The last dance: this is the 600bhp Acura NSX Type S

No, you’re crying. This is the last dance for the Honda/Acura NSX. Welcome to the 600bhp Type S – what its maker describes as the “quickest, most powerful and best handling production NSX ever”.

It’s a very limited, very special edition to mark the final year of NSX production and to get all the bad news out of the way in this paragraph, it won’t be available in the UK or Europe. And only 350 NSX Type S models will be built, of which 300 are going to the USA, the remaining 50 staying in its homeland of Japan.

Let’s talk performance. The 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6 gets a power upgrade via new fuel injectors (offering a 25 per cent better flow rate), new intercoolers, and a new set of turbos that also happen to sit inside the NSX GT3 Evo racer.

There’s been a tweak to the battery too, allowing for 20 per cent more usable capacity, and a 10 per cent higher output. With everything singing and pointing in the right direction the 2022 NSX Type S kicks out 600bhp (versus the regular car’s 573bhp) and 492lb ft of torque.

We’re told the twin motor unit has had a tweak to its gear ratio to give greater torque from a standstill, so launches should be eye-opening. The nine-speed DCT has been tweaked as well, and adds a ‘Rapid Downshift Mode’ which is fairly self-explanatory, while ‘Sport’ and ‘Sport+’ modes offer 50 per cent faster shifts. Speaking of modes, all four – ‘Quiet’, ‘Sport’, ‘Sport+’ and ‘Track’ – have been tweaked along with the car’s sound profiles.

Acura says this Type S – with all those lovely new tweaks – can lap Suzuka two seconds faster than the 2021 NSX.

You’ll spot the Type S’s lovely new alloys – forged five-spoke wheels with more negative offset to widen the front track by 0.4in and the rear by 0.8in, wrapped in Pirelli P Zeros. Behind them are new six-piston (front) and four-piston (rear) Brembo calipers fitted as standard.

A ‘Lightweight Pack’ adds carbon ceramic discs, a carbon engine cover and interior trim, to reduce the NSX Type S’s weight further still by the common metric of a Medium-Sized-Dog (or 26.2kg if you're a stickler for numbers).

There are a few giveaways that this is the fast one visually at least. A bigger front grille for better airflow, a new carbon fibre rear diffuser (modelled on the NSX GT3’s diffuser), additional carbon fibre elements – including the roof – and ‘Type S’ decals.

The base price in the States is $169,500, rising to $182,500 for the NSX Type S with the Lightweight Package.

“We’re a company of enthusiasts, and we’re already investigating what the next generation of sports cars should be in the coming electrified era,” Acura said. Will you miss the enormously complex but enormously desirable mid-engined supercar?

Click here for TopGear.com's review of the second-generation Honda NSX