anonymousagain

Passed a very clean NSX the other day, actually would have said it was brand new it was so clean, although it still had the pop-up lights so it couldn't have been one of the last years (2004?)

Anyway, he loosly tucked in behind me through a spread out cluster of light traffic, so I figured he was sizing me up from a bit of a distance. As dusk was approaching, his lights were already up, so it was easy to keep and eye on him. As it opened up in front of me, I saw his lights drop and he quickly started to pull up on me, so I rolled it to the floor to make him work for it.

Now unfortunately, I was right around 8.0, so SATA was already into 3rd. Hindsight, I may have been able slow slightly, to allow for the final top of 2nd pull off the bat. Also should have mashed it right away, since I was now clearly playing some catch up. But he played his cards better.

So, he is still closing ever so slightly as we approach 10.0. I'm expecting he should be reeling me in more - he's much lighter with the turbos - maybe since we're already moving? IIRC, an NSX is probably around a second quicker 0-60.

I'm thinking "Hey, I'm doing pretty good. Ya ya, I'm losing, but he's only creepin' up, so at least he's getting a run for his money."

Quick check and he’s no longer closing, but in perfect tow as I’m getting into the top of 3rd. Keep holding in 3 as I move into the last 400rpm before moving to 4th and …what? I’m pulling? Yep, he’s faded a tiny bit. Still there, but he’s not keeping pace. “Don’t bounce the limiter…4th and brake tap before easing up”. Cool. I won – sorta.

Big and a smile as he drives by. Good people.

So I was surprised at the outcome. Honestly, I figured ~300hp each, but he’s got 5 or 600lbs on me, so I’ll just see how long I can hold on and how far he’ll get away. My scale would say he clearly had me to the middle of 3rd. Even if I’d have slowed to capitalize on the tail-end of 2nd, seems he would have still prevailed under 10.0. I expected that to continue up the scale, but it didn’t. I clearly had him as we increased from there upward.

Wish we had a chance to run from a lower start point, ‘cause it really is telling if someone can pull SATA through the last 2k rpm when on cams in 2nd. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty faster, they just <usually> have a tough time walking away at that power point.

End result, I’d call it 1-to-1, or maybe .5-to.5.

BC

The NSX is one of my favorites. 270hp NA V6. Should be under 3000 pounds, but I am not sure. Other than weight, kind of an even match.

Art_Z

I don't recall the NSX being turbocharged stock? Was this one modded?

Andial951

hmmmm.......what did this NSX look like?

BTW - NSX are OEM NA......no turbos.......if he was turbod it wouldnt have been much of a race

hacker-pschorr

2,950lb @ 270bhp - drag coefficient .32 (versus .38 for a pre S4, .34 87+)

Advantage = Acura

Even if HP and weight were dead even, the difference in drag is huge.

Jim bailey - 928 International

The smaller frontal area is more important than the coefficint...

Mike Frye

I heard somewhere that most cars designed for style rather than in a wind tunnel are actually more aerodynamic backward.

I think this may just be true of the 928, it's practically a teardrop that way. Maybe the rematch should be in reverse.

hacker-pschorr

Are you saying the NSX has a smaller frontal area than a 928S?

123quattro

I'd bet it's close. Neither one is big.

anonymousagain

my bad on the turbos - not very familiar with NXS specs and for some reason I was thinking turbos were stock as competition for the TT-Z's back then. Also see in Wiki that they were 270hp, not 300hp.

Actually, being NA makes more sense for fading on top, but I would have thought drag was more of a consideration, as Hacker points out.

BC

They are cammy - even with the VTECOMGZ!!!!!KILLERZ!!!!1111 cam-change-over.

He maybe had to shift into one of the "not so fun" gears.

anonymousagain

thought about that Brendan. Figured his 5 to my 4 gave him more gear choice at lower pace, but perhaps 4and5 are a bit more economy for him...although he should have been clearly into 4th.

Jim bailey - 928 International

Ok ...."I'd bet it's close. Neither one is big." How much

hacker-pschorr

Per the numbers I found the early NSX is about 1 square foot small than the 928S in frontal area. The later style NSX is a bit less.

mark kibort

define "huge"

.1 drag coefficient diff? in street form, its less than a rounding error
with wings, all the drag goes up quite a bit, but to really grab a handle on how much "drag" the effects really are. the wing can increase drag to near .45. this drag might be from 200lbs of down force at 100mph. now, do you know what the effect is on the accelerative forces???? 200lbs of downforce, comes at a cost of about 20lbs of drag (10:1 is quite an acceptable ratio)
20lbs of drag, would be, divided by 4.5:1 (i.e. 3rd gear 100mph) so, that would be 4ft-lbs of engine torque equivilant!

4ft-lbs at 100mph!! any faster, that number goes up, any slower and it goes down.

These drag coefficients are really effecting MPGs than anything on the performance side of things.

by the way, we are racing against a 700hp NSX this weeknend at sears. its a monster. the speed world challenge NSx with a blower on it, ran by PD Cunningham, ran 1:34ish at laguna seca. it was near 550hp and a little lighter than Anderson's 6.5 liter back in the day ( 2000)

mk

Mk