If you’ve been around veterans of the collector car scene, you’ve likely heard tales of how relatively cheap now-eight-figure Ferraris were in the 1960s. It makes you wonder if we ever had similar opportunities in more recent decades, and since history has a habit of rhyming, it turns out we likely have. AÂ Honda NSX just sold for seven figures at auction, an absolutely mind-blowing figure that really highlights the rise in collecting Japanese cars.
Broad Arrow Auctions had an auction at Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este last weekend, Lake Como’s big concours event for some of the finest automobiles on the planet. We’re talking sales of classic Ferraris, McLarens owned by Formula 1 drivers, 300SLs, a Talbot Lago, lots of high-dollar metal you’d expect to see among the most expensive cars in the world. In this mix was a 2003 Honda NSX-R, and when the gavel dropped, it brought in €934,375. Translated to greenbacks at the time of the auction, that works out to $1,059,530.
Yep, that’s a million-dollar NSX, although it’s not just any NSX. See, the NA2 NSX-R was something special, the result of some serious optimization. Sure, it’s not quite as rare as the giant scoop-equipped NSX-R GT, but only 140 of these things were made between 2002 and 2005, all for the Japanese market.
The second NSX-R started with the fixed-roof coupe body style, stripped out the power steering, then added a load of carbon fiber including what was then rumored to be the largest single-piece carbon fiber hood on a production car. When combined with other measures like lightweight wheels, carbon kevlar seats, the deletion of the radio and climate control, and forgoing of sound insulation, the result was a supercar with a curb weight of just 2,800 pounds.
This obsession translated directly into the engine bay. Still a 3.2-liter V6, each NSX-R unit was balanced and blueprinted by hand, officially producing 290 horsepower. That’s exactly the same figure as the standard NSX, but numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. In theory, a well-balanced engine should have a more eager character, and Honda augmented this with sharper throttle tuning and a shorter final drive. When combined with substantial suspension revisions including stiffer bushings, tower braces, updated springs, new dampers, and different anti-roll bars, the effect was reportedly profound. As Evo wrote:
It’s rare-groove and obsessively stripped-back, it uses lightweight materials in all the areas that count, and it’s intensely focused on pure driving enjoyment. Not performance numbers or lateral g, but purity of response, feedback and providing the driver with all the tools to exploit everything it has to give.
As for this particular NSX-R, it’s done just under 16,000 kilometers since new, or fewer than 10,000 miles. Not no mileage, but certainly not high-mileage. As rubber bits and whatnot still wear with age, it’s had its timing belt changed by a specialist, and it’s sporting a newer set of Nankang Sportnex AR-1 semi-slicks, but that’s about it. No modifications, no absurdly undriveable originality down to the last dry rot-compromised detail, just an incredibly well-cared-for low-mileage car.
In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t that long ago when Japanese cars weren’t expected to ever become serious collectables. Remember 15 years ago, when you could buy a regular NSX for under $40,000? Even in the 2000s, the Toyota 2000GT was an outlier, and it hadn’t yet soared to the figures we see today. As Hagerty reports, the 2006 sale of a 2000GT for $225,998 was “nearly double what the cars had typically sold for.” These days, the auction record for a 2000GT stands at $2.535 million.
Will this million-dollar NSX open the floodgates? Maybe, but it would take some time and be selective. Keep in mind, this is a special variant of the NSX, but if it established a trend for the best of the breed, a rising tide lifts all ships. At the same time, while GT-R fever has retracted from early-2020s highs, the fact that R34 Skyline GT-R V-Specs in iconic colors routinely bring in more than $200,000 apiece means the collectable JDM rise probably isn’t crashing hard anytime soon. For now, let’s just sit back in awe. Seven figures for an NSX. What a time to be alive.
Top graphic credit: Broad Arrow Auctions
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When combined with other measures like lightweight wheels, carbon kevlar seats, the deletion of the radio and climate control, and forgoing of sound insulation, the result was a supercar with a curb weight of just 2,800 pounds.
Umm: You sure??
I’m still kicking myself for passing on a well sorted NA1 NSX for a little over 30K about 8 years ago. That would have ended up being one of my forever cars.
I’ll start freaking out when a Z32 Twin Turbo with a manual low miles, late model mind you, goes for six figures. Or a 3000GT VR4.
Now, saying that, I have no love for the Type-R NSX.
…the 1999 Zanardi Edition though is the best looking one. And I’m glad Alex is crushing life after the accident.
It might have helped that this one had a Hagerty funded Catchpole driven YouTube ad done prior to the auction, but probably not. Also, I’ll be on YouTube watching that vid again…
The fools, they got the wrong letter, a million dollars is supposed to buy a K Car.
A nice Reliant automobile.
A million+$$s for an NSX?! That’s Just Dumb Money.
The price combined with that rear wing has me thinking Japanese Superbird.
I saw what you did there with the Bold capitalization. Well done.
There are people with more money than brains. And also, people who got that money by being brainy.
I remember when Bill Gates managed to get a 959 state-side. I don’t know how he did it, but I admired his ability to do so.
I saw him once flipping through vinyl at Tower Records in Seattle in the mid-90s. His daily (self-driven) driver was a Lexus LS400.
The rear wing is the least attractive aspect of that car, particularly with the contrasting colors.
A $1M car will always be out of reach for me. And I’m fine with that.
You know, the Corvette C5 Z06 is still in the $20k’s. That is a superb performance car in every measurable metric, and also really amenable to modifications to make it even faster. I think there is plenty of room for this car to go up.
Well, hopefully c5s stay low, so they stay the secret affordable preformance.
Whilst I’m sincerely happy for both the seller and the buyer of this car (my favorite as a kid when it first came out), buying any car to rarely drive it is like getting a trophy wife and letting your best friend screw her. Or something like that.
I personally think no- or ultra-low mileage cars should be a source of shame for their owners. Not that they’d care what a poor thinks about them.
Did anyone think “JDM Icons” had peaked?
The “you can’t have it” tax on a popular car is huge. Type-r nsx was stupid rare and you were unlikely to get one at the time by waving a check at a dealer.
For mere mortals buy a normal 1st gen nsx and do much the same. Dunno how hard a manual swap is on the slow and unpopular auto nsx.
Heck even Anime hates the current nsx as seen by mf ghost. Which means you are stuck buying a 1st gen.
People trying to apply rational values to cars like this are really missing the point.
The only, and I mean only, concern for a buyer like this is whether it will outperform the S&P 500 over whatever time horizon they feel like looking at this in their warehouse for.
Quick run of the numbers: if you took the $71k (plus tax and sales costs, mind you) and instead put it in stocks at 10%, you would end up with the same amount as long as your monthly spend on the car is right around $480/mo. For registration/storage/insurance/maintenance fees going into that monthly, it’s easy to get there.
I sure would hope that they get over $1M if they’re not going to drive it. That’s not a big return from the risk of whether or not you’ll actually find a buyer at that time
I wish you were wrong but…
Not that I expect to be in a position to be a buyer of anything at this price point; but with that caveat, I have to look at what else $1,000,000.00USD affords you. This single NSX, or a 3 or 4 Group B Cars, or all the 80s movie cars (Ecto-1, BTTF Delorean, etc…), or Paul Newman’s Volvo and $920K in cash.
I love an NSX, but not enough to pass up all the other options.
Senna’s NSX on the other hand…
I don’t think we will find the ceiling until millennials are in our late 60s or early 70s. Gen X should be the correct buyers for these cars going purely by the years they were made, but we know and love them, too, through various forms of media.
Curse you Instagram and Snapchat! Wait, I thought all the millenials were broke from buying avocado toast.
Yeah, I’ve often wondered what Barrett-Jackson auctions will look like in 30 years when Millennials have fully replaced Boomers in the auction stands.
I’ve also wondered if the floor will fall out of classic muscle cars.
I don’t know but I am keeping my eye on the prices of a certain late 60s classic and waiting patiently.
This is a special car, but it’s not a million dollar car…and honestly I think the NSX has been a tragic victim of terminally online enthusiast hype. They’re clearly great cars, but the prices they’re currently selling for are absurd. The same can be said of the MK4 Supra.
Are they cool cars? Absolutely. Do they make them like they used to? No. Are they worth exotic car money? Probably not. But JDM fans have proven time and time again that they will pay whatever it takes to get their hands on their waifu so I’m basically screaming into the void…although the consequence of stuff like this is that cool, previously somewhat attainable cars are now out of reach for 98% of us.
I’ll never have a million dollars to spend on a car, and even if I did I almost certainly wouldn’t do it because I’m cheap. I think I’d probably buy a 911 GT3 and call it a day. But for 7 figures you’re getting into F40, Carrera GT, Bugatti, etc. money.
Generally fair points, but the 7-figure examples are also all highly on the rise recently. F40’s are generally 2.5-5M, CGT seems to be a 1.7M Floor for a driver, even Veyrons outside of the Ed Bolian/Hoovie specials are well over a 1.5M now, and Chirons are all still 3+M. And sure a GT3 is arguable a better use of your money to drive, but for similar money, I’d argue a 1 of 140 NA2 NSX-R is more special than a lot of the newer Hypercars coming out for similar money, look at Mclaren Elva, Sabre, and Speedtails, SF90, etc. I think generally speaking as the JDM icons begin to get viewed as a worthwhile collector market, the highest end of them will begin to regularly populate the high-6 figure range.
I think the NSX was and is a much better driver’s car than the Supra. They are not comparable.
I was talking more about market values than how they drive. They both seem inflated to me right now, but I am frequently wrong.
Look one has lightweight and the other has the finest 5cyl boat anchor.
I joke but someone kept burning a cylinder because he wanted 600hp and there is issues he never tried to fix.
given it sold for over $1 Million, by definition it is a $1 million car.
I have no choice but to respect the pedantry
I had to look up “waifu.” And given some of the stuff people talk about sometimes in these comments sections, I sometimes think I’m a mere pedestrian or parking lot attendant here. So, I hereby thank you for letting me read your posts. Even it’s a rarified environment at times.
Most of it keeps my brain a little plastic and not a hardened nugget of gray matter.
A million dollars and they couldn’t fix the plastic wrap on the door floor jam?
I wouldn’t bother to fix it, but that looks like it’s just the shipping covers that are meant to be removed when the car is delivered, I would have removed it but yeah that’s interesting that with shredded plastic like that it still got top dollar and then some.
I remember trying to talk my dad into buying one in the early 90s. That $60k sticker price was just a wee bit too much for the budget (by a factor of about 3…that’s about $135k in current dollars, just for a purchasing power comparison).
I’m struggling — if you’re an enthusiast, a $1MM can get you a lot of cars. If you’re a collector, this is like buying at the top of a bubble unles you can magically see the NSX breaking the $1.5MM barrier. This person is just some eccentric combo of the two. I could go on about “how many homeless people you could feed” (or house) for that money, but I take solace in knowing they would otherwise have probably spent this money on some other overpriced consumable.
This is really the ultimate manifestation of the Golden Era Honda, though. If you’re into JDM stuff, Hondas especially, this is really as good as it gets. $1M is only shocking if you haven’t been paying close attention to this market. BaT sold an NA1 NSX-R for over $300k, and routinely transacts NA2 NSX’s for $300k+. I imagine this sale will be on the high end for a while and you’ll see other NSX-R’s selling for $600-800k once the market starts to see more of them.
I had the poster on my wall as a kid, and it got equal billing (for me, at least) with the F40 or Bugatti EB110. So this is probably just bias speaking, but the NSX was always pitched as the attainable, DD-able supercar. For that reason, my mind struggles with the inflation much more so than with those other two.
The Muscle Car Bubble was just as crazy, though. But I also took that as a lesson…
I genuinely think the JDM bubble will pop sooner or later. When you’re at the point that you’re paying nearly 10 times what the car originally sold for when adjusted for inflation something is a bit off. It also affects the entire market negatively. After all JDM bros are still lining up around the corner to pay $10,000 over MSRP for a Civic Type R.
None of this stuff was ever meant to be this expensive, and I think that’s an issue. We aren’t talking about super or hyper cars here…we’re talking about stuff made by regular old manufacturers that was meant to offer performance nearly as good as exotics for a fraction of the price. While they didn’t produce anywhere near as many, which means the values will never drop as low, the ethos behind stuff like the NSX and Supra isn’t all that different from that of a Corvette.
The market for these is also limited. It’s all nostalgia driven. Boomers, rich Gen Xers, and the small handful of millennials that have beat the odds and found their way to massive wealth lust after this stuff because of the Fast movies, early racing games like Gran Turismo, etc.
There’s a whole generation of new enthusiasts that’s never known what driving a lightweight, feedback rich car like an NSX is like. I can’t imagine that 10-15 years from now they’re going to drop 7 figures on a 90s Honda, but I could be wrong.
Yep…and my “meta-concern” is that it exaggerates (or appears to, thanks to mass media and social) the gap between perception and aspiration. The ultra-rich are made out to be just normal rich; and otherwise comfortable people are dying to get a piece of the action. My favorite case in point is typing a famous person’s name into a search engine and watching what the prediction recommends…”what is their net worth” is usually in the first 2-3 recommendation. Nobody my age (46) even knew what a net worth was until we had to start worrying about actual retirement 🙂
It feels like the world (and these auctions) is turning into a weird, celeb-worshipping cult that I can’t explain. Like you said, the “ethos” of these cars was that they would be affordable to normal working people after a semi-decent career and smart saving. The last car I remember pitching itself that way — Corvette excluded — was the Nissan GT-R back when it was still under $100k.
Free market and all that…I’m just trying to isolate the problem that all these symptoms are telegraphing. It’s much deeper than car price inflation.
This only proves that some people have more money than sense.
Just because I love Gone in 60 seconds and this is really the only place I can use this….
“There’s too many self indulgent wieners with too much bloody money.”
A co-worker was at a well-known collector car auction last year. A person sitting beside him paid what everyone thought was excessive money for one of the cars. Two younger guys sitting behind him started giving him a hard time. He turned and asked “If you could get your all-time favourite car for two weeks wages, would you do it?’ They quickly said “yes”. His reply was “That’s what I just did.” It’s not really about the price for many of these people. They have so much money that they will pay whatever it takes to get what they want. I highly doubt that any of them are thinking of these as an investment either.
Right, I just assume the person who spends $1M on a NSX can find it in their couch cushions. “Fun coupons”, that is all it is.
Did his (perfect) response silence them? I hope so.
I first ran into this wealth-divide phenomenon in college in the mid-70s. I was a photographer for the student newspaper and got a press pass to shoot a professional tennis tournament at La Costa (near San Diego).
I had a Nikkormat and a second-hand Vivitar zoom lens. Walking out to the photog zone on the court, I walked past a fat guy in the front row of the stands with two Nikon F2s with motor drives and some much nicer glass just sitting on his rotund belly. My equipment cost maybe $600. He had at least $6,000 worth of gear.
Even without an unavailable motor drive, I would bet I put more film through that Nikkormat than he did through both of those Nikons. Not just that day. I put a lot of film through that body before I got a real newspaper job and switched to a couple of Canons. (Because they and their lenses were less expensive than Nikon stuff back then.)
I envied his equipment, but I wasn’t jealous. He paid to watch the tournament, and I was there, essentially, as a guest.
That was 1977. The divide has only increased.
Yes, apparently it did.
Your comment about not being jealous is something that I think a lot of people don’t understand the value of. I have a friend, former co-worker who worked his butt off his whole life. By the time he was 40, he had one of every series of Corvettes (including the C8). In addition he has several other collector cars and a number of motorcycles. He knew I was one of the few co-workers who wasn’t jealous, and as a result he has shown me some the cars during the restorations. Showing an interest without showing jealousy can open the doors to at least see stuff that you can’t afford and might not see otherwise except in pictures.