Supercars have a natural affinity with superlatives. They are, after all, built to be the fastest, the most powerful and the most outlandish.

They are also an exercise in demonstrating their owners’ wealth and prowess. Some boast the biggest engine or the highest speed, while others flaunt their lap time at the Nurburgring race circuit. Some are even positioned, albeit discreetly, as the most dangerous, a tacit testament to their driver’s bravado.

One of the less fought-over titles in the world of the supercar, though, is “most useable” – one that is easiest to live with on a daily basis, delivering a high performance driving experience in a low-effort manner. In fact, only one carmaker has ever set out to secure such a title.

Back in 1990, the original Honda NSX was released to considerable acclaim. At the time, it was seen as the Japanese marque’s attempt to capitalise on the dominance of its Formula 1 racing engine. It also made much of the supposed involvement of Ayrton Senna, the one-time F1 world champion, in its development.

The first generation NSX lived up well to all the hype. It was very fast and came with excellent handling, making it more than a match for anything offered by Ferrari or Porsche on pretty much any racetrack you care to name. It was also very easy to live with and resoundingly easy to get in and out of, while also being astonishingly comfortable to drive.

Ostensibly, this new second generation NSX offers more of the same – a state-of-the-art road car with performance allied to relaxed driving comfort. Unfortunately, its pursuit of such objectives is often far from cutting edge. In an age where performance machines opt for carbon fibre rather than metal, reducing mass and increasing rigidity, the new NSX offers only a comparatively low-tech aluminium chassis, albeit one with a carbon floor in a token nod to weight reduction.

It’s not just this metal chassis, however, that contributes to the NSX’s noticeable weight problem. The car also follows the current trend for combining a relatively modest petrol engine with a supplementary electric motor, that offers added boost when required. Electric motors, though, need batteries and batteries are, inevitably, heavy.

At a chunky 1,725kg, the NSX is some 80kg or so heavier than a Mercedes AMG GT (see Gafencu November 2015), 170 kilos more than an Audi R8 V10, and an eye-watering 410kg more than the McLaren 570S. Big mass needs big force to make it go. Fortunately, the NSX isn’t lacking in that department, with no fewer than four motors compensating for that additional electro-flab.

The star attraction is its transverse-mounted 3.5-litre V6 turbo, easily capable of pumping out around 500bhp. This petrol engine also has a helper driving the rear axle – a 105 lb-ft electric motor. Each front wheel also has its own electric support of around 54 lb-ft, giving the NSX a rear-biased four-wheel drive.

With all four motors working flat out together, they produce a total thrust of 573bhp and 476 lb-ft, more than enough to drag the car’s considerable mass from nought to 62mph in just three seconds. Its top speed, meanwhile, is just the wrong side of the magic 200mph mark, coming in at a not-unimpressive 191.

The striking thing about the way the NSX delivers its acceleration, though, is its sheer immediacy. From a standing start, its combination of electric propulsion and all-wheel traction makes for a getaway that is almost savage in its efficiency. A conscious effort is required to push the throttle pedal hard, though, largely because, by the time your right-Nike has moved halfway through the accelerator’s travel, the rearward forces acting on your foot are already nearly enough to make its journey to the fully-open position something of a struggle. It’s that instant and it’s that potent.

With a comparatively modest power unit of just 3.5 turbo-charged litres, the sound from the tailpipes is a little on the thin and whiney side, at least when compared to other supercars. To be fair, the engineers seem to have been aware of this, with the NSX consequently fitted with a system that pipes some of the exhaust noise directly to the firewall just behind the seats. The result makes the car seem louder than it really is.

After the shock of the initial getaway, the experience of driving the NSX hard comes as an odd combination of the frenetic and the serene. With no fewer than nine forward ratios in its dual-clutch gearbox, it can feel like the work of changing gear is never done. Its different cogs are so closely set that no single gear feels right for all that long. The changes, however, are quick and smooth.

Fortunately, the petrol engine has a broad power band, delivering near peak torque from 2,000 rpm up to around 6,000. Indeed, only searching for the last few tenths of a second lap time would actually justify that trip to the rather more shrill 7,500 redline.

Overall, its handling is improved by a pair of independently operated electric motors, each driving one of the wheels. The “torque vectoring” effect, meanwhile, keeps the car pointing in the right direction, applying extra force when and where it’s needed.

Another technical triumph is the brake-feel. As a hybrid, the NSX harvests much of the energy usually squandered during braking, repurposing it to recharge the batteries. Again, in most petrol-electric combos, the system can be detected through the brake pedal, largely thanks to a rather unsettling sensation that somewhat undermines driver confidence. Not so with the NSX, however, with the stoppers feeling natural and progressive.

Blending out of the brakes on the turn-in to a bend, the car shifts posture quickly and smoothly. It does, however, tend towards a slight under-steer on all but the fiercest “track” settings of its four driving modes.

Despite its battery-ballast, the cornering force remains tremendous. Thanks to that clever all-wheel-drive, the traction is excellent when it comes to accelerating out of corners, allowing early throttle application with little worry about the front or back end running out of grip. On the downside, the steering is, perhaps, a little vague, but no worse than its contemporaries labouring under similar electric power assistance.

The NSX is perfectly capable of matching similarly positioned and priced cars when it comes to high-speed track attack stuff. Only a few supercar owners, though, ever actually get to explore their mounts’ full potential.

A more realistic test of the way such cars are used on the road comes courtesy of the occasional blast of speed required to humiliate rivals or impress intended conquests. That and, of course, sustained periods of fairly fast driving. To be fair to the NSX, it does both of these very, very well indeed.

Unlike a number of other hybrids, there’s no plug on the NSX. Its electric motors are included solely as a means of boosting short-term performance, an area where they excel. A brief surge of power is always available – very quickly and very powerfully – even if you find yourself seven gear ratios away from where you really ought to be.

The other real-world application of supercars, though, is best achieved in the softest of the driving modes – “quiet.” And, indeed, this nomenclature is apt. In such a mode, the exhaust is at its quietest, the engine is limited to just 4,000 rpm and the near-silent electric motors are extensively employed.

Even in this lullaby setting, the NSX is much faster than 99 per cent of other road traffic. In fact, it’s very easy and very comfortable to go very fast. If the objective was to make quite the nicest, most usable supercar, then the design team behind NSX may very well have succeeded.

As a technical exercise, the original 1990 NSX was something of a triumph. As a sales exercise, though, it was far less compelling, selling just 18,000 units over its 15-year production run. By comparison, more than 11,000 of the Ferrari 355, its more expensive and arguably lower performance contemporary, were sold in just over five years.

Whether the new NSX will prove something more than a footnote in supercar history, though, remains to be seen. While the niche is clearly bigger than it was 25 years ago, with more people in search of a way to show off their wealth, supercars have also become easier to live with. Wealthy customers are no longer content to tolerate cramped cabins and difficult driving positions.

This ubiquity of its user-friendly rivals, though, rather robs the NSX of its USP, as does the raft of petrol-electric hybrid two-seater land missile alternatives. To make matters worse, in the early 1990s, the company’s name was synonymous with race-track excellence. Honda’s recent return to Formula 1, under the latest petrol-electric engine rules, has proved a very expensive humiliation, winning it the reputation of having the slowest and most unreliable power unit on the grid. Not good advertising for its similarly-powered road going supercar it has to be said.

In all likelihood, the new NSX will go the way of its senior sibling – earning plaudits for its excellent real world driving and enjoying an enviable status as an everyday performance car, without it, necessarily, ever making all that much money for the company that actually produced it. Rather a shame that.

 

Honda NSX

Engine: 3.5 litre V6 turbo, plus three electric motors

Power: 573bhp (combined)
Torque: 476 lb-ft (combined)

Transmission:
nine-speed dual
clutch rear axle, electric direct drive front axle

0-62mph: 3.0 seconds

Top speed: 191mph

Price: from £120,000 (HK$1.35 million plus import tax)

 

Above: Just the sort of cockpit you’d expect in a supercar of the NSX’s class

The new Bentley Bentayga is big. Very big. In lots of ways.

At 2,440 kilos, 5.1 metres long and 2.2 metres wide, it’s physically big for a start. With a 6.0 litre W12 engine pushing out some 600 horsepower, it also has big muscles. Thanks to that monster engine, it’s capable of big speed, going from zero to 60 mph in four seconds dead. It then goes on to a big top speed of 187 mph.

It also comes with big price tag, starting at £160,000 before it’s sprinkled with even the most rudimentary of optional extras. As Bentley’s first foray into the SUV sector, it’s even a big deal for the company, arguably crucial to its big plans to win a particularly big share of big spending by sundry big egos the world over. Big-ness all ‘round.

Neatly nailing the aspirations of its target market, the company makes big claims for the Bentayga, describing it as “the fastest, most luxurious and most exclusive SUV in the world.” Perhaps the biggest thing about the car, though, is the size of the mistake the company made when it came to its styling.

Following the established trend for arty auto types, the Bentayga is styled with a close family resemblance in mind, with the Bentley Continental clearly the inspirational sibling of choice on this occasion. As a result, Bentley’s bouncing baby off-roader has the appearance of something that started out looking good, but was then tampered with by someone who mistakenly believed that adding more metal is the same as adding more pretty. Taking a malformed leaf out the Porsche Cayenne book mayhap.

The front quarter, at least, leaves you in no doubt that this is a Bentley, with its stretched grille an exaggerated caricature of the Continental. Impressing other golf club members and intimidating other road users is all but guaranteed.

Matters, unfortunately, become all the more confusing from the rear. While a first glance may suggest an Audi Q7 outline, the trained eye will then inevitably pick out the greater sculpting and the none-too-subtle winged-“B” badge.

The Audi resemblance, of course, is down to its shared skeleton. Bentley, Audi and Porsche are all part of the VW Reich, with each brand’s SUV sharing  a common architecture – insomuch as the word “common” could ever be truly applied to a Bentley.

Reassuringly, the interior is anything but common. The bovine semi-genocide that was needed to create the acres of leather that clads that vacuous cabin’s surfaces must have been bloodthirsty in the extreme. Thankfully those steers in question did not actually die entirely in vain. The car’s quilt-stitched, butter-soft expanses do, indeed, look and smell extremely sumptuous.

Overall, the interior is just the merest smidge less cavernous than its luxury SUV daddy, with Range Rover providing more space, particularly in the rear. The Bentayga, though, is offered with a choice of rear seat arrangements, with the conventional two-and-half position bench clearly the more practical.

Those purchasing with a chauffeur in mind might, however, prefer the strict two-seater rear pew. The two front seats are replicated perfectly in the rear, offering better support, as well as a throne-like sense of importance – albeit at the expense of a little leg room when compared to the bench arrangement. A seven-seater layout option is apparently promised for later editions.

Every tactile sensation communicates a general feeling of opulence, courtesy of the marque’s characteristic over-engineering. Doors swing open with vault-like solidity, as though granting well-oiled access to a fortified bunker. Buttons move with a smooth, tightly fitting solidity. Even the slightly shrunken, very chunky, steering wheel offers no wobble or flex when tightly gripped.

It is not hard to get the impression that the Bentayga would be the only means of transport left available to any survivors of a nuclear apocalypse.

Despite its scary appearance, the Bentayga has a rather well mannered voice. In most modern uber-chariots, a press of the starter button produces a hooliganesque battle cry, with the engine automatically bursting into life with an unnecessary squirt of revs.

Perhaps Bentley does still retain something of its one-time brand values as a gentleman’s express. Its start-up revs, after all, still emit nothing less than a deep, restrained and self-assured rumble.

The Bentayga’s bellow – even at full throttle and higher revs – is never less than impressive. Is it, though, as tear-to-a-grown-man’s-eye beautiful as similar SUV offerings from Range Rover or Mercedes ? Well maybe not. It would seem that, this time, serenity has been prioritised ahead of entertainment value when it came to exhaust design.

While the new Bentley certainly speaks (relatively) softly, then, it still carries a very big stick. Its 6.0 litre W12 engine (like two V6s sharing the same crankshaft, sideways on) is tuned to deliver most of its oomph low down the rev range, precluding the need for over-excitable excursions into the upper reaches of engine pitch.

Its peak torque of 664 lb-ft is available from 1,350 rpm – barely more than idling speed – going on to 4,500 rpm with no notable let up in force. Despite the combustion air being forced into the cylinders by turbo chargers – rather than always-on superchargers – there’s no hint of lag. Simply press your loafer to the go pedal and the Bentayga does precisely as it is bid.

The sensation of speed, though, is somewhat disconcerting. Its responsiveness and sheer ferocity is on a par with the very fastest of the out-and-out sports models. To experience that kind of pace perched so far off the asphalt seems almost to confound the very laws of physics.

Such laws are further bent out of shape when the Bentayga negotiates a bend. Having electromechanical power assistance, rather than more tactile but inefficient hydraulics, a heave on the tiller produces a swift and obedient darting of the nose. It’s what happens a split second later that’s really quite odd.

The Bentayga comes fitted with active anti-roll bars. As soon as its massed ranks of sensors detect a change of direction and weight transfer, the system stiffens, preventing roll. Not only does this keep the tall body from rolling alarmingly under strong cornering forces, it also means the car “sets in” to its cornering stance almost immediately. This results in a bizarre level of agility for so large, heavy and tall a car.

Handling is neutral, though tending slightly towards a safe and predictable under-steer. While driving fast is easy and fairly satisfying, it lacks the sense of involvement offered by a true sports car. If you can afford a Bentayga, though, you can probably also spring for a couple of Porches in order to indulge your racier tendencies whenever they should arise.

While active suspension is nothing new on a road car, the Bentayga difference comes with its electronically-controlled anti-roll bars, rather than more usual shock absorbers. Active shocks tend to be less forgiving of rough surfaces, giving vehicles just a little less of a silky ride. With air suspension and smart anti-roll bars, wheels are freer to move independently, soaking up bumps, while still rolling into the bends.

When not trying (and failing) to stand the big Bentley on its door handles, the straight-line cruising ride is indeed serene, with its soft suspension soaking up all but the deepest potholes. That understated exhaust, combined with a lusty engine that need not rev too hard to deliver its power, means little sound or vibration reaches the cabin, even at triple-digit speeds.

As a tall SUV, a degree of off-road performance is to be expected of the Bentayga. Even Bentley, though, admits that it’s not exactly a star performer in matters of the muddy kind. As with almost all such vehicles, though, it’s likely nothing more adventurous than the occasional trip into a slightly quaggy pony club car park will ever be required of it.

Unlike true off-road cars, there’s no low-range gearbox to allow gentle progress across very steep, slippery or uneven surfaces. Bentley claims that a low range is unnecessary given the huge pulling power on offer. Mostly this is true.

Wheel travel isn’t as long as real off-roaders, either, leaving a wheel propped up mid-air at even relatively modest terrain angles. Thankfully the air suspension allows the ride height to be raised for clearing the lumpier bits of your passage.

Bentley, it would seem, has been fairly pragmatic in engineering priorities. The Bentayga is very, very good on the road, which is pretty much exactly what its customers are buying it for and at £160,000, it needs to be, as well as comfortable and impressive. Off-road it’s merely okay, which is plenty good enough. It also has to shout its “Bentley-ness” – conspicuous consumption only works if it’s ostentatious enough to be noticed. Another box ticked there then.

In all likelihood it will prove hugely popular with its ultra-rich niche market, keen to display their wealth while desperate to express individuality (and clinging to the fashion for big four-by-fours, of course). Accordingly, Bentley is proud of its paintwork and interior list, as well as the extensive and expensive options to facilitate such expressions.

This is, perhaps, the best high-end SUV on the market, adapted for the kind of driving its customers actually engage in. It’s also the most expensive and on the down side it feels a tad cynical – a “me too” admission, bending a brand to cash in on a fad.

One can’t help but feel Bentley doesn’t belong on an SUV. Then again, neither does a Porsche badge – and the big, ugly Cayenne has sold like hot cakery.

 

Bentley Bentayga

Engine: 6.0 litre
W12 twin-turbo

Power: 600bhp @ 5,000-6,000 rpm
Torque: 664 lb-ft @ 1,350-4,500 rpm

Transmission:
eight- speed automatic through four-wheel drive

0-62mph: 4.0 seconds

Top speed: 187 mph

Price: from £160,000 (HK$2,000,000 plus import tax)

 

Above: If that doesn’t whet your appetite, it’s likely nothing else will