View Acura NSX Photos on Its 30th Anniversary

As Colin Chapman once said, "Power only makes you faster in a straight line; light weight makes you faster everywhere."

Tipping the scales at about 3000 pounds, the NSX was lighter than contemporary 911s, Corvettes, and Ferraris.

Achieving that litheness required new aluminum construction techniques that were developed and implemented in the small plant near Honda's Tochigi proving grounds, where the NSX was assembled.

At the time, only the Audi V-8 luxury sedan was built of the same lightweight material, and it beat the NSX into production by less than a year.

The NSX was full of counterintuitive details in pursuit of driver involvement.

For example, its 205/50-15 front tires were on the smallish side.

But these tires reduced the size of the front wheel housings, allowing more room in the footwells than was typical of contemporary mid-engined cars, as well as great forward visibility.

You could see the pavement three feet in front of the bumper—or so it seemed.

These modest front tires also reduced steering effort, allowing unassisted rack-and-pinion steering for purer feel at the driver's fingertips.

Another unusual measure in pursuit of this goal was the use of iron front brake calipers.

The stiffer iron made for a more compact caliper than would have been possible in aluminum, allowing steering geometry that further reduced steering effort.

Another triumph of design over complication was the NSX seat.

It offered adjustments for only travel and back angle. But, combined with a tilting and telescoping steering wheel, this seat was remarkably comfortable for a wide range of drivers.

Moreover, it had superb lateral support thanks to shoulder-high bolsters that were carefully contoured to fit a wide range of physiques.

Some of that character survives in today's NSX, which, like the original, generates its performance with a less burly engine specification than its supercar competition.

I could go on about our experiences with the original Acura supercar back in 1989, but the point is that the NSX was created when judicious use of technology and careful design and development were more important than brute-force engineering and electronic band-aids.

And when that design and development was executed by Honda, the most technically oriented Japanese car company, that result was remarkable and memorable.

Such a light car did not need a giant engine, so Honda engineers developed a sophisticated variation of the Acura Legend's V-6, enlarged to 3.0 liters, fitted with double overhead camshafts and Honda's clever VTEC variable lift and timing mechanism, and enhanced with improved breathing and stouter internals.