Pininfarina-Designed Acura NSX Restomod Is Now Available To Buy In America
The JAS Tensei — a first-generation 1990 Acura NSX restomod wearing a bespoke body penned by Pininfarina — is now available for purchase in the United States through Graham Rahal Performance. The announcement, confirmed this week, marks the first time American buyers can formally acquire one of the most pedigreed NSX restomods ever built, pairing Italian design royalty with the analog sports car that rewrote what a mid-engine machine could be.
Production is capped at 35 units worldwide, which puts the Tensei firmly in unicorn territory for NSX faithful and restomod collectors alike. That ceiling isn’t a marketing number — it reflects the hand-built nature of the program and the partnership between JAS Motorsport, the Honda-aligned Italian racing outfit, and Pininfarina, the Turin studio whose portfolio runs from Ferrari 250s to Alfa Romeo Spiders.
What the JAS Tensei Actually Is — and What Makes It Different
Graham Rahal Performance, the Columbus, Ohio-based operation run by the IndyCar driver and known for high-spec Honda and Acura builds, is the designated U.S. and Canada dealer for the Tensei. Buyers interested in one of the 35 slots will go through GRP — a fitting conduit given Rahal’s long relationship with Honda Motorsport and the shop’s reputation among the NSX community.
The Canadian market is included in the North American availability window, so the Tensei isn’t purely a U.S.-market play. Still, the U.S. announcement is the headline: a Pininfarina-bodied NSX restomod with a legitimate motorsport pedigree behind it is now purchasable on this side of the Atlantic.
JAS Motorsport has been Honda’s primary European touring car and GT operation for decades, which gives the Tensei a motorsport credibility that most coachbuilt restomods can’t claim. The project takes a first-generation NSX — the C30A-powered aluminum-chassis machine that debuted in 1990 and ran through 2005 — and subjects it to a comprehensive rebuild that touches the body, chassis, engine, and interior.
Pininfarina’s involvement isn’t a badge-engineering exercise. The studio redesigned the exterior with new body panels that modernize the original’s wedge profile while preserving the proportions that made the NA1 and NA2 so visually coherent. The result is a car that reads as an NSX to anyone who knows the original but carries enough new surface detail to justify the restomod label rather than just a restoration.
Engine and chassis specifics from the build confirm the Tensei isn’t a stock NSX underneath the new skin. The powertrain receives upgrades over the base C30A or C32B specification, and the suspension and braking systems are revised to match the car’s elevated performance intent — though the full technical sheet is best confirmed directly through Graham Rahal Performance, as individual build specs can vary across a 35-unit run.
The Price Tag Tells You Where the JDM Restomod Market Has Landed
Pricing for the Tensei hasn’t been publicly itemized in a single figure across available coverage, but the combination of Pininfarina design work, JAS Motorsport engineering, a 35-unit production cap, and U.S. dealer distribution through a name like Graham Rahal Performance places this squarely in the high-six-figure conversation — the same bracket where Singer Porsches and Icon Land Cruisers live.
That positioning matters for the NSX faithful because it signals something the broader restomod market has been hinting at for a few years: the first-gen NSX is no longer undervalued. Clean NA1s have been climbing steadily, and a purpose-built restomod with Pininfarina provenance arriving at a premium price point only accelerates that trajectory. For collectors who’ve been watching NSX values, the Tensei is less a surprise than a confirmation.
Why the Pininfarina Partnership Matters to NSX Purists
The original NSX was already a cross-cultural achievement — a Japanese mid-engine car developed with input from Ayrton Senna, benchmarked against Ferrari, and built to a standard of everyday usability that Italian exotics of the era couldn’t match. Bringing Pininfarina into a restomod program doesn’t dilute that identity; it extends the conversation the NSX always invited between East and West.
Pininfarina has bodied Ferraris, Maseratis, Lancias, and Alfa Romeos across eight decades. Its involvement with a Honda-platform car isn’t unprecedented — the studio has taken non-Italian commissions before — but pairing it with the NSX specifically is a statement about where that car sits in the global collector hierarchy. JAS Motorsport’s racing DNA ties the project back to Honda’s motorsport culture rather than drifting it toward pure concours territory. For the 35 buyers who secure a Tensei, that dual lineage is probably the whole point.
Thirty-five units. Pininfarina bodywork. JAS Motorsport engineering. Graham Rahal Performance holding the keys stateside. The NSX faithful have been hoping the first-gen would get the restomod treatment it deserves — the Tensei is as serious an answer to that as anyone’s delivered yet.
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