found interesting as he was running my NSX in the 2-3000 RPM range when he drove it.
So, it was time for drive #2 and this time I encouraged him to run the tach up a bit higher. BAM! "Oh my, this is an entirely different car!" Then we got out on a highway with the NSX and he got it in to the 6-7500 range. "Holy #(*&%, this is sweet!" While he had heard the "VTECH just kicked in yo!" phrase around the internet, this was his first real experience with it and now he understood the phrase. After that drive he felt that a turbo charger would make this car just insane (in a good way!), but had a completely different feel for the car.
While he will still end up with an R8 if he gets his finances back in order (he's a big guy, 6 3" size 12 shoes and heavy set and just doesn't fit well in the NSX), he is officially a big fan of my car and will happily grab the keys anytime I offer them and go out for a spirited drive.
