zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Buying
/
A Brief Reminder That Cars Are Meant to Be Driven
A Brief Reminder That Cars Are Meant to Be Driven-March 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:09:43

I have given a name to my pain, and it is .

Aside from being a clearing house for fantastically well-maintained cars I can’t afford, even if their prices are questionable—$15,000 , what the hell?—it has become my go-to place to get depressed over very good cars that are never driven, in the name of being “collector’s cars.”

The Baby Boomers pioneered this, and it’s why every Barrett-Jackson auction is stuffed to the gills with near-new GTOs and shit. But it really breaks my heart to see cars that were really, truly meant to be driven get this sort of treatment.

Case in point: .

It’s a gorgeous Brooklands Green color, apparently one of 34 for that year and an NSX shade I don’t think I’ve ever seen in person. It has a black leather interior and a five-speed transaxle. It is completely factory in every way.

And it has one-hundred and eighty seven miles on it.

I’m privileged to have driven the original NSX. I mean that word very specifically there. It’s a delight to drive, a dialed-in, challenging, rewarding, deeply fun machine that offers a level of balance and precise performance that’s difficult to find elsewhere. It is truly a privilege to drive one.

It’s also worth remembering that while the NSX is basically canonized into car-sainthood today, it wasn’t always like that when it was new. Yes, it was an extremely ambitious supercar experiment from Honda and was lauded early on for its driving dynamics.

But it was also expensive, and not as fast as a C5 Corvette, and . Basically, people didn’t seem to realize how good it actually was, until fairly recently. But it was good, and plenty of longtime NSX drivers will tell you that.

So when I look at this car, I don’t see a collector’s item—I see 25 years of all but unmatched driving fun that someone missed out on. That several people missed out on, probably. I see countless adventures and special moments that didn’t happen. I see a lot of wasted potential.

I’m at the point where I try not to judge how other enthusiasts enjoy their cars (minus the idiots out there, of course) but, man, is this a shame.

The says the car’s original owner “was a collector who reportedly possesses 40+ cars all showing under 500 miles, which are kept stored in a climate-controlled facility.” I’m sure he or she got some joy out of that. I wonder how much more joy they would have gotten if they had driven the hell out of their cars instead.

The bidding is at $85,000 as of this writing with six days to go. I’m sure it’ll cross six figures and go to another collector and another climate-controlled garage soon. Here’s a better idea: drive it until it dies.

It’s not like you can take it with you.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Buying
For $21,000, Could This M5-Imbued 2000 BMW 740i Be Your Ultimate Executive Express?
For $21,000, Could This M5-Imbued 2000 BMW 740i Be Your Ultimate Executive Express?
Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) is a big guy who often dresses with class. Similarly, today’s Bimmer is an M5 dressed in 7-series clothes. You’ll need to decide if its price puts this mad mashup in a class of its own. Yesterday we had a . Or for bad. That...
Mar 30, 2026
What Do You Want To Know About The 2017 Acura NSX?
What Do You Want To Know About The 2017 Acura NSX?
Happy almost-Independence Day. We’re celebrating with a real American supercar, the Ohio-built (and largely American-engineered) . Ask me stuff about it. We tested this car a year ago, but this is the first time your Jalopnik staff gets to spend several days living with Honda’s new supercar. It’s spending the...
Mar 30, 2026
For $4,500, Could This 1983 AMC Eagle Signal Your Independence From The Mundane?
For $4,500, Could This 1983 AMC Eagle Signal Your Independence From The Mundane?
Tomorrow being Independence Day here in the U.S., what better car to critique than this AMC Eagle? Let’s see if this AWD wagon’s price makes it a total star spangled winner. There was a time in the early Aughts when Volkswagen made the choice to abandon the literal meaning of...
Mar 30, 2026
The 2017 Volvo V90 R-Design Lives Up To Its Looks
The 2017 Volvo V90 R-Design Lives Up To Its Looks
The R-Design is the midsize station wagon that was sent from the automotive gods to roundhouse kick generic crossovers in the chest. It brings the already-stunning to a new level by adding sexy Swedish design cues and a healthy dose of hunkered-down sports car athleticism. Volvo says its new R-Design...
Mar 30, 2026
For $7,477, Could This 2004 VW Touareg V10 TDI Make You The Torque Of The Town?
For $7,477, Could This 2004 VW Touareg V10 TDI Make You The Torque Of The Town?
The crossover craze isn’t going away and if you’re going to jump on board you’ll want to do so with something interesting. Today’s Touareg is just that, but will its price prove it to be all that and a bag of chips? Pontiac used to run an ad campaign centered...
Mar 30, 2026
For $7,200, Could This Custom 1999 VW New Beetle Be TT-ly Awesome?
For $7,200, Could This Custom 1999 VW New Beetle Be TT-ly Awesome?
Concept cars are often visions of a what-could-be future. Today’s custom VW BeTTle is a concept from the past that you actually can have right now, that is, if its price is worth your time. What is, in your mind, the most American of cars? Is it the Corvette? The...
Mar 30, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved