A Formula Red Honda NSX used by Ayrton Senna in Portugal will be offered by RM Sotheby’s in London on October 31, 2026, with an estimate of £500,000 to £800,000.
The 1991 car, chassis JHMNA11500T000233, is pictured in one of the best-known photographs of Senna away from Formula 1, in which he is washing the car with a hosepipe outside his Portuguese home. It also appeared in the 1992 documentary Ayrton Senna: Racing Is In My Blood and was driven by Senna to the 1991 Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril.
Finished in Formula Red with a contrasting black roof and black leather interior, the NSX was imported by Honda Automobil de Portugal and registered on March 22, 1991 as SX-25-59. RM Sotheby’s states that the car was stored in Lisbon and made available to Senna whenever he visited Portugal, where he owned a property at Quinta do Lago.
RM Sotheby’s states that Honda provided Senna with access to three NSXs for personal use. Two were black, while chassis T000233 was the red car kept in Portugal. Senna drove it to Estoril for the Portuguese Grand Prix on September 22, 1991, where he qualified third and finished second behind Riccardo Patrese.
The car remained in Portugal after Senna’s death at Imola in May 1994. Portuguese registration records accompanying the car show that it was registered to Laboa Etablissement in Lisbon in February 1995. A Honda fax confirming its connection to Senna records that it was in the care of Honda dealership Nipomotor by September 1997.
It was acquired by the owner of Faro-based MSCAR Comércio de Automóveis in November 2009, then sold to Robert McFagan in 2013. The NSX was subsequently transported to the UK and registered for road use in May 2016.
In 2019, the car returned to Imola to mark 25 years since Senna’s fatal accident, with former Minardi Formula 1 team principal Giancarlo Minardi driving it at the circuit. It was acquired by its current owner in Nagoya, Japan in 2024 and has now returned to Britain for the sale.
The NSX is accompanied by its warranty book, Portuguese ownership records and a copy of the Honda fax supporting its Senna provenance. It is estimated at between £500k and £800k. More details are available here – an if you’re looking to buy an NSX, why not check out our buying tips here?
