Acura shocked the exotic car world when it introduced its NSX in 1991. Honda designers started with the basic exotic car wedge (championed by the Ferrari Testarossa and 308), that would remain basically unchanged for its entire life and could only be described as "beautiful." To back up the gorgeous styling, the mechanical specifications were right out of a race car. The NSX featured a super-light all aluminum chassis, body, and suspension, a first for a production car.
The suspension was a double-wishbone suspension, mounted at both ends on aluminum subframes, just like Formula 1 cars. And the standard race-inspired V6 engine was mounted midship and featured Variable Valve Timing and Lift Electronic Control (VTEC), six individual coils, and titanium connecting rods. This was the first application of VTEC in any production vehicle, but Honda’s experience with the VTEC system in the NSX would eventually reach all other Honda and Acura vehicles.
In 1995 a Targa version was added, named the NSX-T. The removable roof looked great but hurt the chassis rigidity of the NSX and added about 100 pounds of weight. Nevertheless, the NSX-T was the only NSX available in the U.S. for 1995 - coupes were not available. All roofs were now body colored instead of black and several new colors were available. The automatic transmission now received a new "SportShift" Formula 1-inspired shifting system, which was controlled by a small lever behind the steering wheel.
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