A 1992 Honda NSX once owned by Aryton Senna will be going up for sale at Silverstone Auctions’ Race Retro & Classic Car Sale.

NSX driven by F1 champion headed to auction

The NSX was originally purchased by Senna’s friend and manager Antonio Carlos de Almeida Braga. Braga apparently bought the black car for F1 legend to drive while he was visiting his family in Portugal.

Shortly after his tragic death in 1994, the NSX is said to have remained untouched for over two years before being sold to a collector who kept ever since.

Before his death, Senna was considered Honda’s main innovator in convincing the company to stiffen the NSX chassis further after initially testing the car at Honda’s Suzuka GP circuit in Japan.

The Brazilian Formula One World Champion apparently further helped refine the original NSX’s suspension tuning and handling spending a whole day test driving prototypes and reporting his findings to Honda engineers after each of the day’s five testing sessions. Senna also tested the NSX at the Nurburgring and other tracks.

The production car made its first public appearances as the NS-X at the Chicago Auto Show in February 1989, and at the Tokyo Motor Show in October 1989. But then after some revisions and before final production and sale, the vehicle’s name changed from NS-X to NSX.

The Honda NSX went on sale in Japan in 1990, and was sold under Honda’s flagship Acura luxury brand starting in 1991 in North America and Hong Kong.

The 1992 Honda NSX is powered by a mid-mounted 201 kW 3.0-litre V6 engine, which sends its power to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox.

According to Silverstone Auctions managing director Nick Whale, “Very rarely does a car with such pedigree and provenance come to market, especially with such a powerful and personal link to arguably the greatest F1 driver of all time, and as such, we’re incredibly excited to offer it for auction.”

The 1992 model has supposedly only covered 51177 kilometres and is expect to sell for around £85,000 (approximately over a million South African Rands) when it is auctioned at Silverstone Auctions’ Race Retro & Classic Car Sale on February 22.

Next generation NSX model

On a side note, sometime last year Honda introduced a new concept model for the NSX which is a profusely hi-tech, two-seater, four-wheel-drive hybrid supercar utilizing a petrol engine as well an electric motor to propel itself.

The exterior styling retains much of the original concept’s styling with its low and wide stance and features ‘edgy’ details that exude a supercar attitude and a high-tech feel.

The production version of NSX has recently gone on sale in the UK, ahead of a planned 2015 launch. We saw the NSX concept car at the Johannesburg Motor Show last year and we were blown away.

Another NSX concept will be shown off at the 2014 Delhi Motor Show in February.

1992 Honda NSX gallery