New car news

14 January 2009 - 12:00

NSX: not (quite) dead

Though Honda’s NSX successor has officially been canned (boo), you’ll still be able to buy yourself a new NSX this year.

Sort of. This is the Mugen NSX RR, a hotted-up version of the mid-engined supercar (which officially ended production in 2005) created by Honda’s longtime motorsports partner.

And it looks – well, it looks aftermarket. Mugen has taken the NSX-R (itself the lighter, more powerful version of Honda’s supercar) and lengthened it by some 10cm, as well as stretching the wheelbase by 14cm and adding a whole lot of extra aero stuff.

We’re particularly impressed by the snorkel-like roof-mounted air intake, which should help the NSX to keep running even during the most arduous river crossings. Hmm.

The NSX’s stock 3.0-litre V6 has been ditched, too, in favour of a supercharged 2.4-litre V6 putting out around 350bhp. That doesn’t sound like a whole lot by supercar standards, but since the car could weigh as little as 1000kg, performance should be lively – by late 1990s standards, at least.

So how do you get Mugen to build you an NSX-RR? Well, that probably involves finding yourself a nice low-mileage NSX-R (you’ll find one in that giant pile of hens’ teeth over there in the corner) and then asking very nicely. We’ll have ourselves a SpecV GT-R instead, please…