Acura NSX, which he acquired because he longed for an export version

Users who admire overseas specifications, such as American and European, are always fascinated by the small detail differences from the Japanese specifications they see all the time. Mr. Maeda, whom we met at the Neo-Classic Honda Fan Meeting 2023 on 3 November 2023, also fell in love with the coolness of export specifications through his work. He fell in love with the coolness of the export specifications. We would like to introduce you to Mr. Maeda’s favorite car, the Honda Acura NSX, which he loves so much that he is currently the manager of the Honda Cars Fukuoka Omuta shop.

Black Targa top NSX with retractable headlights

Immediately after obtaining his license, Mr Maeda loved his Mitsubishi Mirage II Turbo, which he bought second-hand. After graduating from school, he got a job at a Honda Verno shop and bought a ‘Beat’, which started his longed-for life in Honda cars. From then on, he was immersed in Honda, both in his hobbies and his work. After driving more than 10 cars, he acquired this Acura NSX Type T 6 years ago, along with the ‘CR-X SiR’ (Cyber CR-X) and ‘Insight’ (first generation), which he still owns.

“I became a Honda fan as a child because my uncle drove a first-generation Civic. The NSX debuted in 1990 when I joined the company. I wanted to buy one from then on, but as expected, it was too expensive for me to afford. As a result, I got the Beat, which debuted the following year, because it was mid-ship like the NSX.”

By the way, Honda dealers today are unified as Honda Cars, but back then dealers had separate sales channels: the Verno, Clio, and Primo. The Beat was sold through the Primo shop. However, Mr. Maeda was then working at the Clio shop. In other words, he could not contribute to sales at his place of work, so he reserved it for the Primo shop. He started his longed-for life in a Honda car.

As his children were getting older, he went down the road to his dream of an ‘NSX’

Mr. Maeda acquired his Acura NSX Type T about 6 years ago. It was a combination of his children growing up and out of the way, and his desire to drive a sports car while he was old enough to enjoy it.

“I wanted an NSX with retractable headlights, 3200cc displacement, and a black targa top. And I wanted an Acura, which was hard to find in stock in Japan. By consulting with a shop that specializes in such reimports, I was able to find this car about a year after I started looking.”

Mr. Maeda’s interest in export-specification vehicles was related to the fact that he was working as a mechanic at the time of his employment. He says: “Even though they are the same Japanese-born vehicle, the details have been changed to meet the legal regulations of the export destination, such as Europe and the USA. And it looks cool!”

When he bought the aforementioned ‘Prelude Si States’, he started to enjoy dressing it up for export by replacing the emblems with North American specification emblems.

In addition, the NSX Type T, which is Maeda’s current favorite car, was an individual that had been carefully cared for by the previous owner. As it had been partly customized, he reverted to genuine parts when he bought it and changed some aero parts to external ones, arranging it to his own specifications.

“I thought it would be too late for me to enjoy a sports car in its original form once my physical and emotional strength had deteriorated. The period during which I could genuinely enjoy driving it would be limited, so I got an NSX when I was in my 40s.”

He has loved Honda since he was a child. As an adult, he went on to work for a Honda dealer and has driven a variety of Honda cars in his private life. Everyone would agree that Mr. Maeda, who has such an admirable love for Honda, gets more than a perfect score as a Honda Cars manager.

translated by DeepL