1995 Acura NSX The sublime sports car By Professional Test Driver, New Car Test Drive .com

Sports cars have always meant performance - lots of braking, acceleration and handling wrapped up in a swoopy 2-seater body. But until the Acura NSX came along, no sports car had ever offered such a finely honed balance of all the widely varying parameters of performance, and done so in such a civilized and intelligent fashion.

There are those, in fact, who argue that the NSX is the best sports car the world has ever produced. Not the most powerful, though its power-to-weight ratio places it within the realm of supercars. Not the fastest, though its top speed capability is almost triple most state speed limits. But the best.

And although opinions will obviously vary, there can be no doubt about the NSX's wonderful blend of refinement, performance and all-around brilliance.

Honda - the parent company of Acura - has made a few changes to the NSX for 1995, most notably the option of a removable roof panel. This wasn't available in time for our test drive, so we based our impressions on the standard hardtop coupe. At $73,300, our NSX certainly wasn't a cheap ride.