Ayrton Senna’s famous Honda NSX heads to auction with an estimated price of up to €900,000

A Honda NSX once driven by Ayrton Senna is heading to auction, with RM Sotheby’s placing its potential price between €560,000 and €900,000.

The car, chassis number T000233, was supplied to Senna by Honda under an agreement that allowed him to use it privately. It was finished in Formula Red with a contrasting black roof and black leather interior, imported by Honda Automóveis de Portugal and registered in Lisbon on March 22, 1991, under the plate “SX-25-59”.

The NSX was kept in Lisbon and delivered to Senna whenever he arrived in Portugal. He appears to have used it frequently during the European part of the 1991 season, after buying property at Quinta do Lago. He arrived at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril in this car, qualifying third and finishing second.

Senna had helped Honda develop the NSX, or New Sportscar Experimental, as the company sought to challenge Ferrari and Porsche with a high-performance car that could also be driven every day. During prototype testing, he described the chassis as “a little fragile”. Honda responded by increasing structural rigidity by 50 percent and further tuning the suspension.

The car also appeared in the 1992 documentary “Ayrton Senna: Racing Is In My Blood”, in which Senna released the clutch sharply and spun the rear wheels. One of the best-known photographs shows him washing the car with a garden hose while wearing jeans and a shirt. The source text ends while describing the car’s ownership history after Senna’s death.

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a little fragile