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Would you pay $420K for an Acura NSX?

3 August, 2016

Whoa, never in my life did I think that a Honda, or Acura in this instance, would sell for close to half a million dollars new, however Honda in Australia have announced that their local examples will sell for a steep $420K — suggesting ours won’t be far off. During early 2015, Honda New Zealand had quoted the revolutionary supercar to sell for around $200K. But $420K seems cheap though, when you compare it to what Nascar owner Rick Hendrick paid for his $1.8 million example, which was the first one off the production line. If you thought $420K bought you all the bells and whistles, you’d be wrong. An extra $1500 will get you metallic paint, and you’ll need to fork out a further $10K if you opt for the Valencia Red Pearl, which is said to be the NSX’s new hero colour. 

From what I’ve seen, the Acura NSX is full of technology and drives accordingly. However, I do think that this example is going to go down in history as a seriously disjointed-from-its-roots supercar that Hollywood celebrities will buy in the masses, shifting away from the true Honda motorsport heritage. An unfortunate thought, but I’m calling it now. There’s nothing even remotely similar to the original released in the early ’90s, whereas at least the R35 GT-R is still twin turbo, all-wheel drive, with six cylinders. 

Probably the only variant of the latest NSX that gets me excited is the GT3 version, which is rid of its twin electric motor units, and sports a much more aggressive race-inspired appearance. 

For comparison, the 2017 Nissan GT-R will be priced from $191K, a 2013 Ferrari 458 Italia with low kilometres will cost you $389K, or a beach house in the North Island of New Zealand can be had for the same amount. Hard choice! 

Lunch with … Cary Taylor

11 September, 2024

Many years ago — in June 1995 to be more precise — I was being wowed with yet another terrific tale from Geoff Manning who had worked spanners on all types of racing cars. We were chatting at Bruce McLaren Intermediate school on the 25th anniversary of the death of the extraordinary Kiwi for whom the school was named. Geoff, who had been part of Ford’s Le Mans programme in the ’60s, and also Graham Hill’s chief mechanic — clearly realising that he had me in the palm of his hand — offered a piece of advice that I’ve never forgotten: “If you want the really good stories, talk to the mechanics.”
Without doubt the top mechanics, those involved in the highest echelons of motor racing, have stories galore — after all, they had relationships with their drivers so intimate that, to quote Geoff all those years ago, “Mechanics know what really happened.”

ROTARY CHIC

6 September, 2024

Kerry Bowman readily describes himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Citroën fan and a keen Citroën Car Club member. His Auckland home holds some of the chic French cars and many parts. He has also owned a number of examples of the marque as daily drivers, but he now drives a Birotor GS. They are rare, even in France, and this is a car which was not supposed to see the light of day outside France’s borders, yet somehow this one escaped the buyback to be one of the few survivors out in the world.
It’s a special car Kerry first saw while overseas in the ’70s, indulging an interest sparked early on by his father’s keenness for Citroëns back home in Tauranga. He was keen to see one ‘in the flesh’.
“I got interested in this Birotor when I bought a GS in Paris in 1972. I got in contact with Citroën Cars in Slough, and they got me an invitation to the Earls Court Motor Show where they had the first Birotor prototype on display. I said to a guy on the stand, ‘I’d like one of these,’ and he said I wouldn’t be allowed to get one. Citroën were building them for their own market to test them, and they were only left-hand drive.”