Here's what I propose: you and Jonboy collectively agree on three reputable publications who conduct same-day comparison tests. We wait for those publications to post their results and the best two out of three wins. I'll let you and Jonboy iron out the terms, but just to keep things interesting, should you two come to terms that are more or less as I described, I'll wager $100 that Jonboy is right and that the NSX posts faster times at least two out of three times.

I'll merely settle for rob-2 saying, "JonBoy, you were right and I was wrong."
If rob-2 wins, I will have to swap our name positions in that sentence.

The NSX reminds me of... something. Can't remember what. Editor-at-large Sam Smith supplies the answer: "Pedal around town isn't as nice as the 918's—more binary, with more stiction—which is only relevant because the Acura feels more evolved than the 918 in so many ways." Oh yes. The million-dollar Porsche hybrid hypercar. The NSX is like a better version of it. Not as quick, obviously, but no man would wish it quicker on these Kentucky two-lanes.

On the road, the V10 is Herculean, bellowing in symphonic fashion while warping time and space. But there's a little problem: I seem to have Kinard in the NSX right behind me. Admittedly, I was paying more attention to the stereo and the "virtual cockpit" dash display than to my corner exits. But I'm realizing that the most characterful engine here is being troubled by a hybrid.

I radio him. "See if you can keep pace in a straight line." The next time there's a long section of clear road ahead of us, I squeeze the Audi's left paddle three times and let the engine roar. My God, I'd forgotten that it can rev to 8700 rpm. No pallid hybrid V6 can compete. Except Kinard is still there, pasted defiantly full-width in the mirrors. We repeat the experiment several times. I can't shake him. My heart sinks. I have seen the future, as the saying goes, and it appears to work.

There's no such sting in the Acura's tail. I'd hoped it would prove the R8's match in a straight line, the way it did on the street, but at NCM, it barely pipped the Jaguar for fourth place in front-straight max speed. Instead, the NSX makes its lap time the new-fashioned way: It earns it through some tricky brake programming to assist turn-in and intelligent manipulation of the front wheels to make every corner exit inhumanly perfect. "Probably the first vectoring hybrid I've driven that isn't more interested in its own work than in yours," Smith enthuses. "A reminder that the tech can be used in service of feedback and driver feel. Just does that spooky instant-response thing in the middle of a corner."

Receiving eight of the available 10 votes, the Acura NSX became the most universally acclaimed automobile in PCOTY history, and justifiably so. Its predecessor merely changed the supercar game in the perpetuity by proving that anvil-like reliability and the ecstatic revelation of exotic performance could coexist in a single value-priced sports. This one promises to do much more than that.

Everything about the car—from the way in which the brake-by-wire pedal lengthens its travel when the brakes are hot to the manner in which the midmounted V6 permits itself a bit of the ol' barbaric yawp when it's winding out in fourth gear—is intended to enhance the driver's involvement.

Able to compete on level ground with the absolute cream of the conventional crop, the NSX also represents a brilliant basis for the ongoing development–indeed, the ongoing existence–of the performance automobile. To drive it for 10 laps on track is to permanently shed any worries that the next generation of supercars will be overpowered takes on a Prius; to experience it on a fast road is to be reassured that tomorrow's technology will be accessible and enjoyable. For that achievement alone, the NSX deserves to be our PCOTY, but the fact that it does it all so well, right now, places it beyond argument. The NSX works, but it also knows how to play. Confident and capable, thrilling on both road and track, the Acura NSX is our 2017 Performance Car of the Year.

I know the Evora well, but I'm still eager to get behind the wheel the next morning. We're running below our normal clip, because this part of our route takes us through a series of rural communities, but the Lotus is a thrill at any speed. It is the proper size and width for a sporting automobile, the deftly thrust rapier in an era that only knows the clumsy swing of a two-handed broadsword. The steering is untouchable in this company; the pedals are weighted to perfection. Feedback is absolute and millimeter-precise.

Without a doubt, the Lotus is the best pure driver's car in the group. It's enough to make me overlook the aftermarket-style stereo and the somewhat casual manner in which the interior has been assembled from commercially available parts. I worry, however, that the rest of my compatriots won't feel the same.