NSX Tales - July 2008 Automotive A.D.D.

Tag : angle fitting

Our very own editor bought an NSX last week. He'd been looking fora while. When we last spoke, I asked him if he'd picked one up yet."I'm driving it right now," he says.
After congratulating him on a more fitting mode of transportationthan some of the other cars he'd been driving, I began to reflecton my own arm's-length relationship with the NSX over the years.I'm not much of a supercar or exotic enthusiast, but anything withtitanium rods and an aluminum chassis designed on a Cray-2supercomputer deserves its due respect. The NSX has always struckme as a bit of an outsider-a car that few really appreciate andeven fewer truly master.
My first NSX experience was in 1989. I was in school studyingphotography and working part-time as a commercial photo assistant.Photographer Vic Huber got the job of shooting the Acura NSX for aswank, hardback, aluminum-covered "sales brochure." (Acura dealerslater sold them for $20 apiece.) Most of the shooting locationswere in the San Francisco Bay Area. One was a spectacular countryroad near Mt. Tamalpais, a few miles northwest of the Golden GateBridge. Vic, myself, and another assistant left our hotel wellbefore dawn one morning to meet the car prep company guys and atrailer containing one of the only two NSX prototypes in thecountry. It was a million-dollar car someone said, and there wouldnot be any more until the production line began rolling thefollowing year. The message was clear: Be Careful. Vic had thechallenge of producing a full page of unique action shots in lessthan an hour before the light turned to crap. Over 25 wouldeventually be used in the book.
I was honored that Vic put me on "second camera" during some of thepan shots. He then moved to a hard cornering shot after the slower,low-light stuff was out of the way. The turn he set up for was asmooth, cresting off camber leading over a rise to another bendjust out of our view. This spot allowed a low-angle view of the carin a spot the driver would be able to push it a bit and induce somevisible body roll. That was the idea, anyway. Trouble was, the NSXdidn't have much body roll. Vic was looking for some visual drama,and the NSX just wasn't showing any.
Cops had the road closed for us. Radio calls to the stunt driverincreased asking him to pick up the pace. Back and forth he drove,each time with increasing speed, each time with little, if any,additional body roll. Each time burning up precious minutes duringthe short period of ideal light left in the morning. We needed toshow some action and suspension movement.
The NSX was just cornering too flat to give it to us. A finalexasperated call to the driver emphasized the urgency. He wouldhave to really push it for Vic to get the shot. Push it he did.
On the next pass the million-dollar NSX prototype hit the apex atthe absolute limit of grip. It looked bitchin'. Vic's excited,triumphant grin turned quickly to an openmouthed gasp. Tiressquealed as the car disappeared from view and entered the nextturn. We then heard the car leave the road and the sound of acrash. Oh sh*t. Everyone broke into a run to see if the driver wasOK. What we found was a shaken, uninjured driver and the prototypeNSX stuffed in the bushes, adorned with clumps of grassy mud in thewheels and fender wells. Amazingly, the car was OK, with only a fewscratches to the finish after the mud and grass were cleaned away.The driver, a seasoned pro, shook his head remarking how quickly ithad gotten away from him and that he just couldn't save it.