NSX Tales

Another event reminding me of just how unforgiving the NSX can be at the limit; it occurred around Y2K. Another editor of mine (I'll call him Tom) and I were attending the Motor Press Guild's annual track day at Willow Springs Raceway. Participating manufacturers bring their latest cars to the track and line them up alphabetically from Acura to Volvo. Qualifying journalists are then able take them out for a few laps at a time in order to familiarize themselves with what each manufacturers are building that year.

Tom is an excellent driver with plenty of race experience under his belt. Arriving at the event, we went our separate ways, each climbing into whatever was sitting in line with the keys in it. There's a fine line between pushing a car to evaluate its limits and pushing it beyond those limits. Every year there's at least one clown who gets in over his head and goes off the track in a marvelous cloud of Mojave dust. Word circulates among the journalists who did it. Everyone snickers and jokes about it for the rest of the year. Sure enough the dust cloud appeared off Turn 9 shortly after lunch. When I got back to the paddock, Acura's NSX press car was sitting off to the side covered in dust, finished for the day.

The drive home was a chance to swap stories with Tom and talk about which cars stood out or impressed us most. At some point in the conversation I mentioned that some clown had backed the NSX off the track. "Yeah, that was me," he said sheepishly. "It's a wonderful car but you'd better have your act together to drive it at the limit. It got away faster than I could save it." Yep. I'd heard that before.

Keep it between the fence posts Aaron. We need you around here, and I suck at bodywork.

- E. John Thawley III
Contact: thawleyadd@gmail.com