The Honda / Acura story
Honda’s NSX appeared under both Honda and Acura names, with market and period determining the badge. Its first generation combined a mid-engined layout with an unusually strong concern for everyday operation. NA1 and NA2, open-roof NSX-T and more focused Type R-related variants belong to that long first chapter. The later NC1 used a hybrid system and a different performance strategy, ending with Type S.
The two generations are most interesting as different answers to a shared question: how can a supercar work as a complete road car? The later machine does not need to imitate the earlier one’s controls to belong in that history. Our directory records the NSX programmes separately and keeps market-specific names and derivatives in their proper context.
Current lineup & programmes
Performance and specialist model families are listed below. Programme status describes the manufacturer’s published range or announcement, rather than stock or an available allocation. Open-top and special derivatives are grouped where they share a family; follow the model link for the distinctions.
No current road-supercar programme is established by the sources used here. The past-model section preserves the marque’s relevant performance-car history.
Past models
Past performance-car families relevant to our 1996–2026 archive. A surviving product page or conversion catalogue does not mean the original donor car remains in production.
Honda / Acura NSX NA1 / NA2 / NSX-T / Type S / Type R / R GT
Archive · 1990s
Honda / Acura NSX NC1 / Type S
Archive · 2010s
The SuperCarNews view
The focused variants also make an interesting counterargument to the standard car's broader usability. Reducing equipment or increasing commitment can serve a clear purpose, but it changes the brief. Our preference is to explain that choice rather than assume a rare R badge makes every other NSX secondary.
The second-generation NSX arrived in 2016 with a hybrid propulsion system and a very different technical architecture. Honda described the Type S as the final development of that programme, with the production run concluding in 2022. It belongs in the archive, not in a list implying fresh factory orders in 2026.
The interesting question is whether continuity has to mean mechanical repetition. If the original ambition was to make substantial performance accessible and controllable, electronic integration and electrification could be a modern way to pursue it. That is a more useful starting point than rejecting the second car simply because it uses a different method from the first.
Equally, complexity has to justify itself through the quality of the result. We would want to understand the consistency of response, the transition between operating modes and how much information reaches the driver. The presence of advanced systems alone does not prove that a car feels natural or involving.
The final Type S is important within that development story, but its specification should not be retrospectively applied to every earlier car. An archive should make the changes understandable and preserve the distinction between a programme's starting point and its culmination.