Honda NSX-R Tribute

This one is a right hand drive NSX built to NSX-R specification, which is as close as most people get to the real thing. Under the hex lights the black paint shows the kind of depth that makes the R badge feel earned, with clean reflections running the full length of the car and no break across the door to quarter panel transition. The owner went with three layers of Icon Rocklear, our permanent paint protection coating.

The R was Honda's stripped, focused version of the NSX, lighter and sharper rather than better equipped, and this car was converted to match it. Underneath it is the standard NSX's aluminum body and the same restrained surfacing: long, softly curved panels with almost no crease work. Black over a body like that is the most exposing combination there is, because there are no styling lines to interrupt the eye and dark paint reports every imperfection. It is also why this set leans on wide, low frames that take in the whole flank at once.

Icon Rocklear bonds into the factory clear coat rather than sitting on top of it as a layer that gets stripped and redone. On a car the owner has no intention of replacing, that permanence is the reason to do it at all. It resists the UV fade and dulling that flatten older paint, it does not yellow, and it needs no waxing and no yearly service appointment. Should it ever wear down, the factory clear coat underneath is untouched.

Eighteen photos taken at our Milpitas shop: low front three quarters in both orientations, straight on front and rear, rear three quarters, a side profile, plus macro work on the NSX-R rear spoiler badge, the taillights, the front wheel and brake, and a wide interior frame with the driver door open. More on our Icon Rocklear page.

A first-generation NSX built to NSX-R specification, a collector car valued over $100,000.