New 92 NSX pretty much unspoiled

Update 1, better pic:


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Hi all!
Finally after months/years of searching I can say I'm the proud owner of a pretty decent 1992 NSX.
The car is 100% original condition, never re-painted, only one owner and 30K miles. There's absolutely not a single thing wrong in this car. I have the feeling the car still has the original brake disks. Engine bay has no dust, no oil, no stains, nothing. The interior shows no wear and the leather looks like new.

Here are some photos.










Now here's my problem. I think I bought the wrong car.
Let me explain. I'm not crazy about doing mods to my cars and I only like having cars in absolutely perfect condition. But the thing is that I would definitely like to do some work to the NSX, basically making my own version of a NSX-R with improved suspension, a bit of weight saving here and there and perhaps a better exhaust line. Just so I could have some fun in the race track. I don't need more horsepower or anything too crazy. Again, to me the ideal NSX is the 92/93 NSX-R.
But having such a pristine unit, I find it almost a sacrilege to mod this car. It's not only going to lose its value but also changes won't be cheap so that would make it easy to go back to the original condition, right?

wow congrats on the find, i have a 92 myself with 18k miles on it. i pretty much change everything brakes, suspension exhaust ect ect. i sold some of my original parts which i advise you to save if you have the space for them that way you can go back to stock. so clean nice!

MINTY! Great find! Do the changes that make you happy and keep all the stock parts, you'll be surprised how simple it is to go back to stock, the majority of mods just bolt right up. You'll also notice if you go to a NSX meet that almost all NSXs have an aftermarket exhaust and some form of lowering, the rest is up to the owner's taste.

The solution is obvious: Sell the car to me for $20k and start searching again.

Seriously, your next step depends on why you purchased the car. If you purchased it as an investment, don't change anything. Stock originals are getting harder to find, particularly with low miles. If you purchased it to enjoy, do what you want to it and have fun. Save the original parts so you can return it to stock in the future if you want/need to.

Or you can jusst sell it to me for $20k.

Congratulations on acquiring an increasing rare find.

One thought might be to drive the car a while before making any changes.

In my case Acura put on an NSX driving school just after I bought mine.
After three days with a professional driver as my teacher I still couldn't drive the car well enough to reach it's design limits.
I asked my teacher take me for some laps near the end of the course and he was much faster than I was.
He told me he didn't have the car at the limit either.

I decided at that point until I was a good enough driver to regularly exceed the cars limits I wouldn't make any changes.
22 years later my car is still stock which tells you I never have fully exploited the factory design.

So perhaps when you find you are regularly exceeding your new car's limits then improving suspension, brakes etc. makes good sense. And keeping all the oem parts also makes sense.

congratulations on a great find...its like 1992 all over again.If it were me at the very least I would get new shocks...that will bring the handling more in line with how the car should be.You could also get a stiffer front sway bar..which is very easy and won't ruin anything.

Beautiful car, I'd leave it exactly as is.

Congrats on such a beautiful car.

Just make sure you keep all the stock parts and you will be fine.

Spa2KJT said:

Beautiful car, I'd leave it exactly as is.

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I'm with this guy. But I'm one of the rare few that actually like the fat 5s.

Congratulations on a beautiful car!

That's a beautiful find, Congrats! Personally I wouldn't feel comfortable driving this unmolested NSX. I wouldn't mod it at all, I enjoy driving my mostly stock NSX. I'm sure you will get great joy out of the car the way it sits.

If you're even considering selling already, you bought the wrong car! You should be in the honeymoon phase right now.

Stunning! It's beautiful. I'd leave it the way it is. Congratulations!

You bought the correct car. It has 30k miles. there are plenty with less. Your car, your mods, you decide.
I have a 1991 with 47k miles. I bought it 7 years ago with 21k miles.
The most fun I have with the car is driving it. No real mods, slight ones. 2000 ABS upgrade, 1994 OEM wheels, Type R chassis bars, etc. OEM Honda parts go on my car, nothing much else.

I can sell it today for exactly what I paid for it 7 years ago, and I have enjoyed the car, every mile of it.

There is no need to moth ball that car. enjoy it.

+1 Warren.

This car is pretty much a museum piece. I would feel bad modifying this car. This is a tough situation here for sure.

keep it and enjoy as is, congrats btw

Low miles yes they are low?.... I have seen lower, 30K seems normal now for the NSX these days. now something with 2600 miles is something that should never be modded.

your can is mint, but 30K miles, so add some simple bolt-ons and keep the OEM stuff so you can return it to Stock when you decide to sell it.

great find..

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I really do hope that the car is in the condition that it looks in the photos - she's a beauty!

Original 1992 tyres? - be careful!! The rubber will have degraded, if not perished. Same with the 23 engine water hoses. Dread to think what's at the bottom of the fuel tank, or trapped in the filter. Look for oxidisation on brake pistons and exhaust valves.
Unless is has been stored in a perfect environment and exercised, things below the surface may have deteriorated - it's inevitable. Things like the capacitors on the CCU control boards, radio, speaker amps etc. will leak, causing issues in future.

Congratulations! That's a rare find there

NZNick said:

I really do hope that the car is in the condition that it looks in the photos - she's a beauty!

Original 1992 tyres? - be careful!! The rubber will have degraded, if not perished. Same with the 23 engine water hoses. Dread to think what's at the bottom of the fuel tank, or trapped in the filter. Look for oxidisation on brake pistons and exhaust valves.
Unless is has been stored in a perfect environment and exercised, things below the surface may have deteriorated - it's inevitable. Things like the capacitors on the CCU control boards, radio, speaker amps etc. will leak, causing issues in future.

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I checked the car history and while they are the original Yokohamas, they are not the ones the car came with. They were replaced a few years ago. However, they´re definitely dead, like hard rubber. I might keep them with the oem wheels (and just get a new set of rims+tyres) if I ever want to go full OEM with this car and keep the "vintage" look to it. ;D

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shawn110975 said:

Low miles yes they are low?.... I have seen lower, 30K seems normal now for the NSX these days. now something with 2600 miles is something that should never be modded.

your can is mint, but 30K miles, so add some simple bolt-ons and keep the OEM stuff so you can return it to Stock when you decide to sell it.

great find..

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Yeah, I don't think that with 30K miles is an extremely low figure. I've seen NSX with less miles as well.
It's just the overall condition of the unit that makes me think twice what I should and shouldn't do to the car.

After some research this is what I'm thinking is all I would ever need to be happy and also to be able to go back to the stock car quickly. As you can see, no body work and nothing too crazy:

Those are reasonable mods. Go with the 97 OEM wheels or even the 02+ OEM wheels look great on the early year NSXs. I had the 97 brushed aluminum wheels on my 91 and loved them.

Wow - great find! Interesting debate. After six months, I just purchased a '91, one owner with 77K miles on it and am finding myself with the same dilemma. With 77K miles it's not as bad as your dilemma. The only mod on mine was an after market stereo. Just had the wheels refinished to remove some minor damage this weekend and they look perfect.

Great advice - I'm definitely leaning towards keeping it stock and just enjoying it before I do anything to is, other than replace the old after market CD player with a new bluetooth enabled device.

adhesivo said:

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I see a time capsule in these photos. Very nice and enjoy it the way you like it! :cool2:

The increasingly rare stock NSX's have a lot of history that can get lost on the road to mods.

Consider that the original concept drawings were done by Pininfarina, and development assistance was contributed by Ayrton Senna.
At the launch the NSX had a better power to weight ratio than the 911 and the 328 and outperformed them both.

In addition it takes an accomplished driver to extract the maximum from the oem car.
I wonder how many owners today could post lap times comparable to Senna's back in the day.

Currently there seems to be three separate markets for NSX's
1) Stock or near stock that have increasing value due to their relative rarity.
2) Track enthusiasts that have modified their cars to improve performance. A lot of these are very well done by owners not modding for looks but for faster lap times.
3) Modifications done for appearance. A lot of these mods add weight and drag and make the car slower but look faster. In a lot of cases these type of mods add little if any value. Some more radical mods like body kits etc. seems to add negative value. There's a few that have been for sale at a price that may reflect the cost of the many mods but no one is willing to pay near the asking prices.

I think if one wishes to mod their car it's always best to keep the oem parts to make it easily restorable.
Modded NSX's are the norm, OEM originals are rare.

Spa2KJT said:

Beautiful car, I'd leave it exactly as is.

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Completely agree! Congrats! Your car is absolutely beautiful in its original factory form.