'Tis the season, it seems, for perfect condition old Japanese cars to be wheeled out from obscurity for big cash-in auctions all over the world.
In particular, there's been a strong influx of sales concerning Honda and Acura models globally (especially those fancy ones with little red badges). They're a slice of the motoring pie that make perfect sense in the era of collectible-car trading; they're in nostalgic, they're renowned for reliability, and good examples are hard to come by since so many were either thrashed or driven to the moon and back.
Such a heavily driven fate spared at least two of Honda's most rare and sought-after breed though, it seems.
The Honda NSX Type R (or NSX-R, as many know them as) was built purely in a right-hand drive format, with distribution only available in Japan.
A claimed 464 NSX-Rs were made for the model's first generation (1992-'95), sporting stiffer dampers, 120kg of weight loss through alternative materials and ripping out things like the sound deadening, carbon-kevlar Recaro seats, and a balanced and blue-printed engine among a whole stack of other nerdy tweaks and adjustments that Hondas boffins did under the skin.
It was Honda's first 'Type R' model, helping kick start a giant-killing legacy of 8750rpm pulls and lawnmower internet memes.
The latter second-gen 2002-'05 NSX-R contained a similar less-is-more ethos, with more expansive use of carbon fibre and many of the same performance measures that featured on the old one. They're even more rare than the first-gen models, with claims that only 140 were produced in total.
One NSX-R is a rare treat. Two of them, though? That's almost unheard of.
But, that's the scenario that Japanese auction-house BH Auction currently find themselves in. They currently have one of each generation listed, and each is about as ideal as a buyer could possibly desire.
For one, each car is from the end of its respective generation (1995 and 2005, respectively). Both are painted from head to toe in Honda's hero hue; Championship White. And both are beautifully maintained. But, more to the point. The kicker for both vehicles is that they each have less than 1000km on the clock. The 1995 NSX-R has 860km counted, while the 2005 has 560km.
Insane. Slightly depressing, but also insane.
Naturally, the prices are also expected to be quite insane. BH Auctions forecast that each car will sell for ¥25,000,000–¥30,000,000 (1995 model, NZ$345,000–$417,000) and ¥38,000,000–¥48,000,000 (2005 model, NZ$528,0000–$668,000).
While we don't have the figures under our noses, it's highly likely that sales in those ballpark guestimates would become records in second-hand production-car Honda sales history.
All will be revealed when the two white Hondas go under the hammer at BH's Tokyo Auction event on June 8.
