Description
H&H Classic Auction @ The Imperial War Museum, Duxford/ Cambridgeshire
9th October, 2024 13:00
1991 Honda NSX
UK supplied example
Estimate
£50, 000 - £60, 000
Registration No: F21 NSX
Chassis No: JHMNA12600T000564
MOT: March 2025
Finished in Formula Red with Black upholstery, the same as the car owned by racing legend Ayrton Senna
Understood to be 1 of just 500 UK supplied examples
Cherished registration number ‘F21 NSX’ included in sale
Offered with owners wallet, service book and handbook plus a collection of invoices
The NSX (New Sportscar eXperimental) was a major departure for Honda, which by 1984 was renowned for its well-engineered but generally quite staid road cars. Its origins lay in the HP-X (Honda Pininfarina eXperimental) concept of that year and wowed the performance car world when it debuted at the 1989 Chicago Auto Show. The intention was to match or better the performance of contemporaneous V8 Ferraris, coupled with superior reliability and lower cost. The styling was inspired by the F-16 fighter jet, the paint process ran to 23 phases, and Ayrton Senna was involved in the vehicle's final development. It was the first mass-production car equipped with an all-aluminium body and was powered by an all-alloy V6 motor featuring Honda's patented VTEC engine control system and titanium connecting rods. The unit drove through a five-speed manual or four-speed sports automatic system.
Make no mistake, this was a mould-breaking motorcar that even caused McLaren F1 designer Gordon Murray to say: "When I drove an NSX, all existing benchmark cars vanished from my mind." The car was the first real Japanese 'supercar', proving itself and quickly establishing respect from its key competitors. However, this superiority was not translated into sales and, by the time production ceased in 2005, fewer than 20, 000 had been sold making them relatively rare and much sought-after today.
More information to follow.
