Italdesign’s glorious take on the Nissan GT-R couldn’t sit alone as the only Italian design of a Japanese classic now, could it? This time around, the makeover doesn’t come to a Nissan. This is something arguably way more iconic: a first-generation Honda NSX. The builder is JAS Motorsports, a factory-supported Honda race team, and the styling is from Pininfarina.
The car is stunning, and now we have a new look at the car both inside and out ahead of its upcoming reveal.
Coachbuilt NSX Will Be A Work Of Art
JAS TenseiJAS
The Acura (née Honda) NSX is one of the best automotive designs of the 1990s. The blend of sharp edges and gentle curves would have changed the industry forever even if it hadn’t also been the first car to bring daily driver reliability and supercar performance into the same shell.
There isn’t always room for improvement, but when the right company comes along, improvements can be found. Pininfarina, which has penned hit after hit for nearly 100 years, is one of just a few companies that can find that room. And in the case of this car, called the JAS Tensei, it has done it.
Instead of the factory aluminum body, JAS and its fabrication partners have built a new one out of carbon fiber. The material isn’t the star, though, it’s the shapes that have been created.
This time, it isn’t even the shapes that are meant to be the highlight. It’s the new interior that JAS has crafted to transform what was a very typical Honda cabin into something more fitting of a legend.
Has There Been A Better Automotive Interior Glow-Up?
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The shape inside is familiar, yet also completely different. The HVAC controls, for example, are in the same place as before. But they’re new and modern, and sit on top of a brand-new touchscreen display. The dash is the same design, but reupholstered in leather and with tiny details to make it special.
Then there are the brand-new details that look like modern Honda parts but elevated. The start button in the center console is a great place to begin your visual journey, followed by the brand-new steering wheel. More elaborate speaker grilles highlight the other new switches and vents. They all look like they were carved out of a piece of metal made just for this car.
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Then there are the Honda H-shaped cutouts in the seats. The front cushion on the lower bolster isn’t just cut out in case you wanted a five-point harness, it’s the start of Honda’s classic logo that is continued into the rest of the seat.
With all of that, it’s easy to miss the fully digital dash display. The control pod on the driver’s side of the dash is a work of art of its own, and with everything else going on in this car it’s easy to miss.
We’ve already heard more about the engine planned for this car. The famed builders at Judd Power are making a new 3.5-liter V6 for it, and though neither company has let slip the horsepower rating, Judd’s day job is building engines for IndyCar and the WRC, and it has even made F1 car powerplants in the past. Take that as you will.
Acura NSX Restomod JAS Tensei PininfarinaPininfarina
JAS has been teasing out the details for a year now. Showing us the exterior, then talking more about the engine, now showing the interior. Curiously, despite dropping this teaser during Monterey Car Week, the whole thing won’t get an official reveal until October at the Paris show. That’s a very strange place to debut a Japanese car reformatted by an Italian company.
