Before the 911 Turbo or McLaren. Honda Quietly Invented the Everyday Supercar

Long before today’s crop of high-performance machines promised to handle the morning commute as easily as a track day, the idea of a daily-driver supercar seemed like a fantasy. In the late 1980s, a Porsche 911 Turbo was still too wild for regular use, and climbing into a Lamborghini Countach meant sacrificing comfort, visibility, and sanity.

Then, from a company better known for reliable sedans than exotic speed, came an unexpected game-changer: the 1992 Honda NSX.

Honda’s engineers set out to build a true rival to the Ferrari 348, but with a twist. They wanted a car that could actually be driven every day without drama. The NSX featured a fighter-jet-inspired canopy for near-perfect visibility, a mid-mounted V6 that still left room for a decent trunk, and supportive seats that didn’t punish your back.

Standard comforts like climate control and a Bose stereo were placed intuitively, while the engine. Honda’s legendary VTEC unit, was designed to rev freely and last. The result was a supercar that didn’t require a second mortgage for maintenance or a chiropractor on retainer.

Honda leaned on its Formula 1 experience to give the NSX an aluminum chassis and body, saving hundreds of pounds over steel. The suspension and braking systems were also F1-inspired, including the first production-car four-channel ABS. Ayrton Senna himself helped fine-tune the handling, famously driving a prototype in loafers to prove the car was both capable and approachable.

Even Gordon Murray, designer of the McLaren F1, used the NSX as his benchmark, praising its ride quality and steering precision. Decades later, the first-generation NSX has become a collector’s item, with good-condition examples now selling for over $60,000 and low-mileage cars fetching well above $200,000.