Final Cruise of the year and putting her away for the winter

So on Oct 25th, 2009 the NSX Ottawa Owners Group (our local mailing list and local subsidiary of the NSX Club of Canada) got together with our local S2000 Tochigi factory brothers and went for a beautiful fall drive. The weather had been crappy all week with rain and drizzle, but the gods smiled upon us as the one and only clear and sunny day that week just happened to be on that Sunday. We met at the parking lot of the Aviation Museum. 9 NSX, 1 Acura 1.5EL (member Steve's NSX was in the shop for a new clutch and tranny so he drove his wife's car)and 5 S2000's including Kenny Williams white AP1 that was featured in the photoshoot posted a few months back here.



We took the Rockliffe Parkway that snaked through the Ottawa River's edge amongst the tony houses and embassies, to the King Edward bridge to Quebexico and onto Hwy 5 to 105.

We stopped for a greasy breakfast at Barbe Jr. Restaurant where we easily overpowered the small parking lot (I had expected a group of 4-5 cars) and the limited seating (table for 15 please!).

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. I was especially happy to see some long lost members who had been too busy to come out all summer and a few new faces as well. I think our local group is quite healthy.

Afterwards I went home, and spent the rest of the day doing small errands and finally the careful and anal retentive task of getting my baby ready for storage. :(
Wash, wax, lube hinges and seals, armor all the hoses, interior, Windex windows, a few sheets of Bounce in the trunks, engine bay and interior, top up with Sunoco 94 and gas preservative, over inflated the tires to 55 lbs, and a thorough vacuuming of all the track dust from Calabogie ;-)



I drove her to the local Stittsville storage facility where I was met by fellow NSXer Brad who was also keeping his red 1991 there. Drove her in, shut her down, removed the steering wheel and put the fitted oem cover on and that was that. See you next April! I know my battery was on its last legs so I didn't even bother disconnecting it. I'll just buy a new one in the spring (Optima Bluetop from Costco).

Now its time to spend even more time on NSXPrime, my new duties as Secretary of the NSX Club of Canada and of course pay more attention to my neglected E46 M3 SMG.

NSXPO 2009 was a success!

What a great weekend I just had. There's nothing that prepares an NSX enthusiast for the sight of 70 NSXs of various colours, specs, modifications and years gathered in a single parking lot.

The participants came from as far away as San Fran, Georgia, Tennessee and Ottawa (*wink*) to partake in what can only be described as 5 days of celebration of the car that Uehara and Senna built. There were NSX toys, NSX books, NSX pictures (some called it porn), NSX chairs, NSX shirts, NSX hats ...well, you get the idea. The best part though was the people. I swear this car attracts the best owners, bar none. Personally the highlight of the trip was meeting all these people I've known only as usernames online at NSXPrime.com. In particular I enjoyed finally having the opportunity to chat and check out the car belonging to Lud, owner of NSX Prime. I also had a chance to meet Hirofumi Tomoyoshi, President of NSX Club of Japan, Larry Bastanza, President of the NSX Club of America, and Chris from Science of Speed.

Unfortunately I had to bail on Sunday and miss the 2 track days at Mosport, but the pics posted on Prime allowed me to at least dream. I hope to make it out to Suzuka next year when the NSX Club of Japan celebrates the car's 20th anniversary.
Me at the gala dinner:

My car during a stopover at the Poker Rally:

Blodisign front signal covers

Just had a chance to install my 3RD set of mugen style front turn signal covers by Ryan Blodi (NSX Prime member and all around good guy).

Why 3rd? Cuz the first 2 sets self-destructed after a few weeks each. One thing you have to accept with the NSX is that its a rare, handbuilt, out of production car. Everything for it from the aftermarket has been either discontinued, used (very much), or built by some guy in his spare time as a hobby. The signal covers is such a thing. They were produced by Mugen back in the the 90's, and even then they were pretty hard to find. Ryan saw a demand for them and took the time to have them made. The only thing is the plastic he used initially did not stand up to the rigors of the road very long and afetr a few weeks if you tried to remove them to clean underneath they simply fractured.

This set is made from a more resilient plastic. I also like how its not as dark as the old ones. Lets hope they last! To his credit, he only charged me $20 shipped for this set, and I found out when the package arrived that it cost him $19 to ship it!

ITBs for the NSX

Saws this today on NSXPrime:

Used NSX MC custom-made ITB throttle body.
Was set up in my NSX 3.2 for less than a year.
I am now selling them cos I am selling the car.
If you need the MoTec base mapping,
I can include it in the package.

The throttle itself was custom-made by 7075 aluminum, strong and durable.
It is still in an excellent condition.
I am now selling it at US$2900 shipped.
(throttle body and mapping included)
I ship worldwide.
If you have any further questions, please contact me at quince328@gmail.com

Thats a crazy price for ITBs. I hope the performance is as beautiful as the velocity stacks themselves. Oh man...$2900 for this set up...so tempted to ditch the GMSC, but I know I never can.

NSXPO 2009 in Toronto, Canada!

"NSXPO 2009
The NSX Club of America is proud to present the first international XPO to be held outside of the US, in the world-class city of Toronto, Canada. The city boasts a dynamic and culturally diverse atmosphere and features some of the finest shopping and dining in North America, a slew of tourist destinations and an exciting and vibrant night life.

In addition to experiencing some of the city's attractions, this years XPO will host an exciting track event at the legendary Mosport International Raceway."

Really looking forward to this!

I missed Est Fest last year because we had a baby, and this year I couldn't make the Exotic Car Cruise because my wife returned from Japan that same week. There's NO WAY I'm going to miss the biggest single gathering of NSXs in North America.

I'll be in charge of the Movie Night, and have already renewed my membership in NSXCC, booked my hotel room at the Prince and registered in time for the early bird discount. Yay!

JGTC mirrors by GT-One

Finally had a chance to install a set of CF mirrors. These are made by GT-One, which are in essence a copy of the ones by Craftsquare. I like this version more because these have a base made of composite wrapped in carbon fibre. Although the ones by craftsquare are beautiful, I always had a problem with their bright machinesd aluminum base, esp on a black car.

The first one took 2 hrs to install, the second was about 45 mins. It took aother 40 mins to get them adjusted right. Having someone to help out would have been great since I had to run back and forth from the drivers seat to the outside to make minor adjustments on them. The end results are worth it. I love them.

kei office front lip by Shine

Back to this topic again...

A few months ago I organized a mini-groupbuy on NSXPrime's Canadian forum for a few sets of Kei Office front lower lips by Shine Auto. This was origianlly produced by Kei Office in Japan (Keiichi Tsuchiya's company) years ago but has since been discontinued. I liked the look and how it updates and cleans up the appearance of the front end. However, the first guy to install it (Marc) reported back that the fitment was crap and he shelled out a lot of extra $$ to make it work. The second buyer (ROY) reported that the fitment was good and was quite pleased with the results. I noted that 2 of the 3 had Shine stickers on them. I kept one, and let the other 2 guys pick the other 2. Roy's had the sticker too. So I'm left to think that maybe Marc got oneof the prototype lips that didn't fit well while Roy and I got good ones. I dunno but thats my theory and I'm sticking to it. I was playing with the idea of a '02 front end conversion but based on Roy's experience I think I'm gonna just install the Kei Office lip and call it a day. At the last track day I got a chance to ride in the new GTR and came away wanting one more than ever. I think the NSX's days of sucking my money is coming to an end :(

Here're pics of Roy's lip:

(btw the silver car's got my old Gruppe M CF lip!)


"FasttraxTurbo" on NSXPrime also installed his and took these beautiful pics:


He was pretty pleased with how it turned out and said its the same height as the stock lip but because it extends out another 3" it scrapes on everything. I love the looks but not sure if it will be appropriate for my NSX, which is rapidly evolving into a track toy.

Here's the Drift King himself...

Calabogie Track Day: Aug 14, 2009

Decided to take the big bite and pony up the $500 for the full day CMP lapping school put on by EnTrac. Great organization, great day. The instruction was not quite as involved as Peter Hanson's class at the Mosport DDT but still quite enjoyable. Met Kevin Cooper (fellow Ottawa NSXer) for breakfast at Timmies at 6:30am, made it to CMP at 7:30am for drivers meeting and then the classroom session at 8am. The classroom group was small, just 20 people. Focus was on contact patch, suspension dynamics during cornering, and what not to do in a corner. It was cool. Afterwards I was paired up with my instructor Jason who first took me out in my NSX as a passenger for 5 laps, then we switched. I was supposed to spend the rest of the day driving with him in the passenger seat but I had problems with my passenger side seat belt tension-er so we spent the rest of the day with him leading me and showing me the lines and braking zones in his stripped 944 turbo track car.

New mirrors!

After thinking about this for 2 years, then having a previous order get broken prior to shipping, I finally get my set of CF craftsquare mirrors.

I love them, but unfortunately won't have time to put them on until last this month. Too bad since they'd be great at Calabogie on Friday the 14th. :(

The local owners have a meet!

Finally! After what seemed like 1/2 the summer without seeing each other (NSX owners are a busy lot! *wink*) the boys finally got their act together and gathered for a quick meet. The place was the usual car cruise night at Hazeldean Mall in Kanata. 7 cars showed up, six of them red ;)

Newguy Serge was there, along with Stef. I really wanted to sit in Stef's new Bride Gias seats and see if they will suit me but his toddler son was freaking out and he had to leave early. Oh well. The highlight of the night was chatting with the owner of a nice silver Fiat X1/9 (I love those cars and I blame them for inspiring my fetish for mid-engined vehicles) and the kid who now owns my old 1992 Nissan 240SX. Seems like the old 240 went through a few owners before he got his hands on it but the parts I put on were still there: Jamex springs, ebay seat covers, fake blitz SS intake and even the stickers I put on from Pac Mall (ah, how I miss my ricer days). He did do the right thing and dropped in a redtop SR. I steered him towards neo240sx.ca which is the local 240 club.