A Honda in a Toyota museum? Make it make sense.
Earlier this month Toyota announced a recent addition to its Toyota Automobile Museum in Nagakute City for permanent exhibition, a pristine 1991 Honda NSX in iconic Formula Red.
But why on earth is Toyota, Japan’s largest automaker, adding a Honda to its presumably all-Toyota Museum?
If you haven’t already figured out the Toyota Automobile Museum is no ordinary car museum. Unlike other car manufacturer collections, this particular set of cars is dedicated to preserving,
“…the evolution and culture of automobiles from around the world, regardless of manufacturers and covering everything from the world’s first gasoline-powered car to modern electric vehicles.”
Check out their announcement below.
Currently, Toyota’s Automobile Museum has over 200 cars in its permanent collection including, as mentioned, two replicas of the first gas car, the Benz Patent Motorwagen (first introduced in 1886.)
Other noteworthy cars include a 1926 Bugatti Type 35B, 2000 Lexus RX300 and even a 2010 Tesla Roadster Sport.
The “youngest” car in their collection is a 2014 Toyota Mirai so, as you can imagine, cars are not added often and only cars considered culturally significant are deemed worthy of addition.
Before the NSX, Toyota added three WRC cars in April, a Celica GT-Four ST185, MR-2 222D, and a Subaru WRX-STI Model CBA-VAB.
So, why the NSX 30 years later after this one rolled off the assembly line.
Three decades later and 16 years after this generation NSX was available for sale it’s become apparent these all-rounder supercars stand the test of time.
With its all-aluminum chassis, sporty engine, and “fighter jet on the ground” design, it’s still one of the most visceral driving experiences ,that starts up every time by design, to grace the motoring world.
With many automakers releasing what most consider their last swan songs of internal combustion engines sans electrification, it’s become apparent a handful of these last generation gas-only magnum opuses should be preserved for posterity.
So if you’re looking for a succinct and complete history of the automobile from an 1886 Motorwagen all the way to a Ferrari-beating NSX, you know where to look.
