Tony Stark/Iron Man a.k.a the very cool Robert Downey Jr. seems to have a thing for Audi. But in just one Avengers movie, the ubiquitous Audi was replaced by an Acura so insane, we can only call its “Stark-Esque” after the smart-aleck playboy-turned-crusader.
The coolest bit about this car is not just the fact that it is a movie car and was driven by the amazing Iron Man, but the fact that it exists. And it was put into the movie as a promotion for the upcoming Acura NSX that launched in the US in 2016, defined as the New Sports eXperience.
While the cars look pretty similar, the on-road Acura NSX cannot hold a candle to Tony Stark’s ride in thought, though in reality, it’s vice versa.
Here’s what we could dig up about the movie car that kickstarted the second generation of the NSX, and why we wish we could just drive the movie car instead, just once…
It Is Breathtakingly Beautiful
We catch just a little glimpse of it as Tony Stark gets into it at the end and drives off with the rest of the Avengers watching, mouths agape.
It could be because of Tony Stark’s mouthiness, of course, as he reverts to his Playboy avatar, taking a break from being the “boss” of Avengers, but we’d like to believe it was the beauty of the car that reflected off the faces of all those good-looking, perfectly-bodied actors. What’s even more amazing, is that this car was not a 2015 Acura NSX at all!
2015? Nah, This Was 1991
You’d think that a car designed to promote the next generation of the Acura NSX in the US would be a prototype of the next-generation at least. But no, not here.
The actual car in the movie, which was very much ambulatory is a 1991 Acura NSX model, majorly built up to resemble the newer model and look as spicy as it does from the inside to be able to be called Tony Stark’s ride and compete with the others he has in his garage. Look more carefully, and the insides are a ‘90s throwback.
Not Much Was Done To The Interiors
If you saw the 2012 Avengers movie, the Acura NSX was barely there and the insides did not get much screen time, so they were not spruced up much. They put in Procar seats and some of that glistening, eye-catching Iron Man red paint on the center console to look perfect from afar.
The top center vents were just covered up by electrical tape and perhaps touched up by VFX later. What was not broken, or visible was just left to its own devices. Not that a 1991 NSX is shabby, to begin with.
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Honda “Made” The Car With Help
It was Acura/Honda’s Dave Marek who conceptualized the final car, making it different from the actual 2015 Acura NSX to keep the surprise a surprise. But the actual “build” was done by Oxnard-based Trans FX. Trans FX is the ones that built the movie and promotional cars for not just Disney’s Cars 2, but also the alien spacecraft in Men In Black II.
The movie car just bore enough hints to make people interested in the second-generation of the Acura NSX but had lots of little differences too.
The Base Car Was Rundown & Cheap
The Acura NSX that turned into Tony Stark’s magnificent ride was not even a new one. It had more than 250,000 miles on it because they did not want to use a car that was still serviceable.
Plus the car itself did not cost them much because according to Rick Bordanaro, the VP Business at Trans FX, they paid $18,000-20,000 for it and got it driven from Arizona to California. No information is given on how much was spent on the actual transformation.
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The Exterior Is All Built-Up
The original NSX is there in name only, because Trans FX stripped the car of all body panels but for the doors and a whole “new” car was built around it. The front panels are fiberglass while the rear ones are milled epoxy resin. More cladding has been added to match each part to the other.
The windshield was changed and there is a bit of wide-body modification done in the rear with wider wheels and tires for a better look. Oh and the Stark 33 comes from Downey’s favorite number.
But The Car Is Fragile
Despite the very sporty beefcake-like appearance of the car, this is not a car meant to be driven over bad roads. It’s a 1991 model, built up far heavier with body paneling and more and rides pretty low.
Drive it rough and the nose will scrape and perhaps even come off. Loading and unloading it off a trailer is also a task considering this is a show car meant for a movie, and not one supposed to be a daily driver of someone as rash as Tony Stark though he can certainly afford to lose a car. Or a hundred.
The Speed Is Ridiculous
The 2020 Acura NSX boasts a top speed of 191 mph. We expected Stark’s car to go much faster than that, being how he’s a technical genius and such.
That said, because of it being a 1991 model with some 250,000 miles on it, plus all that cladding and body panel build-up, the Iron Man Acura NSX is not very stable. Its top speed is limited to 30mph, and when various car magazines and journos tested it, they were advised to drive at 20mph for preservation.
The Iron Man Car Vs. The Real Thing
The film car is a convertible. And as many similarities there may exist between it and the new NSX, the official NSX is a coupe. Plus, to make sure the movie car did not give away the whole package, the front end was left very vague and unfinished.
There were no headlights either, hinting at a technology way more advanced than what exists on the roads today. But then again, what is Avengers but the imagination of their creator? Movie characters get to drive movie cars, even if they do get to have all the fun.
The Movie Car Was All Presence
We see the Acura NSX in the end in the Avenger’s movie, with Tony Stark riding off in it to the end credits. So basically, it didn’t have to do anything tough in the movie, just preen in its grandiose hint of a presence. Plus Robert Downey Jr. is rumored to have bought it.
The actual NSX can do a lot more as a hybrid sports car with a 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V6 and three electric motors, two of which go to make the SH-AWD all-wheel-drivetrain. The body is ultra-high-strength steel with aluminum to make it one tough competitor on the road. Even if Iron Man does not drive it.
