This one's a right hand drive NSX built to NSX-R specification, which is as close as most people are ever going to 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's been converted to match it. Underneath it's the standard NSX's aluminium 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 aren't any styling lines to interrupt your eye and dark paint reports every imperfection. That's also why this set leans on wide low frames that take in the whole flank at once.

Rocklear becomes part of the paint rather than sitting on top of it as a layer that gets stripped and redone, and on a car the owner has no intention of replacing, that permanence is the reason to do it at all. It stands up to the UV fade and the dulling that flatten older paint, it doesn't yellow, and nobody's waxing it or booking it a yearly service appointment. Should it ever wear down, the factory clear coat underneath is untouched.

Eighteen photos: low front three quarters both ways, 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. Three layers is a choice, and our Icon Rocklear page explains what each one adds.

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