Restomodding is typically an American pursuit, taking classic American autos and making them even better. I’ve always wondered what would happen if this idea was to spread further. I don’t mean necessarily geographically, but in car variety. I want to see cars from other continents given the same treatment; weird Frankenstein’s monsters created, and, most importantly, a wider range of choice. In an earlier post, I showed you 10 of my favourite restomods which use European cars as their base. This time, it’s the turn of Asian cars. What if they weren’t hoarded by a thousand wannabe drifters and bedecked in the kind of ugly modifications you can only buy at Walmart? These are the models that I want to see restomodded properly by smart folks with good taste, because that’s what they deserve.

Acura NSX

Years produced: 1990-2005

The Acura NSX was a car that many people seem to look back on today with a kind of retroactive mediocrity. It has its fans, make no mistake, but a lot of people just forget it happened. If you’d not guessed, I’m not one of those people. The NSX is a car I’ve always had a soft spot for: the first mass-produced all-aluminum car, it was brilliant. Although not as aggressive or outright violent as something like a throaty Mustang or a Ferrari, it had an allure. It looked superb, with the classic 90s stylings that you’d want on a racer. The headlights popped up! A minor detail, I know, but it really felt like a Japanese Lotus.

They were fast too, whatever naysayers today may try to say. Later models could get to 60 in under five seconds, and they handled dreamily. There’s also that famous Japanese reliability, which means that even models with fairly high mileage should run well. If you want one, they’re pretty cheap for an exotic, around $50,000. As for modifications which you may want to make? The cabin can look a little dated these days, in that plasticky 90s way. I’d resurface the dash etc, at the least, as well as replace the panels. You may also fancy changing the engine, maybe bringing in a more modern Japanese V6, or fitting a turbo to the existing one.