Japan's Most Famous Supercar Is Getting An Italian Makeover

The car that showed that supercars could be fast, beautiful, and reliable enough to drive every day.

On paper, Japanese engineering with an Italian flair sounds epic. So what is it about this pairing that has us concerned?

Italdesign Is An Automotive Styling Icon
Italdesign announced the car through an extremely vague teaser on its Facebook page. The company said simply "A tribute to an iconic car. More to come." The image showed the Honda and NSX logos, along with Italdesign's logo and the word Tribute. Simple enough then. It uses the logo from the first-generation car, not the second, so at least we know that.

It's not that we don't trust Italdesign to do the NSX the service that it deserves. Italdesign hasn't just penned some of the most beautiful production cars and concepts of the last 50 years, with examples like the BMW Nazca C2, Lancia Delta, and the Volkswagen W12 Roadster. The company has also done modern takes on existing designs from the past.

Just look at the Nissan GT-R50 by Italdesign. This 50th birthday gift to the Nissan GT-R was such a good-looking model that Nissan ended up having the concept turned into a production car. The new lines took inspiration from the existing car but transformed it into something far more elegant. Which it needed to be. Nissan only built about 18, and they sold for around $1.1 million.

NSX's Own History Is In The Way
The problem comes from the NSX's own history. Honda's NSX project began in 1984 with a car called the HP-X Concept, which was short for Honda Pininfarina eXperimental. The concept looked unlike anything that had ever worn a Honda badge before. It had a massive bubble canopy that enveloped the driver, along with a very wedge-shaped body.

This car didn't become the production NSX, but Honda was very much inspired by it as it brought the NSX to reality. Including a mid-mounted V6 engine that was based on one from a Honda racing car.

The P in HP-X is the rub. The car that became the NSX was penned by Pininfarina, another icon that has its own stuffed CV including cars like the Lancia Montecarlo, Ferrari 275 GTB, Testarossa, 550, and plenty more.

Italdesign is certainly capable of designing a car every bit as stunning as Pininfarina, but it's a bit like asking a tattoo artist to remake the design you already have. Will they do a coverup? Absolutely. Will they make you a copy or extend the existing design into something different? That's when things get tricky. You don't re-do someone else's artwork. At least not usually.

Of course, we're probably reading into it too much. All you really need to know is that a styling house with a history of bringing cool things to production is about to work its magic on the Honda (sorry, Acura) NSX. The result should be something interesting to behold, possibly beautiful. We just hope it does the NSX justice.