Ayrton Senna’s Honda NSX Heads to RM London. The Estimate Prices the Paperwork, Not the Car.

On 31 October, RM Sotheby’s will offer Lot 155 at The London Auction, held at The Peninsula London: a 1991 Honda NSX in Formula Red that Honda supplied for Ayrton Senna’s personal use in Portugal. The catalogue entry carries an estimate of £500,000 to £800,000, which RM converts to $700,000 to $1.1 million. That range is the headline. The more useful question is what, exactly, it is pricing.

Our reading: the estimate prices the paperwork, not the car. The RM page publishes no mileage, no engine or gearbox detail, no condition report and no service history for this NSX. What it does publish is a documented chain of custody and a set of Senna-era evidence. Below, we separate what the catalogue and RM’s press release state from what we are inferring, and then set out the factors most likely to move the hammer price.

The 1991 Honda NSX, Lot 155: verified facts

Everything in this section comes from RM Sotheby’s lot page and its press release, dated 21 August 2026, unless noted. Where RM’s own copy describes the NSX programme in general rather than this chassis, we have left it out or said so.

Specification: what is and is not published

For context, the first-generation NSX is built around an aluminium monocoque and a mid-mounted 3.0-litre C30A V6 with VTEC, with a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic offered depending on market. That is a description of the model, not a statement about this car’s specification, which RM does not give. Our first-generation NSX collector spec sheet covers production figures and identifying details.

History and provenance

According to RM, Honda Portugal allocated the car to Senna for his exclusive use in Europe under an agreement between Honda Motor Company and the driver. Honda provided three NSXs for this purpose; the other two were black. The car was imported by Honda Automobil de Portugal, registered on 22 March 1991 and stored in Lisbon, to be delivered to Senna when he visited Portugal, where he owned property at Quinta do Lago.

RM cites three strands of Senna-era evidence. Senna drove the car to the 1991 Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril, where he qualified third and finished second. The car appears in the 1992 documentary Ayrton Senna: Racing Is in My Blood. And it is the car in the widely circulated photograph of Senna washing it with a hosepipe.

The ownership chain after Senna, as RM sets it out: registered in Lisbon in February 1995 by Laboa Etablissement, per a certificate of records from the Lisbon Automobile Registry Office; in the care of the Nipomotor dealership by September 1997; bought in November 2009 by the owner of MSCAR Comércio de Automóveis SA in Faro; bought in 2013 by Robert McFagan, who shipped it to the UK; registered for UK road use in May 2016; taken to Imola in 2019 for the 25th anniversary of Senna’s fatal crash, with Giancarlo Minardi at the wheel; and acquired in 2024 by the consigning owner in Nagoya, Japan, who later returned it to the UK for sale.

Documentation and sale terms

The car is offered with a warranty book, Portuguese ownership-history documents and a copy of a Honda fax confirming the Senna provenance, which RM says Honda Motor Europe has reaffirmed. RM’s page also says the car entered the UK on a temporary import bond: it must either be exported on an approved bill of lading with customs documents, or the buyer must pay the applicable UK VAT and import duties to keep it in the country. The registration field lists a Japanese Export Certificate. The page’s own contents for “View Documents” are not reproduced, so we have not seen the underlying files.

Comparable sales and reference points

There is no true comparable: no other Senna-supplied road car of this kind has, to our knowledge, sold at public auction in recent years. The reference points below bracket the question rather than answer it.

Market interpretation: how the estimate compares

This section is MCC’s analysis, not fact. RM’s dollar range of $700,000 to $1.1 million is roughly four to nearly seven times the highest 1991 NSX auction result in Hagerty’s dataset ($163,411), and the top of the range sits close to the $1.06 million paid for the NSX-R. In other words, the house is asking a buyer to pay an NSX-R price for a standard-specification NSX on the strength of who used it and how well that can be proven.

That is not unreasonable. Provenance of this kind is a one-off asset, and Honda’s decision to supply three cars to Senna, two of them black, is exactly the sort of detail that separates a story from a record. But it also means the car’s value is unusually sensitive to document quality, because the mechanical and cosmetic case for the NSX itself is ordinary. A buyer who removes the Senna link is left with a 1991 car in the five- or low-six-figure bracket.

One detail is worth a buyer’s attention. The registry certificate RM cites records the February 1995 registration, which falls after Senna’s death in May 1994. The Senna-era link therefore appears to rest chiefly on the Honda fax, which Honda Motor Europe has reaffirmed, and on the film and photographic evidence. That is a reasonable foundation, but it is a different foundation from a chain of registrations running through Senna himself.

The factors most likely to affect value

Strength of the Senna paper trail. The Honda fax is a copy. Bidders will want to know how far Honda’s confirmation goes, whether the original is available, and how the 1991 to 1994 period is evidenced. This is the single largest swing factor, in our view.

Mileage and condition, which are unpublished. RM’s page gives no odometer reading and no condition report. At least one trade write-up quotes a mileage figure that RM’s page does not carry, and we could not reconcile it with the catalogue, so treat any number as unconfirmed until it is backed by service or inspection records. Collectors will also want to know whether the aluminium body has ever been repaired, as accident repairs to an NSX are costly and can be hard to hide.

Import status and paperwork consistency. The temporary import bond means a UK buyer faces VAT and duty, while a non-UK buyer faces export formalities. That landed cost sits on top of the hammer price. One Autotrader Classics listing for the car also notes that it “is titled as 2025”, which conflicts with the 1991 model year; a serious bidder should ask how the registration data will be corrected.

Originality. RM lists no modifications, but it also lists no inventory of originality either. Paint, wheels, interior and drivetrain would all need to match what Honda delivered in 1991 for the car to command a premium as a preserved artefact. Our report on the JAS Tensei NSX restomod shows how far from original the NSX market can travel, and why a standard, documented car now stands apart. Honda’s heritage parts programme for the first-generation NSX is a quiet support for ownership costs.

Who is bidding. The car sits at the intersection of three buyer groups: Senna and Formula 1 memorabilia collectors, Honda and Japanese-performance collectors, and the broader modern-classic crowd. Our comparison of the Viper and the NSX covers the last group. The more these groups overlap in the room, the less the price is tied to the car’s own market.

Sale context. The reserve is not stated. This is also a busy RM London sale: the same auction includes a one-owner Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.8, which we examined in this analysis of Lot 137, and the house has had a no-reserve 458 Speciale on offer, as we noted in this report. Competing lots and the room’s appetite on the night will matter.

What to watch on 31 October

Three outcomes would teach collectors something. A sale inside the estimate would suggest that the market accepts Honda’s documentation as sufficient proof and values it at a multiple of the ordinary NSX. A result above roughly $1.06 million would put a standard-specification NSX ahead of the NSX-R record, a notable statement about how much the market will pay for provenance over specification. A no-sale or a bid well below the low estimate would suggest that the paperwork, the unpublished condition detail or the import costs are weighing on bidders. MCC does not forecast the hammer price; we will report the result once it is in.

Facts in the “verified” sections were checked against RM Sotheby’s lot page and press release as of 16 October 2026. Estimates, lot details and reserves can change before the sale. Comparable-sale figures are drawn from the sources named in the table. Market interpretation is MCC’s own analysis and is not investment advice.