Pininfarina and JAS Motorsports Reimagine the Original Honda/Acura NSX

 

Pininfarina and JAS Motorsports are working on a modern version of the first generation Honda/Acura NSX, complete with pop-up headlamps.

• This sports car will keep the original’s overall shape, pop-up headlamps, and mid-mounted V6.

• The body will be made of carbon fibre, and both left and right-hand drive versions will be offered.

• Italdesign is also working on its own modern take on the original NSX.

Iconic vehicles from the past have often been modernized by design firms and tuners. We have seen this notably with Porsche models, but not, it’s the original Honda NSX’s turn.

Indeed, 35 years after the mid-engine sports car, sold under the Honda brand globally and badged as an Acura in the United States and Canada, Pininfarina and JAS Motorsports have unveiled a new iteration of the first-generation NSX.

The Italian design house is well prepared for this task, as it collaborated with Honda on the HP-X prototype from 1984, which was later adapted into the production design of the initial NSX.

While the result of Pininfarina and JAS Motorsports’ collaboration, shown in recently released studio images, could easily be mistaken for an actual 90s NSX with a few modern bits thrown in, it is in fact a completely new model.

For starters, the entire body is made of carbon fibre, and the wheel base as well as the track have been increased, providing better proportions than the original, which suffered from long overhangs.

The side intakes in the rear quarter panels have also been enlarged and the main lines of the car have been softened a bit and present a slightly curvier appearance than the crisp contours of the original.

The front end has been modified with a much more modern-looking trapezoidal grille in place of the split rectangle of the pre-facelift 1990 to 2001 NSX, and it features LED daytime running lights in the bumper, where the original’s turn signals were.

At the rear, changes are surprisingly minimal, with the new LED taillamp occupying pretty much the same space as the old light bar. The spoiler is also still integrated into the light assembly, a key design detail of the first-generation model.

Other details that have been kept in this modern recreation include the black roof over a red body, the door handles mounted into the B pillars, and most famously, the pop-up headlamps. The front hood also features an air intake that is inspired by the NSX-R.

We haven’t seen the interior yet, but Pininfarina says that this model is a road car, which suggests a fully-furnished cabin rather than the stripped-out space often found in track-focussed performance cars.

Under the raked rear glass will be a tuned Honda V6 engine, another nod to the original.

No technical details are known at the moment, but we expect it to be much more powerful than the 3.0L six-cylinder engine that powered the 1990 model, which was rated at 270 horsepower.

Like its predecessor, the Pininfarina/JAS collaboration will feature a six-speed manual transmission, and it will be available in both left-hand drive and right-hand drive.

We don’t know how many units of this NSX tribute the two companies are planning to produce, but it isn’t likely to be a lot.

Currently named Tensei, which means reincarnation in Japanese, the car wears JAS badges in place of the Honda or Acura logos of the original, likely in order to avoid litigation from the automaker.

Pricing and additional details are expected soon since Pininfarina says a full reveal should take place in the first quarter of 2026.

Surprisingly, this is not the only modern NSX that is currently in the works. Indeed, Italdesign, a direct competitor of Pininfarina, is working on its own version of the old Japanese sports car.

Very little is known at the moment, with only a shadowy teaser showing the rear end of the car and what appears to be a roof-mounted air intake, something that was used on the very rare NSX-R GT homologation special of 2005.

Whatever this second re-interpretation turns out to be, NSX fans will have an eventful year in 2026.