When you think of Honda, a range of words like reliable and economical come to mind. However, you’d never consider adding a million dollars in the same sentence, until now.
An anonymous buyer purchased a 2003 Honda NSX-R sports car for a whopping €934,375, which equates to approximately $AUD 1.64 million in 2025.
The iconic sports car went under the hammer at Broad Arrow Auctions, with the auction house stating the NSX-R has clocked less than 16,000km.
While you might be baffled at the thought of spending over a million on a Honda, it’s worth mentioning this specific example isn’t just an ordinary NSX.
Between 2002 and 2005, the Japanese car maker only built 140 examples of the NSX-R performance car, which is a racing-focussed version of the original NSX.
The Honda NSX-R has had an interesting history, with the Japanese marque first launching the car in 1992, before production stopped after just three short years.
Honda revived the badge in May 2002, and doubled down on the performance aspect that the 'R' badged Hondas have been synonymous with.
The NSX-R weighed approximately 120kg less than the same-generation NSX, thanks to the use of carbon fibre on various parts of the vehicle, including its bonnet and rear spoiler.
Powering the 2003 Honda NSX-R is a 213kW 3.2-litre V6 engine that is mated to a six-speed manual transmission. Among the performance-focused inclusions in the NSX-R is the car’s hard-tuned suspension, rigid body, and stronger front and rear stabiliser bars.
The 2002 Honda NSX-R retailed for approximately ¥11.9 million in Japan, which in 2025 equates to approximately $AUD150,000, bringing it in line with other mid-engine high-performance cars like the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray (from $186,990).
The nearly $AUD 2 million Honda is finished in a ‘Championship White’ colourway, while the interior is upholstered in red Alcantara, a synthetic fabric made of polyester.
The Honda NSX has reached the pantheon of historic cars that have been immortalised and revered by generations of car enthusiasts.
While numerous examples have been spotted on sale either through private listings or auctions throughout the years, a 1991 NSX that once belonged to Formula One legend Ayrton Senna was put up for auction for close to $AUD 1 million.
The NSX was offered by Honda Australia between 1991 and 2004, then again as the new-generation hybrid model from 2016 to 2020.
Though Honda Australia discontinued the NSX in Australia after slow sales, with the Japanese marque selling just nine examples of the $420,000 second-generation sports car since it was released in 2016, a key executive confirmed a battery-powered successor is on the cards as early as 2027.
As previously reported by Drive in August 2024, Shinji Aoyama, Honda’s global executive vice president, told media in a roundtable at the Monterey Car Week in the US, “We are going to introduce a [new] sports model in 2027 or 2028... we may not call it an NSX, but it's an NSX-type of vehicle”.
It’s unclear what elements of the NSX Honda is adding to its spiritual successor, but an April 2025 report by The Drive suggests the next generation of the NSX and the Nissan GT-R could share the same underpinnings.
While merger talks between Honda and Nissan fell apart, Ponz Pandikuthira, Nissan North America senior vice president and chief planning officer, said that there is a world where the two car makers could collaborate on reviving the two iconic badges.
“Can we do a next-generation NSX and GT-R off the same platform, make the NSX authentic to what it is and make a GT-R authentic to what it stands for so they are not close? Can you co-develop two cars like that? I think we can,” Pandikuthira told The Drive.
Ethan Cardinal graduated with a Journalism degree in 2020 from La Trobe University and has been working in the fashion industry as a freelance writer prior to joining Drive in 2023. Ethan greatly enjoys investigating and reporting on the cross sections between automotive, lifestyle and culture. Ethan relishes the opportunity to explore how deep cars are intertwined within different industries and how they could affect both casual readers and car enthusiasts.
