A Honda NSX-R recently netted almost $NZ1.8m

Last weekend someone with deep pockets purchased a rare 2003 Honda NSX-R for €934,375. The car was sold at the Broad Arrow Concorso d’Eleganza Villa D’Este auction. 

This was an original Honda NSX-R version. The second-generation of the model stopped selling in the US in 2022.

Why would someone have spent so much on this particular NSX? Because the R was the lightest, most focused, most special version of the original and only a few were made. The first limited run was produced between 1992 and 1995, while the second went from 2002 to 2005 after a facelift. Of the latter, Honda only built 140 examples, and all were for the Japanese market.  

The example that sold recently was finished in the classic Championship White livery. It featured colour-matched BBS wheels and red interior trim. The odo said it had travelled just 16,000 kilometers and presentation was immaculate.

Evidently this was the first 2002-2005 NSX-R to come up for public sale in quite some time. It sold for far more than any recently offered 1992-1995 NSX-R. The next closest was a 1995 NSX-R that sold in 2023 for $US632,000. 

Only two NSXs have sold for more. The first example of the second-generation NSX and the first example of a 2022 NSX Type-S both sold for $1.1 million in charity auctions.