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

---

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.