Honda NSX vs. Ferrari 348 on Shuto Express

The Honda NSX. A legend in it's own right.

It was introduced in concept form at the 1988 Tokyo Motor Salon, as the Honda New Sports Concept, or "NS-X" for short. After it's introduction in late 1989, the hyphen was removed from the name, and a stout 280HP V6 engine, with Honda's world famous V-Tec Variable Cam/Valve timing system was installed amid ship in it's engine bay.

Ayrton Senna owned one. Gordon Murray says that he dreamed of making the McLaren F1 handle as good as the one he had. Jeremy Clarkson praised it as one of the best cars ever made.

Production lasted from 1989 to 2005, with a limited edition (10 sold) NSX GT introduced in 2007.

The Ferrari 348TB. A fine Italian machine.

A replacement for the aged 328 platform Ferrari, that was produced from 1986 to 1989 was in order. Although the 328 had proved to be a great success for Ferrari, the 348, with its Testarossa like side strakes, was to be a top notch performer, and a worthy competitor to Porsche's newly introduced 964 Turbo, and Chevrolet's tuned up Corvette ZR1.

With it's voluptous curves, yet sharp creases, it never truly caught on like it's precursor, the Ferrari F355, or it's predeccesor, the Ferrari 328. Output of the mid mounted V8 was 300HP, however, the price of the car, in comparison to the NSX, was over 50 percent more. Performance was lackluster, and the car unfortunately never really caught on.

Production lasted from 1989 to 1994. The current iteration of this "entry level" Ferrari is the 458 Italia.

206-246-208/308-328-348-F355-360-F430-458

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Here we see a video from 1996 of both said cars racing at high speed on Shuto Expressway, Wangan Bayshore Route, Tokyo Japan. Although some pretty radical music dilutes the purity of the NSX's sound, the video is a great show, and from time to time you can hear the 280HP V6 wind up with aplomb.

The black car....

Driving her Jeep down the Wangan proved to be trouble enough. Trucks weaving through lanes, small cars getting stuck on the shoulder, having to stop for the toll booth right in the middle of it all... it all had proved to be a disaster. Never in her entire life had she expected that Japan could be such a vehicular mess. Having come for a small business trip from Hong Kong, she wasn’t familiar with driving on the right side of the road, or purchasing things with Yen.

“Not enough time”, she thought as she slowly squeezed the brake pedal, letting the truck cut her off in the next lane. “Wow these drivers are rude” she said aloud, perseptive to the obnoxious and casual way of driving they had. Or maybe it was just her? Chinese drivers were supposed to be bad, right? She pondered this as the signaled left into the slow lane, and went down to the 80km/h speed limit. Only seconds after she settled did she hear the sound.

A trivial whine at first... what sounded almost like a scream of a baby. Peering her eyes into the rearview mirror, a black shape rose up steadily in it’s reflection. Before she had time to even catch what it was, a black sports car drove past her, at least 2... maybe 3 times as fast as she was going – And she was going 80. It signalled into the fast lane, almost cutting a small lorry off, and downshifted onto the offramp to Rainbow Bridge.

Never in her life had she been so scared. Clutching the wheel, she nervously felt a bead of sweat fall down her cheek. She breathed heavily, the sound still lingering in her ears. She felt goosebumps rise all over her body. She was in shock. She slowed down, and took the offramp. On the sign above the turnoff, it said “DK Parking Area”.

Coming to a rest at the bottom of the looped ramp, she noticed a large collection of similar sports cars in the parking lot. Her immediate thought was to turn around, and get onto the highway again, and continue her trek to Nagoya. But something was leading her into the parking lot, and as she drove slowly past the sports cars. Some of the owners, clustered in groups and laughing, peered her way. She parked next to a small convertible, and got out. She looked around, spotted a McDonalds at the corner of the lot, and immediately started to walk as fast as she could towards it.

Putting her hands in her pockets, she heard a loud yell from a man.

“Aiii... Domo Domo!!” he yelled as he ran up behind her. He tapped her shoulder as he caught up to her. She stopped walking, and didn’t turn around.

“What?” she murmured in a inquisitive tone.

“Hai Hai, just wondering why you drive Jeep into Daikoku Parking” he chuckled in broken english, catching his breath halfway through his sentence, in a large huff.

She didn’t look back at him, and just started walking again, towards the McDonalds. She heard him laugh a loud, and almost bully like laugh, and she entered.

Her lunch wasn’t as good as she had hoped, and after she finished eating, she stepped out cautiously, and saw that there were less cars in the lot, and more trucks. But one car did catch her eye – the black car that had passed her, was parking in between two large transports, almost hidden away.

She took a look around, scared of drawing attention, and quickly shuffled towards the car. It was low, very low... Everything on it was black. The wheels, the windows... even the headlights and taillights were a dark dark tint, as close to black as they could be. She felt a presence, and turned around, and a white man walked towards her. “I don’t see you as the tpe to drive a truck” he said grumbly as he walked towards the drivers door.

“It was you... the one, on the highway...” she said in a shocked daze.

“Yes, that’s usually where I am. Don’t usually like to stop, but you know what they say, a man’s got to eat.”

Clutching his McDonalds bag with one hand, he reached deep into his stained blue jeans pocket, and pulled out his key. He unlocked the door, and threw the bag, and the key in.

“Well, you can go now” he said, not even looking up at her.

“What car is this?” she said, surprised that she even wanted to know.

“Mazda... Mazda RX-7 FD” he whispered, before reaching his leg in, closing the door, and starting the car up.

At idle, it didn’t sound like the same screaming animal it had when it was on the highway. It made tooting sounds, bridging a gap between silence, and a heavy rumble, at interval.

He put the car into gear, turned on the lights, and drove off slowly.

Waking up in her hotel room in Nagoya, she couldn’t believe it was 4PM. She had driven all thru the night, been there for 8AM, in the boardroom, for the meeting, only to be told by a member that it had been cancelled. She could sparsely move, and running her fingers down her chest and stomach, she closed her eyes and tried to go back to sleep. Somehow, she envisioned the white man... dressed so casually, yet so unfriendly, getting into his car.

“Mazda RX-7 FD” she remembered him saying, and she opened her eyes violently as the goosebumps on the back of her neck rose again.

On her drive back to Hong Kong, she had decided to stop in the same parking area, and look for the man with the FD. She drove down slowly, with night already beginning to show in the sky. Tonight however, there wasn’t as many trucks as there were cars, and people. Somehow, it looked almost like a party... a party based solely on automobiles. The people danced around their cars, with music blaring, and headlights flashing, and in congregations, she saw people standing, admiring other cars.

Before she could find a place to park, she heard that imfamous loud scream shoot up behind her, and pass her. She saw only the tail lights, as it drove down the ramp, and didn’t even stop in the parking area, instead, simply turning around, and going back onto the onramp to the highway. She didn’t want to waste her chance, and accelerated as hard as her little Jeep could go, and tried to stay behind it.

As it got onto the highway, it slowed down, and cruised in the commuter lane. She caught up to it, going quite over the limit herself, at least 130, maybe 140, and she braked hard, slamming her steering wheel horn, trying to get the drivers attention. She came up behind him fast, and just missed him by an inch, as her Jeep finally gave up on it’s speed, and settled to a cruise. She honked the horn again, and still no slowing down, or stopping. She blinked her Jeep’s headlights, and watched the FD gently pull over to the side of the road.

The driver got out, still looking grumbly as ever, and walked over to her window. She put it down as she saw him come towards it.

“You aren’t being serious... are you?” he said.

“What are you talking about?” said the girl, not even looking at him, instead, choosing to look straight ahead at the black outline of the car parked in front.

“I won’t race you, it wouldn’t be fair, you’re in a Jeep.”

“WHAT!?” she said in a commotion, losing her focus on the rear of the car in front, and snapping her face towards him. “The LAST thing I want to do is race... I just wanted to talk!”

“Well, the side of the road really isn’t a good place to talk”, he continued. “And I’m not going to sit in that hunk of American crap and listen to a stranger, so if you want to talk, get inside my car”.

Absolutely astonished at his blatant disregard to her automotive purchase, she grabbed her purse (Just in case he was a weirdo – it had a bottle of mace in it) and slammed her door shut, following him to his car, and letting him open the door for her.

She got in, and he slammed it shut, and walked over to the drivers side, got in, and turned the car on.

“What are you doing?”, she asked, slowly reaching her hand into her purse.

“I’m not good at talking”, he mumbled. “But I am good at driving, and if I can do the latter, then the former comes a little easier”. He smiled, engaged the gear, and drove off slowly.

She wanted to say something... she wanted to say anything, start a conversation, ask if he knew how dangerous what he was doing was, if he had any concern for others... but the only thing she felt was those goosebumps rise up, as he veered out of the commuter lane, and onto the highway. She felt her body loosen, and get pushed back in the seat, as he downshifted, and floored the car.

He didn’t say anything, the whole drive. Neither did she. His velocity, his sheer stupidity... or maybe it was just guts – as he weaved in and out of lanes, in front and behind cars going a third his speed, mesmerized her, and she whole time she forgot she was living, she just felt like it was a dream.

Before she knew it, he pulled back again, behind her Jeep.

“Wow...” he said sarcastically. “Great conversation...”

“I’m... I’m sorry” she mumbled, looking out the window to the wall beside her.

“It’s okay. I didn’t really expect you had anything to say anyways. Thanks for wasting my time” he snarled, as he pulled up the emergency brake.

“Why do you do this?” she inquired, completely ignoring his previous statement.

“.... I do it...” he said, pausing between every word and syllable, “... because it helps me find myself.”

She opened the door, and got out of the car. She felt the rush of the wind, when he drove away. She opened her Jeep’s door and got in.

Sitting there, alone, in it, with cars passing by her, onto the highway, she felt a chill run up her spine.

She wondered if she still had time to find herself.