This is a car that took the supercar rule book, and tore it in half!

You see, before the NSX hit the streets, supercars were difficult to control, with recalcitrant gearboxes, awkward driving positions and intractable powertrains. Take the Lamborghini Countach, for example. It’s difficult to get in and out of, rear visibility is almost non-existent, and whether you’re pushing on or just pootling around, it’s generally a handful to tame.

And that’s where the Honda NSX’s party trick lay. Unbeknownst to the firm, Honda, a brand better known for building affordable, reliable hatchbacks, had just made a major impact on the supercar world. It didn’t follow the conventional path of its class. What set it apart was that it was easy to drive and easy to see out of. It was also nearly bombproof, meaning you didn’t finish your journey on the back of a breakdown recovery truck.

As you can imagine, this caught the attention of the supercar bigwigs back in Europe. It showed them that a supercar didn’t have to be fragile or intimidating. Ferrari responded with the F355, a huge leap in usability over previous models, whilst Lamborghini and Porsche began to focus more on everyday drivability and refinement.

But what was this eureka car made out of? Steel would have been the easy option, but that would have made for a heavier car, and thus one Honda would have had to fit a bigger engine to. Instead, Honda chose aluminium, a decision that shaved 200kg. Cars were made in Japan at the Tohigi and Suzuka plant, with Honda having to develop a whole new process to make panels big enough to fit the slender shape. An innovative car surely needed a suitably innovative name to match, and the NSX (New Sports car eXperimental) was born.

And the finished product was nothing short of a masterpiece: a mid-mounted, high-revving, super-responsive 3-litre petrol V6 producing 270 horsepower. It could dispatch 0–60 mph in 5.5 seconds, rowed through a five-speed manual driving the rear wheels up to 160 mph. Autocar claimed it was faster than anything in its class at the time for top speed, bar the Ferrari 348.

But the cherry on top for this example is that it’s a Targa, introduced in 1995, offering a convertible experience without compromising structural rigidity. Guess this guy heard it’s a Targa summer!

Images courtesy of @carsbysimon on Instagram