The NSX is back, in a very big and wide way.
Honda's display stand at the 2007 North American International Auto Show was home to a car named the “Advanced Sports Car Concept”, an all-wheel-drive monster which was touted as Honda’s new halo model, set to supersede the long-serving NSX. About a year ago when pictures first surfaced of what was said to be this new Honda undergoing road tests, it was pretty easy to speculate that the chunky-looking beast covered in camouflage was the V10-powered car everyone had been expecting.
The images showed what appeared to be a front-engined two-door with the broad-shouldered stance of a bulldog, sporting twin two-stack mufflers and a whole lot of aerodynamic venting. The bodywork was taught and aggressive and looked like a mix between the compact shape of the 2008 Civic Type-R, the high haunches of a Nissan GT-R and the angular tuning accents of Lamborghini Reventón. Nissan managed to get their incredible R35 GT-R out in time, but Toyota and Honda were still in the middle of testing their next generation supercars when the global economy took a sideways step. Expensive supercars were moved down the priority list, in favour of keeping the companies functioning until sales picked up again.
The original NSX was welcomed with open arms by the world’s press. It provided the other notable mid-engined sports manufacturers , the ones with farmyard animals on their badges, with a valuable lesson; creating cars that could be as easily driven by Gisele Bündchen as Jenson Button was a good business plan. As its competitors overtook the NSX with higher performance, industry reviewers called for Honda to stop gilding the lily and create a new supercar to replace it with. It’s a shame that just when Honda were in the middle of doing just that very thing, and making remarkably good progress against the benchmark set by the GT-R, they were forced to cease development on the car indefinitely.
The NSX has gone through several small changes over its life, and has been the subject of a number of custom models, such as Spoon’s NSX-R GT, or Mitsuoka’s Orochi, a small-run produced by a small Japanese company that changed the NSX’s angular lines to an organic sports-concept. There is even a “Refresh Plan” where, for a premium price, Honda mechanics will replace the entire braking system, suspension, exterior parts or even the entire interior with brand new parts. The NSX is still used as the base for a number of front-running Super GT cars as well, so the image of the car is still strong in the public mind. It would seem like a waste to supersede it just yet, especially when you look at some of the ideas to improve it even further that have sprung up recently, namely the NSX Mugen RR Concept.
Mugen’s M-TEC headquarters, a clinical-looking white building about forty-five minutes west of the middle of Tokyo, is home to Honda’s former F1 efforts and their current Super GT campaign, as well as the development ground for the numerous Mugen parts found on Hondas around the world. It was here that a plain white NSX was stripped down and turned into the awesome creation seen here. The entire exterior of the NSX has been redesigned to “RR” specifications, which has meant that every panel apart from the roof is a different shape. The inspiration for the RR is clearly GT as well, since a normal NSX is 1810mm wide, a Super GT NSX is 1900mm wide and the Mugen NSX RR is 1950mm. The car bulges out in every direction, and takes the functional styling cues of the Super GT machines and turns them into the kind of factory-level of panel finish never before seen on a car like this.
Just one example of how much thought M-TEC put into the NSX RR can be seen under the rear GT-wing. The wide-mount wing’s base has a very neat custom piece of trim covering the base of the stanchions. This sits flush with another piece of trim on the bootlid that matches the width and curves of the widened rear fenders. Another large and well-finished piece on the car is the carbon composite roof scoop that feeds air to the air intakes on top of the engine, as well as providing cooling to the ignition system. Once you open the engine bay cover though, it’s clear that the concept for this car is a bit more extreme than just a styling job. The C32B V6 engine has been rotated 90 degrees to a longitudinal position and fitted with custom tubular extractors, just like a Super GT car. You can’t help but wonder if the designers would really have liked to stick in a Mugen V10 though.
The exterior may be quite extreme, but the simple white paint scheme doesn’t distract from the styling. The interior is not quite as subdued as that. In the midst of a sea of red suede and retrimmed Recaro bucket seats, there are quite a number of other details worth taking another look at. The steering wheel has been exchanged with one from the latest Civic Type R model, complete with carbon insert, suede trimmed rim with red stitching, and the special model signature, a red-backed Honda logo badge. The handbrake and shifter boot have also been treated to a suede covering and contrasting stitch job, topped with a custom engraved shift knob.
In a classy touch that matches the conservative outrageousness of the rest of the car’s styling, the Mugen designers updatedthe original dial gauges with a pair from the latest 2009 Honda Accord Euro. What makes these gauges interesting is that the needle rotates around the outside of the gauge’s circumference, rather than pivot from the middle, giving the instruments a very clean look. They didn’t just bolt in a factory cluster from another model and call it a day either, as the faces have been modified to suit the application.
The speedometer’s face measurements have been reprinted from the Accord’s 260km/h to a slightly more inspirational, if not a bit aspirational, 360km/h. The tachometer has had a couple of extra numbers attached to the end as well, and the redline moved up a few thousand RPM to suit the NSX’s high-revving VTEC engine. In the middle of the tacho is the slightly cryptic phrase “Dream, Never Ends”. Since “Mugen” translates from Japanese as “infinite” or “infinity”, I think it’s not too hard to understand what they mean, especially if you take a few steps back to look at the bodywork.
Even though Mugen clearly labelled the brochures that were handed out at the Tokyo Auto Salon show with the word “concept”, and have stated that they don’t have any plans to sell the parts seen on the car to NSX fans, you can’t help but wonder about the amount of work that has gone into the RR. Could it be possible that someone in one of the offices upstairs at M-TEC might just sign off on that idea to make a limited-edition Super GT-inspired street car? If its purpose was simply to inspire though, the NSX Mugen RR Concept is the stuff of dreams.
Honda's display stand at the 2007 North American International Auto Show was home to a car named the “Advanced Sports Car Concept”, an all-wheel-drive monster which was touted as Honda’s new halo model, set to supersede the long-serving NSX. About a year ago when pictures first surfaced of what was said to be this new Honda undergoing road tests, it was pretty easy to speculate that the chunky-looking beast covered in camouflage was the V10-powered car everyone had been expecting.
The images showed what appeared to be a front-engined two-door with the broad-shouldered stance of a bulldog, sporting twin two-stack mufflers and a whole lot of aerodynamic venting. The bodywork was taught and aggressive and looked like a mix between the compact shape of the 2008 Civic Type-R, the high haunches of a Nissan GT-R and the angular tuning accents of Lamborghini Reventón. Nissan managed to get their incredible R35 GT-R out in time, but Toyota and Honda were still in the middle of testing their next generation supercars when the global economy took a sideways step. Expensive supercars were moved down the priority list, in favour of keeping the companies functioning until sales picked up again.
The NSX has gone through several small changes over its life, and has been the subject of a number of custom models, such as Spoon’s NSX-R GT, or Mitsuoka’s Orochi, a small-run produced by a small Japanese company that changed the NSX’s angular lines to an organic sports-concept. There is even a “Refresh Plan” where, for a premium price, Honda mechanics will replace the entire braking system, suspension, exterior parts or even the entire interior with brand new parts. The NSX is still used as the base for a number of front-running Super GT cars as well, so the image of the car is still strong in the public mind. It would seem like a waste to supersede it just yet, especially when you look at some of the ideas to improve it even further that have sprung up recently, namely the NSX Mugen RR Concept.
Mugen’s M-TEC headquarters, a clinical-looking white building about forty-five minutes west of the middle of Tokyo, is home to Honda’s former F1 efforts and their current Super GT campaign, as well as the development ground for the numerous Mugen parts found on Hondas around the world. It was here that a plain white NSX was stripped down and turned into the awesome creation seen here. The entire exterior of the NSX has been redesigned to “RR” specifications, which has meant that every panel apart from the roof is a different shape. The inspiration for the RR is clearly GT as well, since a normal NSX is 1810mm wide, a Super GT NSX is 1900mm wide and the Mugen NSX RR is 1950mm. The car bulges out in every direction, and takes the functional styling cues of the Super GT machines and turns them into the kind of factory-level of panel finish never before seen on a car like this.
Just one example of how much thought M-TEC put into the NSX RR can be seen under the rear GT-wing. The wide-mount wing’s base has a very neat custom piece of trim covering the base of the stanchions. This sits flush with another piece of trim on the bootlid that matches the width and curves of the widened rear fenders. Another large and well-finished piece on the car is the carbon composite roof scoop that feeds air to the air intakes on top of the engine, as well as providing cooling to the ignition system. Once you open the engine bay cover though, it’s clear that the concept for this car is a bit more extreme than just a styling job. The C32B V6 engine has been rotated 90 degrees to a longitudinal position and fitted with custom tubular extractors, just like a Super GT car. You can’t help but wonder if the designers would really have liked to stick in a Mugen V10 though.
The exterior may be quite extreme, but the simple white paint scheme doesn’t distract from the styling. The interior is not quite as subdued as that. In the midst of a sea of red suede and retrimmed Recaro bucket seats, there are quite a number of other details worth taking another look at. The steering wheel has been exchanged with one from the latest Civic Type R model, complete with carbon insert, suede trimmed rim with red stitching, and the special model signature, a red-backed Honda logo badge. The handbrake and shifter boot have also been treated to a suede covering and contrasting stitch job, topped with a custom engraved shift knob.
In a classy touch that matches the conservative outrageousness of the rest of the car’s styling, the Mugen designers updated
The speedometer’s face measurements have been reprinted from the Accord’s 260km/h to a slightly more inspirational, if not a bit aspirational, 360km/h. The tachometer has had a couple of extra numbers attached to the end as well, and the redline moved up a few thousand RPM to suit the NSX’s high-revving VTEC engine. In the middle of the tacho is the slightly cryptic phrase “Dream, Never Ends”. Since “Mugen” translates from Japanese as “infinite” or “infinity”, I think it’s not too hard to understand what they mean, especially if you take a few steps back to look at the bodywork.
Even though Mugen clearly labelled the brochures that were handed out at the Tokyo Auto Salon show with the word “concept”, and have stated that they don’t have any plans to sell the parts seen on the car to NSX fans, you can’t help but wonder about the amount of work that has gone into the RR. Could it be possible that someone in one of the offices upstairs at M-TEC might just sign off on that idea to make a limited-edition Super GT-inspired street car? If its purpose was simply to inspire though, the NSX Mugen RR Concept is the stuff of dreams.
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