20k: Coffee Brake Update: 1991 Acura NSX

Last week we posted a Coffee Brake question to everyone about a good weekend toy equipped with flappy paddle shifters for a friend of a friend.  A few good tips including something about a woman named Barbara…anyway, the report back from the recipient of this advice was positive, but he is looking at something a bit more expensive and closer to his original request — which was — a used and cheaper version of the Nissan GTR.  To find one, you just need to go back to the early 1990s and see who was building supercars in Japan.  Find this 1991 Acura NSX offered for $26,000 in Oakland, CA via craigslist.

It is ironic that this was built by the company that today builds hideous Batmobilesqe piles of front-wheel-drive, which Forbes called one of the ugliest cars of 2012.  It is astounding how far Acura has departed from the pure and beautiful Pininfarina styling of the NSX — it is as if one of the 19 Kids and Counting Duggar girls had become Miley Cyrus in a short few years.

Powering the NSX is Honda’s C30A V6, a potent 3.0 liter screamer equipped with dual VTEC heads to make 270 horsepower and 210 ft-lbs of torque.  Redline is a lofty 8,000 rpm in part due to the use of a Titanium alloy known as Ti-3Al-2V+S+REM for its connecting rods.  Read more about the use of Titanium alloy in Japanese cars in this 1994 technical white paper by Nippon Steel.

You won’t find any flappy paddle shifters in the NSX, but what you will find is a 5 speed manual gearbox connected to a classically snick-snick style Honda gearbox.   If you’ve driven anything from a S2000 to a basic Civic from the past few decades, you will know what I’m talking about. 

With any luck the Coffee Brake subject will pick up this NSX or another one like it and continue to keep the clutch pedal business alive.  tips@dailyturismo.com