Description
The wonderful Honda NSX we are offering is one of the first imported in Europe being actually the 266th built. It was sold new in France and registered in March 1991, it only ran 19000km with its first owner until he sold the car in 2004. The second owner drove the car more often and brought the mileage to 77000km. During its two owners life the car was much cherished and maintained by a Honda dealer until 2009. It recently received four new Bridgestone tyres and benefitted from a large service with fluids, cam belt and clutch replacements. The car is presently in concourse condition inside – outside and drives superbly. This is an interesting opportunity to acquire one of the best example on the market, furthermore the NSXs offer a huge potential in future on the classic car market.
Model history
In the 80s Japanese technology dominated the world benefiting from the fabulous economical expansion the country had seen since the 60s. In many sectors this new technology, proceeds and design rapidly set up new standards just as the Japanese did into the electronics market. However the car manufacturers were quite conservative and Honda decided to launch an all new car built with the best technology. It had to be at least better than the best European cars, the real target being the 8 cylinders Ferrari. The seeds from this sport car appeared in 1984 with a concept car designed by Pininfarina called HP-X ( Honda Pinifarina – eXperimental ), then Honda begun the reflexion around the engineering of the car. The leitmotiv was efficiency, indeed with more advanced engineering, Honda aimed to built a light car powered with a smaller engine than its rival. However no sacrifice had to be done to the quality, comfort and the car had to be a friendly driver, so friendly that it could be used daily. In those days there was a real enthusiasm at Honda with the highest car technologies has they were dominating in Formula One with the V6, V10 and V12 engines. The NSX ( New Sportcar eXperimental was launched at the Chicago show in 1989. This was the first Japanese sport car since the Toyota 2000GT in 1967. The car’s technology was amazing, to list a few innovations, it had an aluminium monocoque, body and suspension, variable intake ducts for more torque, variable valve timing ( VTEC ), titanium rods, etc… all of this being world premieres ! In 1989 the NSX totally outdated the other sport cars, the car was quick, very easy to drive and totally reliable. With only 3.0liter capacity the engine output was 274 HP at 7300rpm, the red line being at 8000rpm. The engine sound is superb and due to the variable intake ducts it was surprisingly torquy. The double wishbones suspension was quite soft but with rigorous set up and anti-dive this made the Honda a superb driver. The gearbox is also beautiful being quick and precise. The driving in 1989 was very surprising as the car doesn’t really gives a real feeling from its speed, indeed to move quickly onboard seems really effortless. Some journalists complained about the car’s lack of feeling and driving pleasure, now we know this was a wrong way to appreciate the car. Actually the NSX is more a car from the 2000s than the early 1990s, a new area when high performance makes no compromise with quality and easy driving. Gordon Murray who designed the McLaren F1 said that when he drove the NSX he had to raise up the standards of his Supercar, which is a kind of tribute to the car’s engineering and high quality.
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