At stock ride height, the Enkeis and BFGs only made the NSX look that much more awkward. I bought the car with a pair of worn-out OEM shocks up front and a couple of tired Bilsteins in the rear. The springs were stock as was the rest of the suspension. In fact, the NSX was hardly ever modified at all and was purchased from the original owner, which was one of the major selling points for me. Coilover choice was an easy one. I've used Buddy Club's Racing Spec dampers before and have always been happy with their construction, adjustability, and overall build quality. The Racing Specs feature 15-way damper adjustability through an easy external dial located on the upper part of the shaft. Settings range from +4kg/mm to a soft -4kg/mm. The Buddy Clubs offer two ways to adjust ride height: I can raise or lower the pair of locknuts that the spring rests on-like with most adjustable coilovers-or I can raise or lower the shock's lower mounting bracket by threading it on or off, which effectively makes the damper shorter or longer, respectively. This comes in handy, especially if I decided I don't want to alter the actual spring's height. Not all coilovers have this sort of adjustability though, which makes the Buddy Clubs special. Aside from the adjustability factor, the Racing Specs also weigh in similar to the OEM setup at 55 pounds and are priced very competitively. Yeah, with such an aggressive drop the camber is affected, but with such a wide tire out back, excessive tire wear is minimal, especially since I was able to dial the toe back to stock settings. Besides, the tires are only going to last about 10K to 12K miles anyways since they can't be rotated. As far as suspension goes, this is it for now. The lower ride height and wider tires were enough to give me everything I thought was missing. Sometimes all it takes is a fresh set of rubber, a firmer suspension, and a lower center of gravity to increase a car's intuitiveness with the driver and road.
Author
NSX_Proj
8685 postsAnaheim, CA
Post
NSX guys like big brake kits but big, heavy rotors and oversize calipers never do much for acceleration. Since I plan on driving my NSX, I opted for something subtle. But first, the previous owner thought it would be cool to paint my NSX's calipers red long before I ended up with the car. The stripping process took a good four or five hours, about five or six pairs of gloves, and an entire bottle of paint stripper. The tricky part was avoiding the calipers' rubber seals and dust boots with the stripper. Once back to their factory-finished look, I swapped on a set of cryo-treated and slotted rotors from Power Slot along with Axxis brake pads and steel-braided brake lines from Goodridge. Why cryo-treat the rotors? Well, Power Slot's regular slotted rotors are great for the street and ventilate gasses and help remove brake dust better than the OEM ones since they're slotted, but their metallurgy just isn't up to severe track duty. The cryo treatment allows me to visit the track on occasion but without having to swap out rotors. How? The process improves the metal's service life by gradually cooling it to 300 degrees F, then slowly bringing it back up to room temperature, and then finally heat cycling it. Cryo-treating redistributes residual stresses throughout the rotors, making them last longer and able to take more of a beating from me. Power Slot offers this service for all of their rotors. Best of all, this semi-track setup weighs the same as the OEM ones, which means I won't be spinning around a big, heavy set of rotors on the street. After all, the 11.1-inch OEM-size rotors provide more than enough stopping power for any street situation and, with the right pads, are quite capable at the track. The Goodridge lines and a complete brake flush using fresh Honda DOT 3 fluid was all it took to firm up the brakes.