Back in 2012, Marvel Studios debuted one of the greatest superhero movies in modern history. The Avengers was 143 minutes of edge-of-your-seat action and helped cement the rabid success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was also a vehicle for manufacturers to show off their latest and greatest. Acura put Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., into a concept car for the then-upcoming second-generation Acura NSX. But this wasn’t just any concept car. It was a real, functional vehicle, and full of weirdness, like the fact that it has a critical part of a Chrysler PT Cruiser. Now, it’s for sale.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has always been pretty great with car casting. Like any extraordinarily wealthy dude, Tony Stark/Iron Man has a car collection. But the Marvel people went beyond just giving him stereotypical rich guy cars. Instead, his garage had everything from a Saleen S7 and an Audi R8 to a ’32 Ford and a ’49 Mercury. Stark didn’t get to have all of the fun, either. Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow got to ride a prototype of the Harley-Davidson LiveWire, while Chris Evans’ Captain America got to straddle a 1942 Harley-Davidson WLA.
Then there’s the Acura NSX. This car didn’t get a lot of screen time, and appeared at the end of the movie. However, it was displayed prominently on-screen, and if you were like me back then, it probably got you pumped for the new NSX. The NSX Roadster concept is technically a real car, an old, high-mileage NSX, to be exact. After a year and a half of telling the world it was going to sell this car, Acura finally put it up for sale on Cars & Bids. Somehow, there are still new things to learn about this bonkers creation.
It Was Part Of Acura’s Marketing Play
The life of a movie car is not an easy one. The modifications done to these cars are often just good enough to look fine on camera, but otherwise ruin the car. These cars then often get destroyed or damaged beyond repair during filming, and then get discarded off-camera, never to be seen again. If a movie car is lucky, it’ll be saved after filming, but it’ll be stuffed into a warehouse, hidden away from the world.
The Acura NSX Roadster concept is one of those rare examples of a movie car that does get to see the light of day again. After filming of the Avengers concluded and promotional work was done, Acura kept the concept car in its collection. For a while, it seemed this NSX was like many other movie cars in that it would never be seen again.
Then, in August 2025, Acura pulled the car out of storage for the first time. But this wasn’t just for a publicity stunt. Acura said it was going to auction the car off for charity at some point in 2026. Well, longer than a year later, the auction is finally happening.
Doug DeMuro got to review the car right before it went live on Cars & Bids, and his video has some neat insights. Click here if you do not see the embed below:
Acura spent many years teasing a second-generation NSX before putting one on the market. In 2007, Acura debuted the Advanced Sports Car Concept, which sported a front-mounted V10 engine. This car was said to be the successor to the original NSX, but was ultimately shelved in the wake of the Great Recession.
Acura didn’t give up on the NSX dream, however, and in 2012, it hit the auto show circuit with the NSX Concept.
This new car traded the V10 for a twin-turbo V6 with a hybrid system. Production finally kicked off in 2016, nearly a decade after Acura got the world excited about the NSX again. Sadly, the NSX was never a hot seller, and when the last units were finally sold in 2023, total production was only 2,908 units. Still, the second-generation NSX is worthy of being called a dream car, and it remains on my dream car list.
Anyway, the NSX Roadster concept came soon after the 2012 NSX Concept, which had a fixed roof. Now, Acura could have just made this concept car like any other, and placed a body on top of an unpowered wooden frame. Many concept cars are made this way, and if they have any propulsion at all, it might be a weak electric motor meant to do little more than help the car get rolled around. If a concept car is made drivable, it might be made out of whatever bits the builders were able to raid from the automaker’s parts bin.
The NSX Roadster goes a step further than the typical concept. Under its body is not a parts bin special, but an actual 1991 Acura NSX production car.
How The Sausage Was Made
To build the NSX Roadster concept, Acura didn’t snag a pristine original NSX. Acura only cared that the donor car had an undamaged chassis, and did not want to butcher a nice, low-mile car that could have gone to an enthusiast. The donor for the concept car was a 1991 NSX with 252,000 miles that was found in Arizona and purchased for around $18,000 or $20,000.
That car was then shipped out to Trans FX in Oxnard, California, where the original body panels and the roof were chopped off. In their place would be a resin and fiberglass body designed by a team in Torrance, California, led by Acura Creative Director Dave Marek.
This body, which was inspired by the 2012 Acura NSX Concept, does use a little movie magic to achieve its look. As you’ve probably noticed by now, the headlights are just painted on and aren’t functional. There are no exterior door handles, no windshield wipers, no side windows, no turn signals, and no brake lights.
The car does have taillights, however, and they’re designed to glow in the same red hue as Iron Man’s suit. But even these are quirky. The only way to turn the taillights on or off is through a remote fob. This does mean that the switchgear in the car does nothing. Try to turn on the lights, for example, and the car will give you a warning that the lights don’t work. Even the horn was deleted.
Doug DeMuro points out that even the mirrors are not as they appear. The mirrors are held on by two pegs, and very easily slide in and out of their holders. That’s great for displaying the car and great for transporting it, but it also means that you can’t actually drive the car without them falling out.
Then there’s the roof, or lack of it. This car is not a convertible. There’s no roof whatsoever, not even a symbolic cover. Acura also didn’t bother to stiffen the vehicle’s chassis after deleting its roof, so it’s not even a proper roadster, either. But there is something silly going on with the roof.
The design team did not keep the original NSX’s windshield, as they felt that it didn’t look right with the new body or without the original car’s roof.
So, they tried out a bunch of different windshields, looking for the one that fit the vibe of the concept car. The one that worked the best? A windshield from none other than a Chrysler PT Cruiser. To their credit, the designers were right. The PT Cruiser windshield looks like it was custom-made for the concept car!
Based on the shape of the windshield, I think the glass specifically came from a first-generation four-door model:
What’s so awesome is that the interior of this car is just that of a 1991 NSX. The designers didn’t change out the cluster, the radio, or anything like that. The only visual touch to the dashboard is a center console painted the same color as the body.
The door panels also have little filler panels in them, presumably to hide the early 1990s switchgear from getting shown on camera. The original NSX seats were also swapped out for racing bucket seats, which also makes sense because the seats do show up on camera. The steering wheel, which is another bit that could show up on camera, had its rim refreshed.
Otherwise, it’s just an NSX in there, including the car’s original five-speed manual transmission. The odometer proudly displays 252,188 miles, too! Power still comes from a 3.0-liter V6 that’s good for 270 HP and 210 lb-ft of torque.
While the NSX Roadster concept might be a real car, Acura didn’t want it to be used like one. Edmunds got to drive this car in 2012, and the drive came with a huge caveat, from Edmunds:
In deference to the Stark NSX’s compromised structure, that it was engineered to run only up to 30 mph and its near-future life as a promotional item for the film, Acura asks that we keep our driving speed to under 20 mph. Since it’s Acura’s car, its PR guy is standing right there and there’s a severe vibration in the structure, we oblige. So what we can say is that, up to about 20 mph, the Stark NSX feels and drives like the NSX that it is.
[…]
The Stark car’s 245/35R18 front Hankook tires are a big chunk wider than the 205/50R15s that were standard on the 1991 NSX. Add the 2-inch-lower ride height and you’ve got severely restricted steering angles. The steering circle of this car is nearly in geosynchronous orbit — so huge that when you turn it around you have to worry about hitting communications satellites. That said, though the steering is heavier than stock, at our low speeds it seemed talkative enough.
There’s more bad news, too. The car is devoid of any air intake. That’s fine for filming use, where the car might have to drive for a minute or two, but it does mean that the engine would probably be unhappy with actually being used on the road. Likewise, while the car does have a valid 1991 NSX VIN, it’s being sold only with a bill of sale as a non-road legal vehicle. The New York license plate on the back is fake.
Now, some states will be happy to issue real plates to this car, and I’m sure a determined enough person can fashion functional lights onto this thing. But the engine cooling issue would probably be harder to solve. Then there’s the fact that the chassis is about as floppy as a wet noodle. American Honda is also making the buyer sign an agreement that states that the buyer will not even attempt to use the car on the road. Somehow, if all of that isn’t bad enough, Acura also points out that the body was never designed to be used. It’s fragile and will probably fall apart very quickly if it were used on the road.
In the comments of the listing, Acura tells people who want a road-legal version of this thing to just start with a real second-generation NSX.
It’s Art For Charity
Still, even with all of those catches, this car is just so epic. I’m not at all surprised that bidding is currently at $105,000 with four days to go in the Cars & Bids Willow Springs Collection auction. This is perhaps the only chance to own Tony Stark’s NSX, and it’s the only Acura-sanctioned “new” NSX in the world to come without a roof. Buying this car will also do some good, too, as 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the buyer’s charity of choice. American Honda will even then reimburse the buyer for the Cars & Bids buyer’s fee.
Sure, the person who gets this car will be getting what’s more or less a large piece of stationary art. That is sort of weak, but between the charity benefit and just how cool this car is, I don’t see the lack of roadworthiness as a big deal. If I were obscenely rich, I’d rather have this as a piece of art than a banana duct-taped to a wall.
I also just love stories like this. The cars that we see in our favorite movies are usually more than they appear. Teams of designers and builders go through a ton of work to make a car that may only ever be seen for a minute or two. Did Acura need to build a concept car with a 30 mph top speed out of a real NSX? No, but it’s so neat that they did. To me, the awesome part is just knowing how the sausage was made. As it turns out, this NSX stew has a little PT Cruiser in it.
Top graphic images: Cars And bids; Chrysler; Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
I never would have guessed that was a PT Cruiser windshield, but it does fit perfectly. Someone had a great eye to figure that out, though maybe they got there by way of the Prowler, which I think would be one of the first options to explore.
It almost would make more sense to have the small EV system to barely move it around and no apparent liability worries from Acura about someone trying to use it. It’s hardly going to be driven and only at very low speeds, so to bring this to shows (via transport, of course) and move it around a lawn, it still needs barely-used-ICE maintenance. It’s too bad they didn’t make production versions of this as it looks so much better. Still would have the boring drivetrain, though.
I don’t watch much Doug Demuro, but his video on this car was interesting!
One could, and should, just buy an intact and roadworthy NA1 NSX for less money.
I’ve owned a few cars that were never drivable, and I’m sure there are undrivable cars in museums.
At least it’s all NSX where it matters most