The NSX earned its legend by being an exotic you could actually live with, and this black targa left the shop wearing Icon Rocklear, our permanent paint protection coating. We shot it the day the install wrapped. The low nose and that wide flat deck carry a deep, wet gloss from every angle, and black paint sitting this straight on a car this age tells you plenty about how it's been kept.

The NSX-T's an unusual body to finish. Honda built the car around an all aluminium structure, and the panels are subtle in a way steel cars of the era aren't: long, gently curved, with very little surface drama to hide behind. Take the targa roof panel out and you've opened up the whole centre of the car, so the reflection has to run cleanly from the windscreen frame across the rear deck without stepping. The wide frames here show that full length read, and the tighter ones show it holding on the fender and rocker curves.

Icon Rocklear bonds into the factory clear coat rather than sitting on top of it, so it isn't something the owner strips and reapplies every couple of years, and on a car this age that's the point of it. UV fade and the dulling that follows it are what flatten older paint, and this stands up to both, it doesn't yellow, and you're not waxing it or booking a yearly service visit to keep it where it is in these frames.

Twenty five photos: front three quarters from both sides and several heights, straight on front, rear three quarters, low side profiles with the shop visible, plus the headlight and fender, the wheels and brakes, the mirror, the rocker panel, and the rear deck. Here's how the coating works if you own something similar.

A first-generation Acura NSX-T, a collector car valued over $100,000.