NSX Tuning

"Do you think I'm NSXy?"

The NSX was Hondas attempt to show the world it could challenge the likes of Ferrari with a serious supercar contender combined to with legendary Honda reliability!

The NSX was tuned and setup under the watchful eye of a premier F1 racing driver ensuring you get a reliable and fun to drive Supercar.

These distinctive cars make their presence felt on the road with their low steeply raked bonnet and the stylish rear wing. The challenge here for us is to actually improve on perfection. Honda showed the potential of what can be done when they released the Type R NSX. 

Firstly TorqueCars suggest that you uprate the suspension and lower the car by 15-20mm and create a firmer ride. We note that larger drops tend to compromise the ride quality and handling balance.

Fitting a front and rear "brace" and fitting stiffer spring and sway to the front will keep the rear tyres firmly planted under heavy cornering. This tactic was applied by Honda when designing the NSX-R to good effect.

Turning our attention to the NSXs engine we need to get a bit more power out of the bottom end as the engines, like in most Honda's need to be revved hard.

Honda NSX Tuning modifications.

This list of the stages and mods that are usually performed by our members, decide how far you want to go before you start.

Getting the best mods for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 (competition) mods just don't work well on the road hard to control in slow traffic.

• Stage 1 mods: Sports exhaust,Panel air filter,Alloy wheels,Remap,Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm),Lighter flywheel.
• Stage 2 mods: Ported and polished head,Fuel injector & fuel pump upgrades,Fast road cam,Power clutch,.
• Stage 3 mods: Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger),Sports gearbox,Engine balancing,Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves),Competition cam.

One of the best mechanical mods you can do to the NSX engine after getting the head flowed and ported is to fit a fast road cam. Don't forget to uprate the fuelling when you are increasing the power - the power gains make the car more thirsty.

Change the engine mapping to gain another 10% performance from your modifications.

These engines are already in a good state of tune and while not impossible it takes a lot of effort and money to improve the internal components and design of the engine.

Uprated injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine. When increasing your fuelling you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it although there is some scope in the OEM NSX fuel pumps to push out more power.

Honda NSX-R, Mugen tuned and NSX Super GT models show the route to take with engine mods. Larger capacity engines of 3.2 litres were introduced later, components were all balanced and the cars under went a weight reduction programme.

Honda NSX Intake and Exhaust.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Air induction kits are only beneficial to boost performance if your cars air intake is struggling!

Adding an induction kit to most standard engines will see NO POWER GAIN AT ALL. If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.  On heavily tuned engines and turbo vehicles an induction kit will help release the power providing you address the problem of needing cold air.

Sports exhausts can usually air flow out of the engine but do not go too large or you may end up will reduce the flow rate. Stick to 1.5 to 2.5 inches as a rule of thumb.

But if your NSX's exhaust is too large (over 3.5 inches total bore size) you will generally compromise the performance. The catalyst can be improved, so fit a sports catalyst to improve the top end power and throttle response. Decat pipes are illegal in most countries but make a simple upgrade option for off road only use.

A good fast road power clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never skimp or expect a standard clutch to cope when you have tuned the engine. If the high compression ratio is causing detonation you should add a water injection kit to control knock in addition to running a higher octane fuel.

Honda NSX Wheel modifications.

Because alloys are less heavy they improve performance and they help to cool the brake disks. Large NSX alloy wheels can decrease performance. If you get big alloy wheels you will be changing your final drive ratio. Due to this aim to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the same as supplied from the factory. In all cases without going above the OEM tyre sizes.

Please join us in our forum to discuss the NSX options in more detail with our NSX owners. It would also be worth reading our Honda tuning articles to get a full grasp of the pros and cons of each type of modification.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Honda. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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