Pininfarina and JAS Motorsport pulled back more of the curtain on the Tensei NSX restomod at Milano Design Week, with fresh details on proportions, powertrain, and the decision that makes the whole project: a naturally aspirated V6 and a six-speed manual transmission. No turbos. No hybrid assist. No paddle shifters. The Tensei is a stick-shift NSX rebuilt to stand next to the 1990 original rather than the 2016 second-generation hybrid.
The body is a clean-sheet carbon composite over a stretched NSX architecture. Compared to the original, the Tensei runs a longer wheelbase, shorter rear overhang, wider track, lower stance, and bigger wheels. The pop-up headlights carry over. The integral rear spoiler carries over. Lead designer Dimitri Vicedomini says once the proportions were locked, "the car almost designed itself," which is Pininfarina code for the silhouette doing most of the emotional work and the detail development being comparatively straightforward.
A V6 And Three Pedals Is A Category Statement
No modern supercar ships with a naturally aspirated V6 and a manual gearbox. The Tensei is not a supercar in the 2026 sense, which is exactly why it exists. Pininfarina is betting that a segment of the collector market will pay restomod-premium prices for a car that refuses the entire modernization arc of the last decade: no electrification, no dual-clutch transmission, no launch control, no driver-assist pack. It is a pure mechanical object.
Whether that bet pays depends on who the customer is. If the Tensei is priced below one million USD, it competes with Singer, Kimera, and the Alfaholics GTA-R class of restomods that do similar philosophy on different donor cars. If it is priced above 1.5 million USD, it competes with F40 market comparables and stops being a restomod in any practical sense. Pininfarina and JAS have not disclosed pricing, but the hand-built nature and the Pininfarina customization facility at Cambiano suggest the 1.2 to 1.8 million USD range is where this lands.
The Pininfarina-Honda Connection You Missed
The collaboration is not new. Pininfarina and Honda worked on the HP-X concept in 1984, a mid-engined sports car prototype that directly predicted the NSX layout and packaging. Pininfarina designing an NSX restomod in 2026 is closer to completing unfinished business than to a one-off licensing deal, and the Tensei project history explains why the design language reads as confident rather than derivative. The team working on this car is picking up a thread left dangling four decades ago.
The rear fender surfacing deserves attention. Pininfarina's "triangular gestures in plan view" description is the design-house way of saying the shoulders widen dramatically then taper back across the rear bumper in a way that recalls the 288 GTO. That is not a subtle reference. The GTO was the Pininfarina shape that predicted the F40. Putting that vocabulary on a Honda NSX body is either a tribute or a statement about where Honda's design language would have gone if the company had stayed with Pininfarina past the HP-X era.
Pininfarina and JAS Motorsport will reveal the full Tensei later in 2026. Production numbers and pricing remain undisclosed. Final assembly at JAS's atelier in Arluno, with customization at Pininfarina's Cambiano facility.