I did it! I conquered my fear of our 1991 Acura NSX. I know since most of you out there are guys you probably won't admit to this but have you ever built up a task in your head as so intimidating that you're actually paralyzed with fear to do it, be it public speaking or jumping out of a plane? Well, the thought of driving our NSX in horrible rush-hour traffic was scary to me. OK, maybe not as scary as public speaking but pretty intimidating.
I imagined the old sports car hard to maneuver when switching lanes and figured the clutchwork would be difficult so I'd keep stalling. And I shuddered at the thought of trying to parallel-park it. Yes, I was still traumatized by our Ferrari 308 and even though I discovered our 911 wasn't as intimidating as I had initially thought, I haven't driven it since last April.
But then a couple of editors told me I had nothing to worry about, that the NSX is a Honda fer chrissakes. So I signed up for it last night. And even though I did find myself in a horrific traffic jam after work, this sporty car was in fact, not that bad to work in stop and go. Sure the clutch engages pretty high but once I got the hang of it, it became a nonissue.
When I had told editor Michael Jordan that I was going to take the car for the night he tried to get another editor to shoot a photo paparazzi-style of me putting my dry cleaning in its trunk to demonstrate that it can work as a daily driver. Now, I wouldn't go so far as to claim it the perfect daily driver because it's not a car you'd just park on the street overnight, nor could you carry many groceries in it.
But that's just me. Would you use the NSX as your daily driver?
Caroline Pardilla, Deputy Managing Editor @ 50,995 miles
nick944 says:
12:52 PM, 01/18/12
More importantly, there is a Daewoo Leganza still on the road!
throwback says:
01:18 PM, 01/18/12
I would if I didn't have to drive in traffic. Driving a car that slow every day would be too frustrating.
jukiemcjuke says:
01:33 PM, 01/18/12
I'd rather see one of these as a street-parked daily driver than a slowly rotting garage queen any day.
hondacura4 says:
04:25 PM, 01/18/12
I could easily drive an NSX on a daily basis.
rjones28 says:
05:03 PM, 01/18/12
Sure, I use it as a daily driver.
teampenske3 says:
06:31 PM, 01/18/12
I'd daily it. There's a Canuck on NSXPrime who even drives his in the snow.
cw910 says:
07:58 PM, 01/18/12
Definitely.
firstwagon says:
08:32 PM, 01/18/12
I'd use one as a daily driver but then I would also be happy to use a Ferrari 308 as a daily driver.
Why not?
yaymx5 says:
09:40 PM, 01/18/12
Definitely. I'd love an NSX as a daily driver. It's so big and spacious! Then again, my current daily driver is an NC Miata, so my perspective is a bit skewed.
revs29 says:
07:55 AM, 01/19/12
I could but I wouldn't, for the same reason my S2000 has never seen snow and very rarely sees rain.
lsxformula says:
08:54 AM, 01/19/12
throwback says:
"I would if I didn't have to drive in traffic. Driving a car that slow every day would be too frustrating."
I agree. It's extremely frustrating to DD a fun/powerful car when you are sitting in traffic 99% of the time. Eventually you just end up disliking a perfectly good car only because it's not being used as intended.
omarccx says:
02:03 PM, 01/23/12
I could probably even daily drive a Lotus Elise. Not the Exige, though. That one doesn't even have a rear window.