While movie cars often get instant celebrity status, many simply don’t make it out of the studios. From liability concerns to the way that many units are run hard and put away wet, the life of a picture car often isn’t glamorous. Every so often, however, one survives. Remember the Acura NSX Roadster that Tony Stark drove in “The Avengers”? Turns out it’s actually still around, and Acura is in the process of soft-launching the idea of auctioning it off to a private collector.
Hang on a second—”The Avengers” hit the silver screens in 2012, but the production-spec hybrid NSX wasn’t ready to be unveiled until 2015, so what’s underneath the concept car coachwork? Well, it is an NSX, just not a modern NSX.
It’s easy to forget that between 10 and 15 years ago, high-mileage examples of the original NSX were cheap. Like, sometimes less than $30,000 cheap. Our own Steve Balistreri once scored an NSX for $25,000, and it wasn’t some clapped-out, rebuilt-title thing, but instead a perfectly good driver-condition car. Given the values at the time, it shouldn’t be surprising that Acura decided the perfect base for this movie car was a 1991 NSX with a whopping 252,000 miles on the clock.
Once a donor car was selected, Trans FX in Oxnard, Calif. set about stripping off the body panels, cutting off the roof, and crafting a fiberglass body in the spirit of the 2012 NSX show car, just topless. Sure, a few alterations were necessary to fit the proportions of the NA1 NSX and accommodate for rooflessness, the headlights are dummy pieces, and the custom car itself bears merely a passing resemblance to the eventual production-spec model, but the end result is convincing enough for Hollywood.
A two-inch drop has it sitting low on 18-inch wheels that look huge on what are fundamentally ’90s proportions, the merlot paint still has gleam to its flop, and yes, this NSX dressed up as another NSX has a five-speed manual transmission. As for the interior, it’s pretty much like 1991 in there, save for the addition of aftermarket seats.Hey, when you don’t need dashboard shots, why change what works?
While the NSX Roadster had to be operable for the film, it wasn’t a stunt car, so it wasn’t beat on. Nor was it made to be, which might make this the slowest running and driving NSX in history. See, Edmunds got a chance to drive it back in 2012, and noted that it came with a serious limitation.
In deference to the Stark NSX’s compromised structure, that it was engineered to run only up to 30 mph, and its near-future life as a promotional item for the film, Acura asks that we keep our driving speed to under 20 mph. Since it’s Acura’s car, its PR guy is standing right there and there’s a severe vibration in the structure, we oblige. So what we can say is that, up to about 20 mph, the Stark NSX feels and drives like the NSX that it is.
Ah, there lies the rub. Even though the NSX was available with a targa top, cutting the roll bar off comes with consequences that effectively render this cinema one-off a low-speed showpiece. It should be able to idle around a car show staging area just fine, but even though it’s essentially a production car under the shiny surface, it’s not really meant for the street.
Perhaps that’s why Acura is looking for interested bidders at Monterey Car Week’s most exclusive event, The Quail. It’ll make a fabulous addition to the brand’s display, but it’s best suited to someone who already has an NSX or three that they can use spiritedly. Still, if you’re interested in checking it out and were lucky enough to secure tickets to The Quail, head on down to Monterey Car Week. Maybe you’ll even run into some of my colleagues along the way.
Top graphic images: Acura; Paramount Pictures/Marvel Entertainment
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