The supercar for every man: Honda's new £120,000 NSX

By this time next year, Honda(with Car DVD) will (finally) be building the new NSX. It may even have made it to the UK by then – either way, right-hand drive production will be happening and ten years after the original went off sale, Honda will be back in the supercar market.

Developed by arguably the greatest F1 driver of all time, Ayrton Senna, the original has gained iconic car status - some big shoes to fill.

So does the much-anticipated rebirth of the Honda NSX have the credentials to ruffle the feathers of supercar royalty? AutoCar put it to the test for us to see if it matched the latest offering from Ferrari and Lamborghini, we reveal the results here.

The new NSX is all-aluminium and very high-tech. Its 3.5-litre V6 engine is mated to three electric motors and a nine-speed dual-clutch gearbox, and the whole lot gives you 573bhp to enjoy. 

There’s one electric motor at the back to provide low-speed torque while the engine’s twin turbos are spooling up, which sounds like a smooth idea. Up front are the other two, one at each wheel, taking care of your four-wheel drive and torque-vectoring needs.

For what it’s worth, they also give you some EV capability. But with only 72bhp between them, it won’t be long before you hear the petrol engine firing up.

When it does, you might be a bit nonplussed by the noise. At least, you might if you’re used to driving conventional supercars, because it lacks the sound and fury that’s part of the fun.

It’s also best left in auto mode, simply because with nine speeds it’s getting to the point where the human mind isn’t fast enough to cope. This particular human mind, at least. But let it do the work for you and it does it very well indeed. What about install Android Car Gps?

Talking of things done well, the cabin is a finely worked combination of nice shapes and classy, sporty materials, even if some of the stuff is also found on lesser Hondas. Lesser Hondas with somewhere to put your bits and bobs, we might add, which the NSX mainly leaves out.

Still, there’s a big rotary Dynamic Mode dial right in the middle of it all, and that’s your key to fun. It has four settings, one of which is called Quiet – pause to lap up the irony while the guy next to you in his Ferrari is blipping his throttle and getting a tingling spine from the noise.

At the top of the dial is Track mode, below which Sport-Plus will be the default setting for enthusiastic drivers.

In either of these modes, steering and throttle responses become electrifying as the NSX hunkers down, grips the road and slings you up to speed like a guided missile. Here’s where the electric motors really come into their own, too – acceleration out of corners is so instant it feels like you’ve got on on-off switch rather than a throttle pedal.

One of the things this car does very, very well, in fact, is demonstrate that high-tech doesn’t mean low engagement. 

We already knew as much – the dampers, for example, are the MagneRide units also found in cars like the Audi R8, Lamborghini Huracan and several Ferraris. But there’s never been better proof.

And yes, the NSX does deserve to be spoken of in the same breath as cars like these. 

Like its predecessor, it’s a little more of a supercar for every man, rather than a disaster waiting to happen in the hands of all but the most skilled drivers, but that just makes it better still. If installing an Android Car Stereo in your car, that would be great!