1994 Acura Integra Ls Hatchback 3-door 1.8l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Acura NSX owners receive custom short teaser movies of their personal car

In a neat bit of fan service for those who've ordered Acura's new NSX halo car, the company will make a short film that reflects the way the car's been configured. Those films are on their way to future owners as you read this. In addition, they'll get a 1:18 scale custom model of their own car, reflecting every appearance option inside and out. That's neat. So neat, in fact, that we decided to commission our own video. We got together and configured a car in the lovely Nouvelle Blue Pearl, and sent our build over to Acura. They put together a video that's mostly representative of what an owner would see. You can see our build plate (hint: it says "Autoblog – Precision Crafted By Performance Manufacturing Center" on it), and that's "our" car on the dyno starting about 22 seconds in. If you want to check out someone else's film, you can compare our build to Jay Leno's. The reason Acura can do this is that there simply aren't that many available configurations for the NSX. This is at the root of one of the main criticisms some of our editors have about the car. An NSX starts at darn close to $160,000, and there are eight paint options (not too bad), four interior color options, and three seating options. All well and good, but compare that to the 16 paint and 12 interior color/material choices in a 911 Turbo, for example, choosing a similarly high-performance car at a similar price range. And there's a further wrinkle: Porsche will paint your car to match a sample you provide, so in reality the ability for an owner to make the car uniquely theirs is infinite, if you don't mind paying for it. See also the BMW Individual program, or McLaren's MSO one-offs. We're not just talking about the MSO Defined options, but the MSO Bespoke program itself, which will basically do anything you want to the car as long as it's road legal and your check doesn't bounce. We've been to MSO, and they're not kidding: they'll build anything. So yes, these custom videos are nice fan service, and they'll certainly jazz up the buyers who've already ordered one of these dynamically impressive cars. It's a move that builds loyalty, and certainly doesn't have much of a drawback. But for us, already a bit sensitive to Acura's conservative option list for the NSX, it serves to highlight the gap between Acura and the more established brands in catering to well-off customers' desire for bespoke range-topping creations.

Autoblog Minute: Ludacris talks Acura, Tesla, autonomous cars, and more

GRAMMY award winning artist and actor Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges sits down with Autoblog to talk about flying cars, Tesla and his 1993 Acura Legend. Autoblog's Eddie Sabatini reports on this edition of Autoblog Minute featuring an original interview with Ludacris. Show full video transcript text [00:00:00] GRAMMY award winning artist and actor Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges sits down with Autoblog to talk about flying cars, Tesla, and his 1993 Acura Legend. I'm Eddie Sabatini and this is your Autoblog Minute. As Acura prepared for the 2015 SEMA show, the trade show for automotive aftermarket professionals and enthusiasts, they had a chance to take on a unique project: Restoring a damaged 1993 Acura Legend [00:00:30] owned by Ludacris. Autoblog Minute had a chance to sit down with the man himself and discuss why he's held onto this car for so long: [00:01:00] [Ludacris Interview] While we were with him we couldn't resist the chance to ask Ludacris some other questions, like: What does he think of Tesla's Ludicrous mode? [00:01:30] [Ludacris Interview] What does he think of autonomous vehicles? [Ludacris Interview] Does he have a favorite memory from when he first bought his Acura Legend? [00:02:00] [Ludacris Interview] And, if he could have any car today what would it be? [Ludacris Interview] It's always a pleasure to be able to interview a celebrity especially one that's a fellow enthusiast. [00:02:30] For Autoblog, I'm Eddie Sabatini. Autoblog Minute is a short-form video news series reporting on all things automotive. Each segment offers a quick and clear picture of what's happening in the automotive industry from the perspective of Autoblog's expert editorial staff, auto executives, and industry professionals.

eBay Find of the Day: Ayrton Senna's 1993 Honda NSX

It's not often that things owned by the late Ayrton Senna come up for sale, but the seller of this black-on-black 1993 Honda NSX (aka, Acura NSX) eBay find claims it was once owned by the Formula One legend, and that he left a footprint on the factory carpet that can still be seen today. (Footprint, or vacuum lines?...)
NSX no. T000999 was given to Senna as a gift from his mentor and sponsor, Antonio de Almeida Braga, the seller claims, and it was stored at a palace near the Estoril F1 circuit in Portugal. He also was known to drive two other NSXs, a black one and a red one - the latter in which he was seen often.
The seller claims to have owned T000999, which is still in Portugal, for 17 years, and the 31,000-mile odometer indicates it was driven about 1,500 miles per year on average. Thankfully the car has been kept stock, so whoever buys it can enjoy driving it just as Senna did - that is, if the car actually is what it's claimed to be. If the story checks out, then this is one valuable NSX, which is reflected in the high minimum starting bid of 47,500 pounds ($73,620). There have been no bids at time of writing, but with nine days left in the auction, we'll be keeping our eyes on this one.