by Patrick George, 2015-02-10

I have finally figured out what the new turbocharged, hybrid, all-wheel drive, 550 horsepower 2016 Acura NSX will really compete against: the original NSX. Not in sales, mind you, but in expectations. There is no way the new NSX will escape comparison with its famous father.

It was actually pretty ballsy for Honda to give this new car the same name as the world's first aluminum monocoque, Ayrton Senna-tested, Ferrari-fighting triumph of engineering that came out in 1990.

That NSX was one of the greatest driver's cars ever. It also served as a halo car not only for Honda, but for that whole golden era of 90s Japanese sports cars in general. It put Honda on the map in a way that no luxury sedan, sporty hatchback or even F1 team could ever do.

For an entire generation of enthusiasts raised on VTEC and affordable speed, the NSX is their Testarossa. It's so venerated today that Cool Pope Francis should give it its own holiday. I bet he would if we asked him.

I have long maintained that the NSX is the best Japanese car of all time. (Imma let you finish, Nissan GT-R, but...) I've made that claim without even driving one — until now. After having driven one very special NSX, I can tell you it deserves all the hype around it, and that I almost feel bad for the new NSX for having so much to live up to.

This red car is not an ordinary NSX, if there is such a thing. It's a 1999 Alex Zanardi Edition NSX, and only 50 of those were made. Named after the CART champion, F1 driver, paracyclist and all around toughest son of a bitch alive, this NSX boasts a raft of improvements over the standard car, including unique lighter wheels, a fixed roof, a titanium shift knob for the six-speed manual, a significantly stiffer suspension, and most notably, manual steering. Its weight comes in a bit over 2,900 pounds.

This NSX belongs to Ojas Patel, who like me lives in Austin. He's a diehard Honda enthusiast from way back, one more in a long list of fans who longs for their 90s glory days. I met Ojas through a mutual friend, and he was kind enough to let me drive his NSX on the road and the track, and so I bought him a burrito bowl to say thanks.

This is the third NSX he's owned. It has about 105,000 miles on the clock and it gets driven regularly and tracked occasionally.

"It's not a garage queen," Patel told me. "It has some battle scars."

It's also not a stock Zanardi NSX at all, which is what kept this story from being a straightforward numbered Jalopnik Classic Review. Its 3.2-liter V6 has a Comptech supercharger running 6 PSI of boost. It also has Comptech headers, a Taitec exhaust, and Comptech shocks and springs. (The roof has also been plasti-dipped black, in contrast with solid red Zanardi NSX-es.) Patel has never dyno'd it, but he thinks it's running something like 360 horsepower at the wheels.

You might think this setup makes it an unmanageable track monster or some mad tyte JDM drift car, yo; it doesn't. It's just more powerful and even sharper in the corners, and with a slightly stiffer ride.

These modifications amplify what makes the NSX great, but they don't change the character of the car. That's an impressive and rare feat. The supercharger noise doesn't even overwhelm the fine sound of the high-revving V6.