RE: Honda NSX: PH Carpool

[MDMetal]

skylarking808 said:

MDMetal said:

One of these has been parked outside a house I walk by everyday for the past few months in Cambridge, probably a different person though? Still looks gorgeous I was all excited first time I saw it.

If that's the one under a cover in Coldhams Lane, I too wonder about that car.
Would love to see it out and about as I have only seen two in the wild since the 90's.

Kings hedges.... so there's 2!

[manmaths]

Lovely car and nice honest write up.

Personally I think the body kit suits the car, especially in that colour. I like the wheels but would prefer them in silver.

Jealous!

[havoc]

Really liking the Regamasters...even make white-on-black look good.

Also agree that the article is a very balanced write-up, although I'd say the sound is very sonorous and characterful, moreso than the mechanical notes coming from E46s/E92s (and arguably 996/997 GT3s...although that's a tough gig).

Thurbs said:

Any idea what kind of power you can get from the 3.2 if you did cams, rods etc?

A couple of posts already above, but a typical ITB build on stock bottom-end will get you >350bhp with a nice, driveable profile (more if you want it really peaky). And a GLORIOUS sound - passengered in a Norwegian ITB build last summer which almost had me reaching for my wallet...

As the others have said though - as soon as you decide to take it apart, you can get even more...that said, there are 3 FI options out there:-
- Supercharged - couple of SC kits out there for the car, keeps the engine closest to standard character but turns it all up to 11.
- Twin-turbo - a few out there making biggish-numbers (~500-600bhp, which I know isn't Supra territory but is still tidy), plus a lot more in the US.
- "J-swap" - this is growing in America - take a cheap, readily available Honda J32/J35 (3.2 or 3.5 litre, compact, single-cam 60-degree V6), bolt on two turbos, tune accordingly (a few mods typically to increase the rev-limit) and slot in...think all/most J's even bolt to the standard transmission...

[dannyDC2]

Not bad, needs a K swap.

[ZX10R NIN]

Really nice car OP.

[Black S2K]

havoc said:

A couple of posts already above, but a typical ITB build on stock bottom-end will get you >350bhp with a nice, driveable profile (more if you want it really peaky). And a GLORIOUS sound - passengered in a Norwegian ITB build last summer which almost had me reaching for my wallet...

As the others have said though - as soon as you decide to take it apart, you can get even more...that said, there are 3 FI options out there:-
- Supercharged - couple of SC kits out there for the car, keeps the engine closest to standard character but turns it all up to 11.
- Twin-turbo - a few out there making biggish-numbers (~500-600bhp, which I know isn't Supra territory but is still tidy), plus a lot more in the US.
- "J-swap" - this is growing in America - take a cheap, readily available Honda J32/J35 (3.2 or 3.5 litre, compact, single-cam 60-degree V6), bolt on two turbos, tune accordingly (a few mods typically to increase the rev-limit) and slot in...think all/most J's even bolt to the standard transmission...

The J is a tiny engine and the close bore-spacing means small bottom-end bearings.

I'd be wary of extracting too much out of it.

Not that I feel the car really needs any more power - it seems to an achieve an awful lot from what it has. It's as if it's frictionless.

[hkz286]

havoc said:

Really liking the Regamasters...even make white-on-black look good.

Also agree that the article is a very balanced write-up, although I'd say the sound is very sonorous and characterful, moreso than the mechanical notes coming from E46s/E92s (and arguably 996/997 GT3s...although that's a tough gig).

thanks bud, I've got a monochromatic thing going on with the car at the moment :P

dannyDC2 said:

Not bad, needs a K swap.

or your teg needs a c swap? :P

ZX10R NIN said:

Really nice car OP.

cheers dude


for anyone still reading my drivel, here is a short video of a yorkshireman (our very own DannyDC2) giving it a review and a few more details about the car

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl0vaR4igcc

[sege]

Wonderful car OP.
I love the look. The NZX looks much better race car style, and I strongly suspect that the character of the car benefits from being made more aggressive also, in contrast to many other performance cars.

I love this: "I have also bought a baffled sump, you know, so there are no oil starvation issues whilst it's sat idle in my garage."

<sarcasm>I love PH too! A real mechanically minded petrolhead posts up his pride and joy for our reading enjoyment and plenty of posters are quick to point out the unforgivable error of his ways in messing up the single most important feature of the car - the stickers! Go team PH!</sarcasm>

[Thurbs]

hondansx said:

I guess this is mean, given there aren't many racing and certainly not many green and black ones.

Mine is a 3.4 using a combination of parts from Toda Racing and Science of Speed, who are a US based NSX specialist. It makes about 400bhp. Scared too push it too much as it was an expensive engine to build and I have no spare!

Which somewhat sums it up. It is a lonely and expensive development journey. Not many parts exist, so it's up to you to develop parts and make the mistakes. It's certainly got potential though, they of course have good aero being so low and pointy, and can be made light (1000kg) without too much trouble, although of course most race series will have balance of performance. When it was out earlier this year with essentially zero development on handling, it was as quick as a 997 Carrera Cup. I was pretty happy with that.

I raced against some E46 M3s at Spa and they are very quickly. Their advantage is the grip they generate from huge tyres; running fronts as wide as their rears. Also, like the Porsche, they are highly developed cars. I will go widebody eventually to compete with this.

That is the one!

I first remember seeing the car at a 750mc Club Enduro event at Snetterton. A classic dry/wet race if I remember where we ended up doing rather well.

The first race I entered this year in the new car was at the CSCC Spa Summer classic and due to a gearbox failure was able to watch Sunday's race in the grandstand. I have to say the NSX sounded awsome, one of the best v6 noises around. Those E43 M3s are dam fast as you say. I now race the E34s in Modern Classics and they are defistating.

[Escapegoat]

MDMetal said:

skylarking808 said:

MDMetal said:

One of these has been parked outside a house I walk by everyday for the past few months in Cambridge, probably a different person though? Still looks gorgeous I was all excited first time I saw it.

If that's the one under a cover in Coldhams Lane, I too wonder about that car.
Would love to see it out and about as I have only seen two in the wild since the 90's.

Kings hedges.... so there's 2!

A black one with JDM-size number plates? I've seen it burbling along Milton Road a couple of times.

[hkz286]

sege said:

Wonderful car OP.
I love the look. The NZX looks much better race car style, and I strongly suspect that the character of the car benefits from being made more aggressive also, in contrast to many other performance cars.

I love this: "I have also bought a baffled sump, you know, so there are no oil starvation issues whilst it's sat idle in my garage."

<sarcasm>I love PH too! A real mechanically minded petrolhead posts up his pride and joy for our reading enjoyment and plenty of posters are quick to point out the unforgivable error of his ways in messing up the single most important feature of the car - the stickers! Go team PH!</sarcasm>

thanks dude, means a lot.

its cool, I don't expect everyone, or indeed, anyone, to have the same taste as me so a bit of criticism is expected. In all honesty, I was expecting much worse

[BigMacDaddy]

One of those cars that looks awesome in every colour, but looks very different depending which colour it is. My cousin had a bright yellow one which you'd see coming a mile off, and looked fantastic. But for some reason the red rear lights/reflectors against the black body make the car look really wide and low (which it is anyway, but even more so!) - love it.

I'm also going to go against the "thou must not deviate from standard" brigade and say I really like those wheels, they suit the car very well.

not a fan of the stickerage, but I'm not going to berate you for it - would be a boring world if we all liked the same thing

[hkz286]

BigMacDaddy said:

One of those cars that looks awesome in every colour, but looks very different depending which colour it is. My cousin had a bright yellow one which you'd see coming a mile off, and looked fantastic. But for some reason the red rear lights/reflectors against the black body make the car look really wide and low (which it is anyway, but even more so!) - love it.

I'm also going to go against the "thou must not deviate from standard" brigade and say I really like those wheels, they suit the car very well.

not a fan of the stickerage, but I'm not going to berate you for it - would be a boring world if we all liked the same thing

thanks dude

yeah the wheels I've wanted for a while now, strangely enough Spoon have recently decided to re-issue them as they stopped being made 15 years or so ago

haha yes it would, a peaceful one though

[MaxA]

This is a lovely car, and it's great that you seem to love working on it as much as you drive it.

[hkz286]

MaxA said:

This is a lovely car, and it's great that you seem to love working on it as much as you drive it.

Thanks bud, it really is a pleasure to work on. I follow a few blogs about these in terms of maintenance and modifications, and mine seems to be one of the cleaner ones about. Lots of things that are common faults to do with rust, and seizing of joints, bolts etc are simply not present on mine. Its like working on a new car, which means you can take pleasure in the job, rather than swearing at rusty bolts etc with a gas axe for hours on end.