Honda NSX

The NSX went on sale in 1990 with a 3.0-litre V6 mounted behind the seats and a body and chassis made of aluminium. Ayrton Senna, then driving for McLaren-Honda, took part in its development testing.

Honda refined the car for fifteen years. A lighter Type R came in 1992. A 3.2-litre engine and six-speed gearbox arrived in 1997 for manual cars, giving the NA2. A facelift at the end of 2001 replaced the pop-up headlights with fixed ones, and a second Type R followed in 2002. Production ended in 2005.

In North America the car was sold as the Acura NSX. The hybrid NSX of 2016 is part of the history here but outside this page's detailed specs.

The NSX is tuned with more restraint than the turbo cars on this site. Many owners stay naturally aspirated and work on response, gearing and weight; others add a supercharger or turbo. This section covers both routes and what each costs the car.

Most of what follows comes from tuners, parts makers and magazines rather than the carmakers, and several of those sources sell the parts they describe. Each point names its source. Power is given in the unit the source uses, and figures "at the wheels" are lower than figures at the engine.

• What Honda built in. The C30A has titanium connecting rods, each about 190 g (roughly 30 percent) lighter, which Honda says raised the engine's maximum speed by about 700 rpm. The manual car's red zone starts at 8,000 rpm and VTEC switches over at 5,800 rpm. Compression is 10.2:1, and the engine was designed for 100 RON fuel. Honda chose not to turbocharge it because of the weight of intercooling, the heat to be managed and turbo lag. (source 1)
• The naturally aspirated route. One documented 1994 car shows how far it goes: bored out to 3,111 cc with 12.0:1 pistons, aftermarket rods and camshafts, and an HKS F-CON V Pro ECU, it made 345 hp at the hubs. It also ran a 4.4:1 final drive with a 1.5-way limited-slip differential, an oil cooler, a baffled sump and pillow-ball bushes to keep the alignment steady. (source 2)
• The supercharged route. A 1992 car with a Whipple twin-screw supercharger made 435 hp at the wheels on 9 psi (0.6 bar), but needed a custom intercooler, 650 cc injectors, an AEM ECU, an aftermarket radiator, a Japanese NSX-R gearbox with a 4.55 final drive and a triple-plate clutch; DSPORT notes that a supercharger takes power from the crankshaft and heats the intake air. (source 3) A restomod with a Magnuson TVS1900 supercharger and a liquid-to-air intercooler made 505 hp at the wheels on forged 9.4:1 pistons, keeping the factory titanium rods, with 1,050 cc injectors and the cooling system enlarged to 16 litres. (source 4)
• Known weak points. On early five-speed gearboxes, the circlip holding the countershaft bearing can snap; the affected serial numbers, J4A4-1003542 to J4A4-1005978, are on a sticker on the gearbox. (source 5) DSPORT says Honda issued a service bulletin for 1991 and 1992 US cars. (source 3) The NSX has 23 coolant hoses, a weak coolant mix corrodes the aluminium heads, and the aluminium engine mounts can fail, which shows as a knock when the engine is revved. (source 5)
• The 3.2-litre engine. The 1997 C32B brought larger intake valves, revised head gaskets, fibre-reinforced cylinder liners and larger rod bearings. (source 5)

Much NSX body work follows the factory: Type R parts, and conversions between the pop-up and fixed-headlight cars. Beyond that are the widened, race-inspired kits from the Honda specialists.

Documented builds, each credited and linked to where it was first shown. We describe them; the photos and the full story stay with the people who made them.

The ones that don't fit anywhere else. Engine swaps nobody asked for, body conversions, and ideas that should not have worked.