JAS Tensei<\/a>. The original NSX was already pretty remarkable to begin with; JAS is a globally renowned Honda motorsport outfit; and nobody really needs reminding of what Pininfarina has achieved over the decades.\u00a0<\/p>\nSeems we were right to expect a lot – the finished Tensei is every bit as good as hoped for, recognisably NSX derived while also being better in every way. It\u2019s a leaner and meaner sports car for one thing, tracks up a huge 170mm for the front and 190mm at the rear; a wheelbase increase of 55mm (plus those gorgeous 19\/20-inch centrelocks) means it fills the broader body just nicely. All the panels are now pre-preg carbon, too, meaning a dry weight of just 1,250kg. Further modernising the package are a flat floor and active rear diffuser. The Tensei is every inch the modern sports car, except with pop lights. Now Matrix LED, of course.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The running gear is resolutely old school, while also being almost entirely brand new. Only the block is carried over from the original NSX; Judd power then treats it to new heads, racier cams, titanium valves, ITBs\u2026 you name it, the V6 gets it, even including a motorsport-grade valvetrain to replace VTEC. The end result is 420hp at 8,200rpm, a useful uptick from the original 280hp, revving all the way to 8,500rpm. Oh yes, and with a carbon intake inhaling then an Inconel exhaust exhaling – just in case an NSX didn\u2019t sound good enough already\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The V6 is dry sumped as well, lowering the engine 45mm in the chassis. Given the NSX\u2019s on-limit characteristics weren\u2019t the friendliest, it\u2019s a modification that will surely make a significant difference to the handling. The approach for the rest of the chassis is similarly best-of-the-best: Brembo ceramic brakes, KW four-way adjustable dampers, billet Ergal 7075 springs, a carbon clutch and so on. The Tensei being a total rethink of what the NSX could be, rather than just a nicely redone original.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That extends to the inside as well – this isn\u2019t just the usual carbon and CarPlay makeover. The driver\u2019s dials now comprise an analogue tacho with OLED displays, Sabelt seats, a new wheel and, of course, the titanium gearknob taking pride of place. Presumably anyone asking for an automatic Tensei is politely directed somewhere else.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just 35 Tenseis will be produced, the project announced on the NSX\u2019s 35th anniversary. It\u2019s not clear yet whether all are spoken for; given each will be at least a million quid (\u00a3770,000 plus a donor, plus taxes), there might still be a few slots remaining. Maybe not for long once the finished item is seen\u2026<\/p>\n
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1 \/ 10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even by the lofty standards of reimagined\/reworked\/reengineered sports cars, hopes were high for the JAS Tensei. The original…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-797063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gb","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}