A tribute to the original Honda NSX, but also to the man who made it famous: Ayrton Senna. If it is true that every project is born from a convergence of reasons, those behind the Honda NSX by Italdesign are very clear-cut. According to Andrea Porta, Business Development Manager at Italdesign, it was “The need for a new project that would showcase our capabilities, finding a marque and a car that represented a certain prestige, and continuing along the Japanese thread”.
To celebrate as not to disappoint
The choice fell on the NSX as a homage to the first series, while integrating the hybrid technology of the second generation. But when working on a tribute, the important thing is not so much to celebrate as not to disappoint. The work of exterior designers Cristiano Fracchia and Gaspare Conticelli and interior designers Alessandro Trombin and Alessandro Rota originates precisely from this awareness. The starting point of the project was clear from the outset: “To try to unite Honda’s heritage from the earlier models with the stylistic evolution that has taken place over the years”, the designers explain.
The parameter car
The donor car was the parameter within which everything had to work. The pop-up headlamps of the original could not be replicated, and in their place came a moving eyelid that opens and closes to the same dramatic effect, able to “conceal the headlight and give it greater importance once opened”. The fins that rise from the flanks towards the roof derive from the need to integrate the large lateral air intakes of the 2016 NSX, yet they become one of the most recognisable elements of the silhouette.
The reference abounds
The front end reprises the H-shaped configuration of the first generation, just as the rear recovers the spoiler connected to the light cluster, reinterpreted through a luminous ring. The references abound: the Championship White paint; the red Type R badges; the roof scoop from the NSX-R GT. Rota explains, moreover, that the team worked to divide the bodywork into several layers: the aerodynamic elements low down, the body shell kept as clean as possible in the middle, and a pared-back cockpit on top on which the two fins rest.
The work inside
Inside, the scope for intervention was even narrower. Seats, steering wheel, airbag and ergonomic layout were untouchable, so the work concentrated on a few high-impact elements: the air vent that runs the full length of the dashboard and wraps around the door panel, the twin-cockpit architecture inspired by the first NSX, and the central H motif.
The key word was respect
The fixed elements were handled through colour to reduce their visibility: “We tried to show what we wanted to display and hide what we could not change”. On the materials front, the project calls for aluminium, carbon fibre and Alcantara in various finishes, with some versions reviving the red of the historic Type R cars. In Trombin’s words, “the key word in this project was respect”. Respect for the design and for the history of the model that dared to challenge Ferrari.
(Full article in A&D no. 278)
