New NSX spotted at Mosport

So I finally had a chance to check out the new NSX yesterday in person. It had Ohio manufacturer plates, was dirty as hell, and interior was messy and floormats already fraying at the logo stitching. Obviously it's a mule for testing, promo and general media abuse.  Overall I love it and I believe for the current state of the art it's a great effort by Acura/Honda, and a much needed shot in the arm for their corporate identity.  No more performance doldrums for my favourite Japanese automaker. However...it made me appreciate my 2004 even more and will never replace it. For me, the NSX will always be Uehara's creation.  Call me old fashioned. 😍😎

Glamour shots (finished products)

Here are the edited and massaged final shots from the recent photoshoot. More to come.

Glamour shots!

Had a great night last week with the MidnightRuns gang at Slick Automotive.  

The NSX was cleaned up and driven over for a reason hours of fun with a cute blonde.

Thanks Lars for the night, can't wait to see the final pics. These were taken by me on my iPhone.

Next day was gorgeous so I snapped a few in town when on a few errands.

Thieves should be burned at the stake.

With nice things comes jerks who want to take them away from you.

Thieves need to DIAF. Period.

If you can't afford nice things, be like the rest of the civilized world and work for it.

My old Volk Racing wheels, gold CE28N, beloved by the owner I sold them to, have been stolen. Here's my post about them when they were first purchased: http://thensxblog.blogspot.ca/2009/06/more-go-power-more-stoppng-power.html

Specs: 18x8 +38 front and 19x9.5 +36 rears, all shod in Toyo T1R 225 35 and 275 30 front and rear respectively.

Please spread the word and let's try and get them back, though something tells me it's not going to happen...

Some memories...

When they were on my old NA1:

When they were sold to the new owner (his gf loved them):

....and now:

2015 in one fell swoop (the overdue update)!

It's been so long since I've made the time to post an update that I actually had to re-download my progress pics from the cloud (as my phone automatically wiped them out for being in the memory for too long).  Oh well...

After receiving the car in April, 2015, I have slowly, conservatively transformed it to my tastes.  From what I have learned from the NA1 I have tried to make the mods reversible while keeping true to the mission statement of its designers.  This car will never become a wide body, track focussed beast, but instead will impress outsiders with its subtle presence.

I must be getting old because even though I love the Type R wing and vented hood (wing by Downforce, hood by Backyard Special), I decided to didn't want the hassle of large, fragile, aftermarket body parts.  Luckily the search for the very rare oem hood did not take very long.  I found a mint, red one in California and a black oem wing in Toronto.  I had both repainted in fresh berlina black and installed at The Auto Surgeon in Carp. Excellent service and I would not hesitate to return in the future.

After its paint correction, the next thing on my TDL was a rear diffuser and a neat F1 fog light to enhance the rear section of the car.  The diffuser was always on my mind as I think the rear end looks too thin and horizontal to the eyes.  Vertical slats (whether functional or not) gives the rear some hardcore presence while thickening up the back end when viewed on side profile.  I got the idea of the LED fog light from a fellow NSXer who had it on his car and I loved the way it draws attention to the diffuser.

Difflow supplied a custom 4 element diffuser (I think it looks cleaner with less slats):

Here it is next to my 13 year old for size comparison:

Installation was a snap with the supplied hardware.  The diffuser utilized stock structures on the underside of the car and wedges itself in place securely.  The car feels very stable at high speeds.  My only complaint is that on slow speed expansion joints you can hear the thing give a tinny rattle (it's a metal structure).  The fins have so far avoided speed bumps nicely, probably because of my conservative drop.  Really lowered cars might have a problem.

Installed:

Once the rear was taken care of, I decided to change the thin, conservative oem front lip for the deeper one from JP Aero.  The only problem is JPA is not currently making this lip and there's no indication they will ramp up production soon (thanks low production niche car market!), so EBay to the rescue.  I normally do not support knockoffs and have gone online many a times railing against those who buy cheap Chinese-made garbage but in this case I had to swallow my pride and do the deed.  I needed it and I couldn't find a real one.  The rare few that's come up for sale used are always snatched up, so I took a chance with the EBay special.  Since its urethane I figured fit might be tolerable. Turns out it fit perfectly.  I'm really pleased.  If JPAero ever makes them again I'll buy another as a spare but for now this will do:

The lip comes in black gel coat which I sanded lightly and hit with a few layers of matte black plastidip. Looks almost oem.  

Wheels.  

If you have read my past posts you'll already know I'm a huge wheel whore, especially JDM wheels.  For this car I wanted a classic 5 spoke design. The ever popular split 5 spoke Advan Model 5 are always suggested online but it never did it for me.  I love the fact it's so bbk friendly but the way the spokes bow out is not my thing. Advan Kreuzer V is another candidate, but again the spokes took too flat.  I absolutely LOVE the Regamasters, which are very period correct but unfortunately they won't clear my brembos.  I finally settled for Enkei Kojins.  Awesome concave design, thick tapered spokes and it comes in a slick matte black finish.   I ordered a set from Ben at NEXTMOD Ottawa, shod them with Federal 595Rs courtesy of Discount Tire Direct.  

Specs:

17x8 +35

18×9.5 +30 
215-40-17
275-35-18

Done.

First (Conservative) Mods...

Gotta start somewhere. Gotta make this car mine.

The NSX came with a lot of choice parts, things I would have bought on my own which was one of the things that made me feel the car was "right" when it crossed paths with me.  Kudos to the old owner for having impeccable taste. :)

However, I just had to do some changes to make it feel truly mine, even if it's minor.  

One of the things about the North American NSXs that always irked me were the ugly turn signals on the front and rear sides of the car.  The JDM and Euro versions don't have them except for the small amber signals on the front fenders.  I addressed this issue in my old NA1 by simply spraying them with VHT Nightshade tint spray. Easy to do, nice results but they were a tad too dark for me and I didn't like the fact the spray doesn't allow you to control the amount of tint.  A better solution are the vinyl overlays by BlueBatmobile on NSXPrime.  His little pieces just installs with a heatgun, a squeegee and some water. Takes a bit of time to make it look right but the results are nice and the best part is mod is completely reversible. 

It took me about 40 mins to do this:

and here's the final result:

Another thing I wanted to do was replace the missing engine bay cover.  The first owner of the car did away with it (a common NSX thing to do) in order to display the so-so looking engine bay.  I say this with a lot of love and respect for the mighty C32B but lets face it: compared to what's residing in the engine bay of the R8, Ferraris and Lambos the NSX mill is pretty homely. There are wires, hoses, firewall and milk jugs exposed everywhere. It was meant to be felt and heard, not seen.  I was pretty disappointed the oem carpeted engine cover with the holder for the targa top had long ago been sold off, so one of the first things I shopped for was a stylish aftermarket cover.  The only one that appealed to me (and can clear the SOS Kenne Bell blower kit and Comptech aluminum strut bar) is the GT-One.  This design has since been copied extensively by Downforce and Seibon along with others.  I found one being sold by 'tof' on Prime and drove to Ogdensburg, NY to pick it up.  Install was a snap.  Love the finished look it gives the rear hatch area as well as the extra seal it provides the glass.

Lastly, as much as I like the looks and idea of the JDM NSX-R Momo Tuner 350mm steering wheel, I hated the thin rim on it. Heck, even my Acura ZDX daily driver has a thicker grip.  After some searching on the web one night I came across an interior shot of one of my all time favourite supercars, the Pangani Zonda.  

The red leather is a bit too much but I liked the look of the Nardi steering wheel with its thick rim and D-shape.  Some further digging came up with the model: The Callista.  A quick call to my friends at GoTuning and a couple of weeks later this arrived:

Once installed it was a perfect match with my custom weighted, polished and countersunk shift knob.

Detail time

So, for the first time in her 11 year life, my NSX gets an exterior detail, or "colour correction" in the parlance of the detailer.

Eric of Detailed Reflections did the work. He's amazing, professional, honest, on time and has that crazy anal retentiveness that all detailers seem to possess.  The guy's a maniac and truly loves his work.  Seeing the car in the sun for the first time Saturday morning he looked like a kid in a candy store, dying to get his hands on the car.  "I love black cars!" he said.

After nearly 7 hours, the car never looked better.  All the swirls, most of the rock pits and some gouges were smoothed out.  The Downforce skirts, hood, mirrors and lower front bumper will need a respray in the fall due to the sheer amount of rock chips (the realities of a low, black car) but for the rest of the driving season this does the trick.

I'll let the pics speak for themselves:

 Before: swirls upon swirls

The same panel before

 ...and after

Here's a direct contrast shot:

Afterwards in the sun.

Tan-dah!!!

She's LEGAL!

9am, showed up at Autovation in Stittsville and the boys quickly got the car saftied and e-tested with flying colours.  No surprise as Charles had the timing belt, water pump and PPI done at Burrand Acura last month so I knew everything was fine.  There is a slight leak in the valve cover gasket, but nothing that needs to be addressed immediately.  I'll likely have it done prior to winter storage. Ugh, winter...I don't even want to think about it.

Following this, I took the NSX to the nearby coin op car wash for its first cleaning and wipe down.  I discovered a bubbling in the paint on the Downforce hood near the passenger side of the windshield, various rock chips in the lower part of the side skirts and front bumper.  I'll pay a visit to my detailer on Saturday morning to get his opinion on the paint and whether it warrants a respray or hopefully just a touch up and buff.  After that, a full tank of 94 octane was pumped, roof panel removed and stowed in the trunk and off we went for a nice afternoon of cruising.  When I got home I followed the DIY resetting of the EPS from the DaliRacing website and lo and behold we have power steering!

Some immediate observations of this car vs. my old NA1: the targa, though very cool and I love how the car is transformed into a barchetta, definitely makes the car looser. Cowl shake is very present. This is something I was actually surprised to notice as I have a lot of faith in Honda's engineers in maintaining the chassis rigidity.  Second, POWER STEERING. What a revelation. I know a lot of NA1 snobs (myself included) like to point to the fact that the NSX originally was devoid of a PS system and presumably was meant to not have one.  However, it is a very nice setup: light effort at slow speeds but very communicative at all times.  I'm a believer.  Lastly, I cannot say enough how much I miss the sound of the intake whoosh to my left, the growl of the C32 behind me and the IMAXesque expansive view ahead.  You don't realize what you've missed until you've lost it and regain it again.  Holy cow this car is a glorious driving experience.

Arrival.

So, my car shipped out of the port of Vancouver on March 31.  Almost 2 weeks later (16 days to be exact) she rests comfortably in my garage bay.  Everything arrived intact.  There are more rock dings and scuffs than I imagined for a car with such low mileage but the seller was very good at disclosing every knock in the original paint job before the sale, so I'm satisfied.

BLCBIRD showed up at 6am sharp as promised and I only had a few minutes to start her up, drive (without plates) once around the block before I had to tuck her away until I get back from work.  I'm pretty damn excited and relieved.

Next order of business when I get home: wash, dry, vacuum (car was pretty dirty after its journey), mount my plates and check fluid levels and tire pressure. Tomorrow morning I'll have it inspected for safety certification, e-tested and legally ready for the road.  This is going to be a sweet weekend.

TFX International has been nothing short of phenomenal throughout.

It's roommate in the transporter was a pair of Porsche GT3RS, an old 356 Speedster, a Bentley Continental, and an Aston Martin.  I might be biased, but I actually thought my 11 yr old girl was the best looking.

BLCBIRD II shipped out of Vancouver yesterday

After 6 weeks of emails back and forth, photos, phonecalls and more emails, Charles was ready to ship the NSX to Ontario.

Here she is in her bay in Bowser, BC for the last time.  I can imagine what he was thinking when he snapped this pic.  I know what it's like...

The car was packed to the gills with extra parts: seats, fluids, oem parts, aftermarket parts.  I have to say, Charles (the seller) must be a master of Tetris.

Things were a little iffy the night before when I received a semi-panicked email from him wondering where the driver was. He was supposed to receive a call to arrange a pickup time and place but never got one.  A quick call to Patty at TFX sorted everything out.  On the morning of the agreed date the car was loaded up:

...and off she goes!

ETA is 7-10 days.  I'm pretty stoked.

OK, I'll go on a limb here and say the car's pretty much as I would have it. I even love the wheels (one of my weaknesses is constantly changing shoes on my cars), though I might have the Volk CE28Ns resprayed or Plastidipped in bronze.  I hope I won't need to do any extensive mods as everything's been done as I would have. However the one thing missing is the engine cover.  The previous owner discarded it after having the SOS blower installed (I assume due to the fact the cover didn't clear the height of the supercharger) but I always disliked a missing cover.  It looks unfinished, and the lack of rubber seal around the window which the cover provides creates a risk of accidentally cracking the expensive rear glass when you close it.  I've already picked up a new rubber seal, hinges and prop from FB NSX Owners Group member Johnny Chen, now waiting for the CF/Lexan cover to be in stock from Downforce.  I also impulse shopped an oem centre console with the intention of cutting a double DIN hole in it for a Apple CarPlay headunit.  No rush, and right now the car comes equipped with a Ipod adaptor so I'm good, but it would be sweet to ditch the cassette deck down the road.

When I sold my last NSX I have always told people that if I could do the project all over again, I'd take a mature road with a lightly modified OEM feel to it: CTSC, KWV3 coilovers with a mild drop, NSX-R braces, Brembo brakes, NSX-R hood and wing, and some nice Volks.  This car hits all the targets.  I'm so proud and excited.