Ayrton Senna's Honda NSX Up For Sale

Formula One drivers, or indeed F1 champions, are seldom associated with road cars. They do, after all, drive some of the quickest circuit racing machine on the planet. However, Honda NSX lore will forever be intertwined with Ayrton Senna. The Brazilian won all three of his world titles powered by engines produced by the Japanese automaker.

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Viral video

In part, the NSX/Senna link was cemented through a video that would have went viral had it been shot in present times. Senna was invited to drive a Honda NSX in its final stages of development. The event took place in Japan. Someone had the foresight to mount a camera in the footwell, showing the Brazilian’s unique throttle application (video at the bottom of post). Of course, he was wearing period-stylish white socks and brown loafers.

Click here to read our own driving experience of a first-gen Honda NSX.

While testing the prototype, Senna judged the chassis to be “a little fragile”. His feedback prompted Honda to stiffen the car’s frame by 50 per cent and refine the suspension tuning. He was invited back to drive the car at the Nurburgring once it had been updated. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Company man

Thanks to his title-winning exploits on track, Senna has concluded a deal that netted him three examples of the company’s very first sportscar. Two were finished in black with a third, as pictured, in red with black accents. Now this car can be bought by a very lucky (and wealthy) Senna fan as RM Sotheby’s has it up for auction.

Sponsored

His red NSX wearing the reg plate “SX-25-59”, was delivered in Portugal, where the Brazilian had a holiday home. Fittingly, it is not too far from the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve aka Portimao. He reportedly used the car whenever in the area. He even used to to the Portuguese F1 Grand Prix. It is also featured in a famous image of Senna washing it using a hosepipe.

As expected, the car changed hands many times since the triple F1 champ’s untimely death in 1994. Thanks to the car’s very special ownership it is expected to fetch between £500 000 and £800 000. Using today’s forex rate that translates to somewhere between R10,9m – R17,4m.

Images by Ken Saito courtesy of RM Sotheby’s