The old ways aren’t usually the best in the automotive world, which is all about innovation and progress. But the old ways can still be very nice; and occasionally quite surprising.
We’ve talked about Honda New Zealand’s Heritage Collection a bit over the years. The company keeps a fleet of working classics for posterity, display and even the odd media drive. Yep, some of the Collection is very precious indeed, but the company has never been too precious about loaning it out to the likes of us.
We’ve had drives in some great stuff, mostly notably in Civics: a first-gen 1976 example (the first one ever assembled in NZ, in fact), a 1992 hatch with over 400,000km on the clock and a 2015 FK2 Type R during a last blast at Pukekohe at the end of last year.
But we’ve long been keen to get some of the maker’s most iconic and individualistic Heritage sports/performance cars together in one place. That chance finally came this year, when Honda NZ assembled some of its Collection at a media event, near some sinewy country roads about an hour south-east of Auckland.
We focused on three of our favourites: NSX, S2000 and Integra Type R. Three Hondas very different in design, but also with a lot in common. All were groundbreaking enthusiast machines in their respective genres and all three nameplates are now out of production (yes, we know the NSX was rebooted, but it finished again in 2022). And all three are also just incredibly cool.
Honda NSX
We would never turn a chance to drive an NSX. It’s a bucket list car for so many enthusiasts: the “New Sportscar eXperimental” mid-engined model really rocked the European establishment when it came along in 1990. It was easy to drive, had a cabin no more complicated than a contemporary Accord (some might point out it was no more stylish, either), and yet it was still a sensational sports car to drive.
Ayrton Senna even had his say when he test-drove it late in development, in 1989, and made some simple suggestions that Honda says improved the car’s balance and rigidity no end. Gordon Murray, the guy who designed the legendary McLaren F1 road car, liked the NSX so much he actually owned one.
The NSX is still an incredible machine today. We spent more time in it than anything else on our big day out, even driving it from central Auckland out to the event venue. The 3.0-litre 200kW engine sounds incredible and it’s still razor-sharp on the road.
This particular example is pretty special. Honda NZ has only owned it since 2020: a 1991 five-speed (!) manual with less than 50,000km on the clock, and it’s completely original apart from the tyres.
This is the OG NSX and surely first choice for the purists, but the NSX was further developed over the years. There was a Targa in 1995, a larger 3.2-litre engine in 1997 and a facelift in 2002 that removed the pop-up headlights (boo). And of course the NSX was the base for Honda’s first-ever Type R of any kind: launched in 1992.
But it’s also tiny by modern standards! It’s low, which you naturally expect, but it’s only 4.4m long. Park it next to the S2000 roadster, which is not exactly a large car itself, and the NSX looks impossibly compact.
Honda S2000
Speaking of which, the S2000 was produced for a full decade, from 1999-2009. The name simply denotes “Sports, 2000cc” and the launch partly celebrated Honda’s 50th anniversary.
It’s the rear-drive roadster to have if you really love revs. The 2.0-litre VTEC engine made 184kW at launch, which was the highest specific output (92kW per litre) of any naturally aspirated production engine in the world at the time.
It revs all the way to 9000rpm, so you do need to go to the track to get the best out of it. And we did many times back in the day, although this outing was strictly on-road. We still had a ball.
This example is one of only 149 sold new in NZ. It’s another relatively recent acquisition by Honda NZ: purchased in 2018, and still with less than 20,000km on the clock.
S2000ists will know there were two main generations, AP1 (1999-2003) and AP2 (2004-2009), as well as a number of enhanced and special-edition models. There was a Type V model for Japan in 2000 (superseded by a Type S in 2007), a larger 2.2-litre engine for the US for AP2 (later added for Japan) that had a reduced rev limit (boo again) and even a track-oriented version called Club Racer, again for the US.
There were GT versions for the UK and an Ultimate Edition for Europe in 2009 to mark the end of production (a right-hand drive version was marketed in the UK as the GT Edition 100).
Honda Integra Type R
The Heritage Collection contains quite a few Civic Type Rs, but we won’t get too caught up in those this time around; not because we didn’t have a hoot, but because we’ve covered those in previous stories.
And also because we had the chance to drive the legendary Integra Type R DC2. It was launched back in 1995 and developed into the early-2000s. This was one of the most extreme experiences of the day; this version was regarded as one of the best-handling front-drive cars ever made, with one of the sharpest manual gearboxes.
It still lives up to those claims… but it’s just so raw. While 147kW doesn’t sound like a lot by today’s standards, but this car goes hard. It’s noisy, you’re always busy behind the wheel and the ride is what you might call circuit-ready; incredibly hard, in other words.
Integra Type R power outputs varied between Japan, the UK and the US, there was an upgrade in 1998 that became known as the 98 Spec R and a final revision of the DC2, the 00 Spec R.
The DC2 ended in 2001 and is certainly the icon, although the Integra Type R brand did continue with the DC5 model, until 2006.
The Integra Type R made the biggest impression on the day, but we have to come back to the NSX as the most memorable and special experience. It’s not just that it’s a performance-car legend; it’s also a 30-year-old sports car that feels as crisp and exciting as ever, even when compared to modern cars.
Times change for sure, but the NSX is just so exciting and wonderful to drive: accomplished at speed, but so easy in day-to-day traffic. And we mean that, because we drove it through an hour of Auckland rush-hour traffic and it didn’t feel in the least bit difficult or intimidating.
Fun fact to finish: the 1990 Honda NSX, one of the greatest sports cars ever made, wears smaller wheels than the 2023 Jazz RS. Make of that what you will.
