Acura Mulling Program to Restore U.S. Customers' Classic NSXs to Virtually New Condition
A restoration program has been available in Japan for years, but would be new to America.
If any relatively modern Honda product is worth preserving, it's the first-generation Acura NSX. Its advanced aluminum construction, revolutionary (for its time) everyday drivability, chassis tuning by F1 legend Ayrton Senna (and his less-successful F1 competitor Satoru Nakajima), and stunning fighter-jet looks shocked the European supercar competition. Every NSX built is a monument to Honda's thoughtful and unconventional sports car philosophy. That's why Acura is pondering a U.S. restoration program, according to a report from Tire Meets Road.
The message was relayed during a virtual NSXPO car show/meet-up for NSX owners and enthusiasts by John Watts, Senior Manager of the NSX Strategy Team at Acura. He told attendees that the company is polling current owners about their level of interest in a "refresh plan." Acura, in a statement toAutomobile, confirmed that the company is mulling such a program: "We are conducting exploratory research to determine the level of interest among NSX owners in refresh center services."
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The term "refresh plan" has a specific meaning to NSX owners, because in Japan (where the NSX is badged a Honda), an NSX Refresh Plan has been active for years(that page is in Japanese). It's a factory program that aims to return participant vehicles to a like-new state. Honda admits the program is exacting (and therefore extremely expensive), but it's been wildly popular. And perhaps essential, since Honda claims many of the assembly processes to return the vehicle to nearly new require special parts and jigs. With the factory backing the "refresh," owners can be sure it's done right—and the character of the car will be as it was when it was first delivered.
This homegrown restoration knowledge can certainly be transferred to the NSX's American home base, the Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio, where the contemporary NSX is built and the various PMC Editions are finished. And we do know Acura has been sniffing out other projects to tackle using the PMC's hands-on capabilities. So it'll be interesting to see if this pans out.
Like a lot of the other staffers here, Alex Kierstein took the hard way to get to car writing. Although he always loved cars, he wasn’t sure a career in automotive media could possibly pan out. So, after an undergraduate degree in English at the University of Washington, he headed to law school. To be clear, it sucked. After a lot of false starts, and with little else to lose, he got a job at Turn 10 Studios supporting the Forza 4 and Forza Horizon 1 launches. The friendships made there led to a job at a major automotive publication in Michigan, and after a few years to MotorTrend. He lives in the Seattle area with a small but scruffy fleet of great vehicles, including a V-8 4Runner and a C5 Corvette, and he also dabbles in scruffy vintage watches and film cameras.
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