2017 Acura NSX Named Road & Track Performance Car of the Year

After extensive testing, Road & Track just handed out its fifth annual Performance Car of the Year award. Although there were many worthy contenders in this year’s crop of supercars, the 2017 Acura NSX took home the prize with an overwhelming majority of the votes. We’ll examine how the competitors were chosen, who those competitors were, and how the Acura NSX was able to secure victory.

Performance Car of the Year Qualifications

The criteria for inclusion in testing for the Performance Car of the Year is fairly simple:

1. The car must be either new or significantly redesigned for the current model year.
2. The car must offer exceptional performance that is at or near the top of the market.
3. The car must be a “traditional” shape – that is, no crossovers, hot hatches or similar vehicles.
4. Finally, the car must offer that intangible “it” factor that makes drivers dream of owning their own model.

Each year, Road & Track invites all eligible vehicles to participate. Not all eligible vehicles are eventually tested, however; sometimes the manufacturer doesn’t have a test vehicle to spare, and sometimes manufacturers aren’t ready to reveal the final details of their cars at the time of the test.

The Test

After receiving the test models for each of the entrants, the editors of Road & Track subject the vehicles to four days of testing. The first two days of testing are in real-world conditions, putting the cars through their paces on the backroads of Tennessee and Kentucky. The final two days of testing take place at the race track of the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Throughout the test, the editors take turns driving each vehicle, allowing each editor to offer an informed opinion on each car. At the conclusion of the test, the editors go through two stages of balloting to settle upon the final winner.

This Year’s Competitors

This year’s competition featured nine different high-performance supercars. Ten manufacturers actually responded, but unfortunately for McLaren, their vehicle, the 570S, was removed from the competition after an untimely meeting with a trio of fence posts and a tall cedar. Thankfully, no one was injured in the crash, but the 570S was unable to finish the Performance Car of the Year testing.

In alphabetical order, here are this year’s competitors and their key features:

After days of vigorous testing, the editors of Road & Track compared notes to decide upon the 2017 Performance Car of the Year. Two rounds of balloting were conducted; the first round narrowed down the finalists, and the second round selected the winner. Ultimately, the Corvette Grand Sport came in third place, the Lotus Evora 400 was the runner-up, and the Acura NSX took home the crown.

The Runners-Up

The 2017 Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport earned third-place honors in this year’s award. The editors appreciated the complete package that the Grand Sport offered; in their opinion, this was one of the best Corvette models in decades. Its naturally aspirated engine is a pleasure to hear, and the vehicle doesn’t make it difficult to unlock its true potential.

In second place was the 2017 Lotus Evora 400. The editors loved its slim appearance and throwbacks to automotive history. Its mid-engine layout gives the Lotus an easy performance profile, and its precise handling and light weight make it a true joy to drive. The editors called it out as one of the best vehicles available for anyone who enjoys driving in the open world.

The Acura NSX is the 2017 Performance Car of the Year

With 8 out of the possible 10 votes, the 2017 Acura NSX was the overwhelming victor in this year’s contest; no car in the history of the award has elicited such agreement. Most notable in its victory was its outstanding use of technology, particularly its hybrid drivetrain. It incorporates all of the latest technological advances to give its drivers greater performance and control, but the engineers behind the NSX went a step further than simply slapping cutting-edge tech into the NSX.

Instead, Acura spent years testing and refining both the performance and the emotion behind each piece of tech in the NSX, giving drivers the tactile connection with their vehicles that is often lost in the cold precision of drive-by-wire technologies. For example, when the brakes are hot, the brake pedal’s travel time lengthens, keeping drivers connected to the condition of the vehicle rather than isolated by self-correcting technology.

Every aspect of the NSX was engineered with this idea in mind: The driver should be connected to his car, not removed from it.

Despite its hybrid powertrain, the NSX never feels like a sterile, souped-up Prius. It powers through race track corners and winding mountain roads with gusto, oozing performance and style even as it reduces greenhouse emissions and saves its drivers money on gas.

When Honda began development on the NSX, it instructed its engineers to incorporate the latest in progressive technology while simultaneously offering a performance profile and driving experience that could stand up to the most storied names in supercars. These competing mandates caused the engineers at Honda’s plant in Marysville, Ohio, no end of grief. In early prototypes, for example, the vehicle actually ran slower when its electronic motors were engaged. A software bug introduced wild amounts of oversteer, and an error in the lubrication system actually set one prototype model on fire.

The engineers kept working, however, and after years of development the car that would eventually take home the Road & Track Performance Car of the Year award began to take shape. After the engineers had achieved their desired performance levels, they kept refining the systems on board the NSX, using technology to keep the driver engaged with the vehicle.

The editors at Road & Track awarded the win to the NSX for this groundbreaking vision. The vehicle offers great performance and exudes great styling, but more importantly, the Acura NSX lays the groundwork for what the supercar of the future can be. Rather than relying on antiquated ideas of what makes a supercar, the NSX presents an opportunity to use technology to enhance all aspects of driving. That idea, more than anything else, is what powered the NSX past its rivals.

When talking about the results of the test, Jack Beruth of Road & Track said: 

Our goal is to find the car that best stirs the emotions, captivates the driver, and boldly faces the future. We measure with the stopwatch, and we evaluate with the mind, but in the end, we will choose with the heart.

The Acura NSX performed well in the test, but ultimately, it won the hearts of the editors at Road & Track. It was a long time coming, but the NSX stands as a dream delivered. You can read their whole coverage here.

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