Driving Honda-powered cars, race car driver Alex Zanardi won back-to-back championships in the CART open-wheel series. To commemorate those victories, Honda released a special version of the Acura NSX in the U.S. called the Zanardi Edition. Sold only for the 1999 model year, just 51 examples were made. The car is especially desirable for its slicktop roof, as opposed to the removable targa top that nearly every other NSX came with after 1994. Having a fixed roof contributed to the Zanardi Edition’s reduced weight, which was down 149 pounds from an NSX-T thanks also to unassisted rack-and-pinion steering, a single-pane rear window, lightweight rear spoiler, lighter battery, and a set of lightweight BBS wheels.
Those wheels, measuring 16 inches in diameter up front and 17 inches in back, help the Zanardi Edition stand out with their multi-spoke design and dark gray finish. Another thing that sets the special NSX apart is its exclusive New Formula Red exterior paint, which all Zanardi Editions wore to match the championship-winning race car’s color. Inside, the Zanardi Edition received black microsuede and leather seats with red contrast stitching, along with a red-stitched steering wheel and door panels. A brushed aluminum ID plaque was placed between the seats on the rear firewall, displaying Alex Zanardi’s signature and the vehicle’s sequence number.
Power from the twin-cam 3.2-liter V-6 remained the same as the standard model at 290 hp and 224 lb-ft of torque, but it was sent to the rear wheels exclusively through a six-speed manual transmission. So for NSX purists, this is pretty much as good as it gets (at least in the U.S. ). If you want this particular specimen, you’ll need a good chunk of change. As of this writing, bidding is up to $70,000. The last Zanardi Edition sold on BaT hammered for $126,000.
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