Honda NSX-R Sells At Villa d’Este Auction For $1.6 Million

One of less than 140 Honda NSX-Rs built between 2002 and 2005 just became the first example of the NSX to sell at auction for more than $1 million. This 2003 model, finished in Championship White with BBS wheels and a red Alcantara upholstered cabin, went under the hammer at Broad Arrow’s recent Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este auction, and sold for €934,375, or just over $1.064 million USD. This marks the first time that Honda/Acura’s epochal, mid-engined sports car has sold for more than seven figures, with previous winning bids for previous examples having previously ‘languished’ around the $300K to half-a million dollar mark.

The NSX Becomes A Collector-Car Shockwave

It’s difficult to describe Honda’s ‘New Sportscar eXperimental’ without lionizing or falling on wearisome clichés. And yet, it’s inevitable, such is the legacy of one of the most important sports car of the 1990s, and possibly the most significant Honda of them all. Indeed, at a time when the Japanese brand was internationally recognized as a manufacturer of solid, dependable, almost exclusively tame hatchbacks and sedans, it’s no hyperbole to say the high-tech, lightweight NSX – famously developed on-track with feedback from future three-time Formula 1 World Champion Ayrton Senna, no less – sent shockwaves through the automotive world when the silks were dropped in Chicago in 1989.

It was lighter than Porsche’s 911, yet somehow almost 50 percent more structurally rigid. It was aerodynamic, but still a looker thanks to Italian powerhouse Pinifarina. And, with its 3.0-liter, transversely mounted V6 in the middle giving it perfectly balanced weight, the NSX was sublime through the corners. It was a sports coupe that famously inspired Gordon Murray as he penned the equally momentous McLaren F1. And, as a cheaper, more readily available alternative to the 348, the Honda/Acura essentially forced Ferrari’s hand, the Prancing Horse eventually responding with the F355 in 1994.

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Amazing to think that, at one point, Honda’s board were concerned its initial run of 6,000 models (half of which were earmarked for North America) was too ambitious!

The NSX-R Was Somehow Even Better

Bit firmly between its teeth, Honda took another shot at the NS-X in 1992 when it revealed the more dynamic, Japanese-only NSX Type R. The naturally-aspirated V6 now pumped out 290-horsepower to its predecessor’s 270-horsepower (still sent to the rear wheels via a four or five-speed manual), but raw power had never been the NSX’s MO.

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Instead, gear ratios were reduced for more ‘assertive’ acceleration. A more aggressive limited-slip diff was installed for improved traction, and lightened, meticulously-tuned suspension mounted for rapier-like handling. A further 120 kilograms (264 pounds) were somehow shed from the already welterweight NSX, and refined carbon fiber bodywork ensured even more downforce at speed. Having slapped even the venerable Ferrari across the face with its Championship White glove in Europe, the NSX Type-R was a worthy rival to even the sainted Skyline R32 on-track in Japan.

“Fewer than” 140 examples of the second-generation (NA) NSX-R eventually made their way Stateside in 2002 from the 483 built in total. That this particular model has just over 10,000 miles on the odometer should tell you where this ‘shockwave’ belongs. And it’s certainly not locked up with the fine China.

Source: Broad Arrow Auctions