Some cars earn the right to be left alone. The original Honda NSX is one of them—a perfectly judged wedge of aluminum and glass that rewrote the supercar rulebook in 1990. Yet here comes Tensei, a full‑carbon, Pininfarina‑styled restomod that dares to improve on a car many already considered sacred. The name means “reincarnation” in Japanese, and that’s exactly the brief: keep the soul, update everything else.
This is not a cosmetic reskin or a tuning‑shop special. Tensei is the product of a decades‑long partnership between Honda and JAS Motorsport, with the Italian firm using its GT3 and touring‑car know‑how to build its first road‑legal supercar. Underneath the new body sits a first‑gen NSX donor chassis, but the intent is clear: deliver the kind of performance, precision, and presence you’d expect from a brand‑new, low‑volume exotic—just one that happens to carry an NSX VIN.
JAS Motorsport Steps Onto Center Stage
For most enthusiasts, JAS has been a logo on a race car rather than a household name. Since the late ’90s, the Milan‑based outfit has been Honda’s European motorsport arm, running works teams and then supporting customer programs across touring cars, GT3, and endurance racing. The current Civic Type R TCR that terrorizes world and regional touring‑car grids is a JAS build. So was the NSX GT3 that campaigned at Daytona and the Nürburgring.
Tensei is where all that experience converges. Instead of starting with a clean sheet, JAS chose the NSX because it already embodied the balance and driveability the company values in its racers. The restomod brief is ambitious: maintain the essential feel and proportions of the original car while pulling its dynamics, aero, and ergonomics into modern supercar territory. Powertrain details are still intentionally vague, but the company hints strongly at a naturally aspirated V‑6 derived from its competition engines, paired with a six‑speed manual. Each build is based on a customer‑supplied NSX, which is stripped, inspected, and essentially reborn.
Restomods walk a tightrope between nostalgia and novelty, and Pininfarina understands that line better than almost anyone. With Tensei, the studio hasn’t tried to disguise the NSX; it has distilled it. The proportions remain pure: long tail, cab pushed forward, canopy‑like glass, and those signature pop‑up headlights. But every surface has been tightened, beveled, and hollowed in the name of both beauty and airflow.
The front end preserves the original’s low, wide stare while introducing a deep central intake that appears to bleed through the hood, a visual hint at an integrated aero channel. Broader front fenders house modern, multi‑spoke center‑lock wheels that sit perfectly flush with the arches, giving the car a stance that looks track‑prepped even at a standstill. Along the flanks, sharper character lines replace the original’s soft contours, while the side intakes are more prominent and sculpted, clearly tasked with feeding a hotter, more demanding mid‑mounted V‑6.
At the rear, the iconic full‑width light bar returns as a thinner, more precise LED signature, floating under a subtle trailing‑edge spoiler formed from the deck itself. Low in the bumper, a pair of A‑shaped exhaust outlets sit within an aggressive diffuser, reminding you this is still a combustion‑powered machine in an increasingly electric age.
Carbon Fiber and Competition DNA
Beneath the new shape lies a complete rethink of the NSX’s exterior construction. All major panels are formed in carbon fiber, reducing weight while allowing tighter radii and complex aero details the ’90s car could never have accommodated. Expect a hood, fenders, roof skin, doors, and clamshell rear to be laid up in autoclaved composite, with optional exposed‑weave sections for those who want the material front and center.
JAS doesn’t talk numbers yet, but with the donor NSX already renowned for its rigidity, swapping to carbon bodywork and updated subframes should produce a noticeable gain in stiffness‑to‑weight ratio. Suspension geometry is likely revised to work with wider tracks and modern tire compounds, while adjustable dampers and new bushings will fuse the NSX’s innate friendliness with the sharper responses expected from a contemporary supercar. Brakes, naturally, step up to large‑diameter rotors and multi‑piston calipers, sized for repeated track use rather than Sunday canyon runs.
Honda NSX Tensei Restomod
Cabin: Period Spirit, Modern Craft
While photos so far focus on the exterior, you can infer the interior philosophy. The original NSX cabin was famous for its simplicity and visibility, placing the driver low and close to the front axle with a clear view out over a slim dashboard. It would be a surprise if Tensei deviated far from that ethos.
Expect modern materials—higher‑grade leathers, Alcantara, exposed carbon—in familiar shapes. Analog‑inspired instruments with discreet digital support would suit the car’s restomod personality far better than a tablet invasion. A short‑throw six‑speed shifter rising proudly from a gated console seems all but guaranteed, as does a carefully recontoured steering wheel with a slightly smaller diameter and thicker rim. If done right, the cabin should feel like a brand‑new NSX might have felt in 2005: timeless, intuitive, and mercifully free of gimmicks.
Powertrain: Keeping the Naturally Aspirated Faith
Tensei’s engine remains mostly under wraps, but the outline is clear enough. JAS has signaled a naturally aspirated V‑6 paired with a three‑pedal, six‑speed manual, drawing on the company’s experience building and running high‑revving race engines.
Retaining a free‑breathing six is more than nostalgia; it’s philosophical. The first‑generation NSX became a legend not only for its handling but for its response—a linear, eager VTEC surge that rewarded revs. In a world of turbo torque plateaus and hybrid torque‑fill, a NA engine with modern electronics, lighter internals, and freer‑flowing intake and exhaust hardware should deliver the kind of immediacy that made the original feel special.
Tuning will likely favor throttle precision and durability over headline power figures. Still, with better breathing and modern calibration, it’s reasonable to expect a meaningful bump over the stock car’s output, accompanied by a more intense soundtrack. Think race‑bred induction noise more than synthetic pipe‑organ drama.
NSX, Reimagined Rather Than Replaced
The most impressive trick Tensei pulls off, at least in images, is familiarity. From across a parking lot, you know instantly it’s an NSX. Up close, you notice Pininfarina’s refinements: the tighter panel gaps, the deeper undercuts, the more purposeful intakes. Restomods often chase shock value; Tensei favors restraint.
That approach suits the NSX’s legacy. This was always the thinking person’s supercar, a car that prioritized ergonomics, honesty, and reliability as much as outright speed. JAS and Pininfarina appear to understand that continuity is the point. Tensei does not try to reinvent the NSX as a 1,000‑hp hypercar or a hybrid tech showcase. Instead, it aims to deliver what the NSX might have naturally evolved into had Honda kept iterating on the original formula: lighter, sharper, more focused, but still recognizably the same car.
Honda NSX Tensei Restomod
A Future Classic in the Making
Details like production numbers, pricing, and final performance remain to be announced, but some things are already clear. Tensei will not be common. Each build requires a donor car, extensive disassembly, new carbon bodywork, and motorsport‑grade engineering effort. That alone guarantees rarity—and, almost certainly, a price tag comfortably into modern supercar territory.
For the right buyer, though, the appeal is obvious. Tensei offers a way to own something that is simultaneously a piece of Honda history and a thoroughly contemporary, hand‑built object—a bridge between the analog ’90s and the data‑driven 2020s. It’s a celebration of a car that changed how we think about supercars, crafted by the people who raced its descendants and styled by one of Italy’s most storied design houses.
The original NSXtaught the exotic world that precision, usability, and reliability could coexist with mid‑engine drama. If Tensei can deliver that same clarity of purpose—with more power, more poise, and that devastating new shape—it won’t just be a beautiful restomod. It will be the NSX’s second life, and one worthy of the name “reincarnation.”
