Living with a Supercar! [Auto Focus Ep 3]

Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Living with a Supercar! [Auto Focus Ep 3]”.
Hey what is up guys, mkbhd here and welcome to episode three of autofocus. I love this series. This is like a fun way to explore the coolest tech on the road, but here’s the thing about reviewing a car that isn’t yours, you get it you get to drive it. You have a lot of fun with it. You push it to its limits and everything and that’s great and then it’s over. It’S done.

You give it back and you go back to driving the car. You drive every day, which is great and everything, but as someone who has a deposit in for a 2020 tesla roadster, it kind of got me thinking. What’S it like to drive a supercar every day, what’s it like to live with a supercar, so this autofocus episode 3 is going to help me figure out exactly that.

This is the acura nsx. So there’s a lot of different cars. We could have done this episode with, but acura reached out with the nsx as a sort of a everyday supercar and after having driving. It actually agree with them on a lot of those things, but plus it also has a lot of similarities or parallels with the roadster.

Now also, i’ve seen a lot of people questioning whether or not the nsx is a true supercar. To me, a supercar is anything that makes big trade-offs for maximum driving performance. This thing does that so a six-cylinder twin-turbo engine mid-mounted, supported by three electric motors doing 0-60 in 2.9 seconds and a top speed of 191 miles an hour makes that a supercar to me, and it also has that supercar price tag, but obviously people who really like Driving who are into the performance and the feel of a race car that happens to have a license plate on it, they’re willing to pay that.

But what are you getting? Well, i’ve spent the last week driving this car everywhere every single day. So here are some things: i’ve picked up on driving a supercar every day, right off the bat number one is how low you are, even if you don’t realize it from outside the car as soon as you get in, you are way closer to the road and Everything about this car is lower and more compact. The suspension is stiffer the front and rear bumpers are super close to the ground, which means two things one.

You will now feel every bump and you’ll start to notice certain roads, because they’re just slightly less than ideal pavement and number two clearance. It’S really really easy to scrape the front bumper or the bottom of this car driveways speed bumps. They all become a problem. Every single little pothole or speed bump or anything like that, is a challenge in this car. You might as well just drive like a like a crazy person and swerve and avoid all of them, because they’ll be more important than you think later. Excuse me, sir, coming through i’m definitely at the the end of visibility for other cars around me, if you’re in, like a minivan or a pickup truck or even a big car, and you look out out your window at me next to you, you’re just going to See the roof of this car you’re not going to see like the entire car, so visibility is important from inside the car, but also from the perspective of other people.

Looking at you, it’s harder to see a car like this. That being said, i do feel super planted and connected to the road and confident and pretty fast. You also pretty quickly notice, there’s only really enough room in the car for the driver and whoever sits next to them at best. Basically, storage and space has never really been easy in supercars, basically because they’re so focused on the whole driving part.

That storage is basically an afterthought. I’M just feeling like this. This very much has a cockpit type of feel this big center console in the middle kind of separates the driver from the passenger. If you have a passenger, if not it’s just a backpack and some audio gear but like you feel like everything is on arm’s reach and everything is very forward very forward. So, like i mentioned, there’s electric motors in this car.

There are two in the front one in actually at each wheel and one in the back and technically that makes us a hybrid, but it doesn’t drive like a hybrid for efficiency. It drives like a hybrid for performance, so it’s using those electric motors to fill like torque gap and fill in for turbo lag and really get you going up quickly as soon as you hit that pedal, because that’s what electric is good at, but so then, with Those electric motors you get a couple different driving modes. I think it’s four first is eco mode, where you can drive around completely on the electric motors, which is quiet and definitely smooth.

You can’t go very fast before it’s going to want to kick the engines in, but then you have sport mode, which is i’d, say the normal driving mode, which most people keep it in sport mode is going to basically keep the engine on for the most part, But anytime you come to a stop or get down to a really low speed. It can go back to silent turn the engine off and go eco again, but you might get a little bored of that like me and start to drive in more in sport plus mode you switch over to sport plus and it’s a little more. It’S a little more responsive, it’s more willing to downshift and give you more torque and it will never turn the engine off and go into only ev mode.

So it’s just going to be a little more sporty of a driving experience. You also hit a little bit of a lower uh efficiency at that number and the last but not least, you do have track mode. You got to hold down that knob to go into it, which will turn the performance. Basically, all the way up and you’ll get a little bit less traction control help if you want to spin the side out a little bit. This thing kicks, though this thing definitely rips and it’s really easy to go fast and not realize it. Visibility is another thing to consider uh in this car. I’D say it’s actually, surprisingly good, because these a-pillars are so thin. I feel like my front and side. Visibility is pretty good.

The rear is still a little less than a normal car. Obviously, but you do have glass to look through and then the engine’s right behind you, so it’s a little different, but it’s all right and then i had a couple other quick observations. Some you might think about some. You might not like the amount of carbon fiber here is amazing.

There’S carbon fiber around the outside of the car, the front splitter, the body skirts along the side, the rear, diffuser, even the roof. You don’t really see the roof of your car too often, but if it’s that small, this one you’ll notice and the carbon fiber is to reduce weight and then, when you get in the car, the carbon fiber that surrounds you is awesome, especially on the steering wheel. This is honestly, probably my favorite steering wheel. I’Ve ever held the trunk. Like i said, storage is an afterthought on supercars, like that aventador i drove a couple weeks ago had this little front trunk, which is all right, but with all the electronics in the front of the nsx. There is no front trunk, but there is a rear trunk.

In the very back, which is actually surprisingly usable, so you can toss a couple backpacks back here like i usually did, you can go grocery shopping for one or two people. I actually did this or you could theoretically get a whole set of golf clubs back here. That would be a pretty serious challenge, but it’s been done. You’D probably still hate this trunk after a while, but it’s better than the average supercar. The one weird thing about it is you got to think about it’s so close to the engine that it gets hot. Like the inside of the trunk gets really physically hot, so you got ta, make sure you’re cool with anything in your trunk being 100 plus degrees at any time.

You may have also noticed that there are no cup holders in this cabin wait for it all right now. There are two cup holders in this cabin classic supercar, but overall the question most people have about a car like this is just basically, how does it drive, and this nsx is, i would say, actually much easier to drive than something like the aventador. That car was believe it or not, sometimes really harsh. In a lot of ways. The nsx here is still stiff and super responsive and low.

The brakes are huge too people don’t talk about the brakes as much, but it still kind of keeps a lot of the things that make it feel like the everyman supercar or at least make it more daily usable. A lot of stuff in this car feels, like it came from a normal acura like forget, the paddle shifters and the carbon fiber steering wheel for a second, but like the the blinkers the hazards, the window trim like the the flippers for actually putting up and down The window, a lot of things, feel like comfortable and familiar, which is good if you’re driving a lot uh, and it’s also kind of adds to that everyday supercar feel the infotainment system is easily the worst part of this car. Probably not something you want to feel like it came from another acura, but it still does that and the backup camera looks like it came straight from 1994., but the upside is, it does have both android, auto and apple carplay, so you never have to use the Garbage built-in maps, plus it has a slot in the middle console for your phone that happens to be really snug and actually the exact dimensions of an iphone 10, so possibly too snug.

Also, you can’t forget about gas mileage. This car is not electric. After all, then again, if you can afford a car like this, you probably don’t drive it every day or care very much about paying a lot for gas, but it is the most expensive gas every single time you fill up. But you know what speaking of modes track mode – that’s not something you ever really get to turn on during everyday driving. At least i wouldn’t recommend it. There’S only one place, i’d recommend using track mode and if you own a supercar, this is one of those unique things that you can do is taking your car to the track all right. So this is uh my first time ever on a track. We’Re going to do a sort of tutorial modes and figure it out the first time and then we’ll put the helmets on and go fast later.

But let’s, let’s see what this is made of we’re in track mode. The fun begins. So for this tutorial mode, we’re doing a couple laps around the track, it’s empty. It’S just me and ari one of the owners and a quality driver himself and he’s showing me all the turns the race lines and i’m gon na follow him and get to know it a little bit.

Then, once i’m comfortable i’ll signal to him that i’m good and then we’ll really move this thing, it’s pretty tame, it’s pretty tame start up and around the turn, hugging the inside coming back out wide breaking 200 feet. Breaking 100 feet break a little okay. I feel like i’m getting it i’m getting it. I can’t tell if i’m a good driver or not.

Oh here we go he’s moving now. The one thing i love about the track road. Obviously, not only are there no potholes, but it is super super smooth uh. You get a different sort of confidence, knowing exactly what the car will do at any point in any turn, unlike new jersey, roads top of the turn big sweeper keeping the outside all right, i think i’m thinking i’m getting the hang of it right now.

We’Ve completed our tutorial laps we’re gon na move over get the helmets on and uh actually go more than 65 miles an hour like way way more than 65 miles an hour first lap just get warmed up, get back into it. Yeah, remember your lines and then do it same thing. Look up through. It’S got a good sound to it. Yeah and yeah use all the track as you unwind your hands there you go and stay tight for the right and eyes up. It’S a good, quick life left and then a quick right there. You go all right same thing. Looking up through just roll through no need for break there same thing use all the track there you go just let it coast, let it coast and you feel it start to move around again there you go very hard.

Yep eyes up, be patient, be patient. So you feel start to slide around now a little yeah and the tires are getting warmer too. So they’ll start to get a little more slippery, so maybe break a little sooner yeah there. You go roll back to power for a tech, guy you’re, not afraid to throw a car around all right. I think it’s time for me to give this thing back.

It’S been a good week. I want to give a shout out to acura for for giving us the nsx for letting me drive it for a whole week. Sorry about the noise, and i want to give a shout out to monticello motor club in new york.

Who is awesome enough to let us use the track for the day? Uh learned a lot of things this week, but bottom line. I do think i do think it’s possible to live with a supercar. I think a lot of people who might not be a fan of those trade-offs, uh might not do it, but people who really love driving and people who really love performance and who want to race or drive like a race car that happens to have a license Plate they’re gon na they’re gon na make those trade-offs and i feel like i’m one of those people thanks for watching .