Some car collections impress through sheer size. Shinji Kawai’s Route KS collection impresses because nearly every car inside feels like final-boss Honda history.
Featured by Hagerty, the collection is a dream vault for anyone who worships the original NSX. It includes NSX-Rs, Type S-Zeros, ultra-low-mileage factory examples, historic personal cars, race machines, and shelves of new-old-stock parts.
This is not a casual collection of Japanese performance cars. Route KS is focused almost entirely on one chassis, and that focus is what makes it so extraordinary.
The headline car, however, is almost unbelievable, as Honda built Kawai a brand-new NA2 NSX-R in 2022 using factory spare parts, complete with a special plaque carrying his name.
A Collection Built Around One Honda Icon
Kawai bought his first NSX nearly three decades ago, and that car was a Type R. That alone says plenty about the level of commitment behind this collection.
Inside Route KS, ordinary NSXs are not the point. The room is filled with Japanese-market Type R models, Type S-Zeros, and rare factory specifications that most enthusiasts may never see in person.
At a normal NSX meet, one Type R would stop traffic. Here, multiple examples sit together like they belong in Honda’s own private archive.
The One-Off 2022 NSX-R Is The Centerpiece
The wildest car in the collection is the white NA2 NSX-R that Honda built for Kawai in 2022. According to the video, it was assembled from brand-new factory parts, including the body, engine, bolts, and hardware.
The car shows just 24 kilometers, most of which appear to be factory test mileage. Kawai reportedly drove it less than one kilometer himself.
Because the chassis was never assigned a normal production VIN, the identification plate carries zeros and Kawai’s name. That makes it effectively priceless, because it’s a factory-built tribute NSX-R rather than just a well-preserved example.
Type R, Type S-Zero, And Serious Provenance
Route KS also contains NSXs with major history attached. One car belonged to Best Motoring legend Motoharu Kurosawa, while another was owned by the drift king himself, Keiichi Tsuchiya.
The Type S-Zero cars may be even rarer than the Type R examples. With only 33 built, they combined lightweight intent with the later 3.2-liter engine and six-speed manual setup.
Mileage is another astonishing part of the collection. Hagerty highlighted cars with only hundreds or a few thousand kilometers, including one example showing just 924 kilometers.
Race Cars And A Parts Vault
The collection goes beyond road cars. Kawai also owns a real 2009 Super GT NSX and a famous Japanese time-attack NSX driven by Nobuteru Taniguchi.
Those cars show the NSX’s competition side, with serious cage work, air jacks, carbon ducting, and battle-worn details. They sit alongside showroom-clean road cars, giving the collection real depth.
Then there are the parts. Route KS includes headlights, fenders, doors, shift knobs, and rare factory pieces stacked like an NSX survival bunker.
What Makes Route KS So Special
The original NSX proved a supercar could be reliable, usable, beautifully balanced, and deeply involving. That philosophy is why the car still inspires such loyalty decades later.
Kawai’s collection preserves that legacy with unusual care. It captures the NSX as a road car, collector car, track car, and cultural icon.
Plenty of collectors buy rare cars, but very few earn enough respect for a manufacturer to build them a new one decades later. That is what makes Route KS feel less like a garage and more like the Holy Grail of NSX history.