Japan gets all of the coolest Honda cars. Some of them include the 98 Honda Civic Type R, the Honda S660, and the NSX Type R. That’s right, there was a Type R version of the venerable supercar that existed before and after the original NSX received a facelift. And considering these older NSX Type Rs are discontinued, it’s a no-brainer that any pristine survivors would fetch a pretty penny at auction. But you won’t believe what the starting auction price of this particular Honda NSX Type R is.

The second-generation Honda NSX-R was rare from the start

The Honda NSX Type R was exclusive to the Japanese market and originally went into production in the early 90s. When the NSX received a facelift in 2002, the NSX-R returned, but in a very limited quantity. According to CarBuzz, only 150 examples of the revised Honda NSX Type R were produced, making it one of the rarest supercars to buy from the get-go. In contrast, Honda built 500 examples of the first NSX Type R.

What was so special about the NSX Type R?

The second generation of the Honda NSX Type R donned a Championship White paint job in addition to an abundance of weight-saving carbon fiber parts. In fact, the NSX-R was 220 pounds lighter than it’s “normal” counterpart thanks to a deleted power steering and air conditioning system, in addition to a carbon fiber hood, trunk lid, and spoiler. Best of all, the Japanese automaker even included a mesh shift boot in order to save another 10 grams.  

With the NSX-R, it was apparent that Honda stuck to its usual credo of making the car lighter in order to make it faster. That being said, there wasn’t any more power added to the racier version of the NSX as it sported the same 3.2-liter engine found in the non-Type R model. For reference, that engine made 290 hp and 224 lb-ft of torque, which was sent to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual transmission.

This particular Honda NSX Type R has an outrageous starting auction price

Now that we know just how rare and special the Honda NSX Type R is, we can see why this particular model that’s up for auction has a high starting price. How high? Torque R, a UK-based Japanese car specialist, notes that the car’s starting bid is ¥45,000,000, which is equivalent to $408,000.

The car only has 50,920 km (31,640 miles) on it, so we wouldn’t be surprised if it fetched well over $500,000 in the end. Car Scoops noted that a similar Honda NSX Type R with only 348 miles on the odometer sold for $445,377 back in 2019.

However, the prices for NSXs have risen in the past couple of years, so we wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same story for NSX Type R prices. As we can see, the pricing for them is nearly double what most regular NSXs cost nowadays. So half a million dollars for an extra-special Honda sounds about right.