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Which performance parts are the best bang for the buck?
- Thread starter nb0
- Start date
- Joined
- 19 February 2007
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- 71
For horsepower, I would say turbo kit.
However, the next person will undoubtedly say "driving school", which I happen to think is the best upgrade for the $$.
However, the next person will undoubtedly say "driving school", which I happen to think is the best upgrade for the $$.
Good advice on this thread so far, in terms of power gain per dollar forced induction, either via a turbo kit or supercharger, such as the CTSC, offers the best 'bang for the buck', but it is a fair amount of bang, for a fair amount of buck. If you're looking for a happy medium, that will produce a noticable advantage, there are several directions to go in.
For 1991-1996 nsx the best NA modification will be the replacement of your OEM headers, this has been found to produce anywhere from 15-25rwhp gain.
I have found lightweight wheels are a night and day difference in handling and performance, these are highly recommended, and provide an aesthetic benefit as well. The OEM 17/17 combination on 2002+ nsx is a good choice, is produced by BBS, and is light and strong (although it will require a small front spacer on earlier cars).
Depending on the year of your car, replacing your dampers with either an OEM replacement shock, a bilstein, or some sort of aftermarket suspension setup will produce a noticeable benefit in terms of handling. Most of the early nsx's are badly in need of suspension service, installing something aftermarket, such as bilstein dampers, allows you to lower the ride height of the car, while restoring its factory performance level.
Finally, an exhaust system, such as a Sorcery GT or Taitec GTLW, will produce a much better-sounding nsx, will free up a huge amount of weight from the car, and can produce significant power gains.
If you perform all of these modifications, as many nsx owners often end up doing, you will trim your nsx's weight by around 30-40lbs, you will restore its handling, give it a sportier sound, lower its ride height, and freshen up the wheels - a dramatic series of improvements for a stock nsx.
Good luck
For 1991-1996 nsx the best NA modification will be the replacement of your OEM headers, this has been found to produce anywhere from 15-25rwhp gain.
I have found lightweight wheels are a night and day difference in handling and performance, these are highly recommended, and provide an aesthetic benefit as well. The OEM 17/17 combination on 2002+ nsx is a good choice, is produced by BBS, and is light and strong (although it will require a small front spacer on earlier cars).
Depending on the year of your car, replacing your dampers with either an OEM replacement shock, a bilstein, or some sort of aftermarket suspension setup will produce a noticeable benefit in terms of handling. Most of the early nsx's are badly in need of suspension service, installing something aftermarket, such as bilstein dampers, allows you to lower the ride height of the car, while restoring its factory performance level.
Finally, an exhaust system, such as a Sorcery GT or Taitec GTLW, will produce a much better-sounding nsx, will free up a huge amount of weight from the car, and can produce significant power gains.
If you perform all of these modifications, as many nsx owners often end up doing, you will trim your nsx's weight by around 30-40lbs, you will restore its handling, give it a sportier sound, lower its ride height, and freshen up the wheels - a dramatic series of improvements for a stock nsx.
Good luck
NSX-R chassis bars and sway bars. It's an inexpensive performance upgrade, and you'll feel the improvement every day, from going around corners to changing lanes. Choosing which sway bars to go with is a personal choice, dependent on the type of driving you do most. However, every NSX will benefit from the NSX-R chassis bars - especially NSX-T's. You can't go wrong.
Improve the driver is the best bang for the buck.It lets you use more of the performance the car already have. The improved driver can retain the skill and not have to remove it when they sell the car. IMO, It is the weakest link including myself. :redface:
I would say Short gears.
Wow, one of the BEST nuggets of advice that I have read on 'prime! I was considering doing headers next year, but coincidently, a friend just told me that I should go to performance school and really learn how to use the car to its full potential in stock form - before going crazy with mods.
I'll try a site search on the subject, meanwhile, does anyone have a course recommendation?
Headers, exhaust then short gears/rear end.
Steven,
I went with an NSX-R front sway bar, Zanardi rear. I'm happy with the result. I remember seeing your car for sale (great purchase btw), and it already looked lowered. If you haven't yet added the NSX-R chassis bars, I'd highly recommend you do so. You can also change out the front sway bar for the NSX-R sway bar and leave your stock rear bar, as the '02+ NSX's have stiffer rear sways over earlier models: http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76599&highlight=zanardi+rear+sway+bar
Mike
Thanks Mike I know it was a smart purchase on my part and I LOVE the car. I noticed some issues with regards to cornering and found your post pricked my curiousity. My car may have been lowered (not sure) or it may just be the low profiles of the tires and wheels combined. Who did the work for you and where did you buy the parts? Did you see an improvement in cornering?
If the goal is cost effective mods this is truly the most accurate. It's free!
OTT, I think Dave's short shift block is one of the most cost-effective. $60 and what a difference!
Next I'd say some reasonably priced coilovers would be a great cost-effective mod along with the Type-R sway and chassis bars. I would guess a bone-stock motor NSX with a Type-R suspension is going to be faster than a CTSC NSX with OEM suspension. Also, the proper tires can be a great, cost-effective mod seeing as how there are many tires that outperform the OEM tires and are cheaper.
I would not classify bolt-ons or even FI as cost-effective however...
With driving schools I shaved 18 seconds off my lap times in the past 9 years. No bolt-on part will do that. 2:57 down to a 2:39 lap time. stock motor stock brakes.
Buy some good pads, Motul 600 fluid, and some HPDE's.
Buy some good pads, Motul 600 fluid, and some HPDE's.
If you want to improve your driving skills, I highly recommend a performance drivers school, also known as HPDE (high performance driver education).
You will need to choose a school first, and then see which track(s) near you they hold schools at. Skip Barber is a popular program, but is very expensive. Nationwide groups holding good HPDE programs which are more reasonably priced include Chin Motorsports, BMW CCA (which doesn't require that you own or drive a BMW), and NASA. And, of course, the excellent program held by the NSX Club of America as part of its NSXPO annual event.
When you choose a track, ask around to see which tracks are more novice-friendly, with lots of runoff room and not a lot of armco or concrete. I'm not familiar with the tracks closest to Memphis, but I can tell you that Gateway (near St Louis) has a lot of concrete, whereas Putnam Park (southwest of Indianapolis) is novice-friendly. I instruct at Putnam Park at the drivers school the third weekend of April every year, held by the Hoosier Chapter BMW CCA.
Steven,
You can order the NSX-R chassis bars from Dali Racing or Science of Speed. They're a little cheaper from Dali, but I would recommend ordering COD (especially if you are out of state) as there are many who report that they've paid for parts that were not delivered (see Buyer Feedback forum). In SoCal, we're lucky enough to have a handful of knowledgeable shops to work on our cars. I had mine done at Niguel Motors - Ramon is able to use his little hands to get the bars on without bumper removal. I had them installed along with my NSX-R front sway bar, and the improvement was immediately noticeable. Turn-in seems sharper and body roll is drastically reduced.
Here's the ad for your car for sale from two owners back: http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65189. It states that the car has a full Comptech suspension. This could include aftermarket springs/shocks (or Comptech/Koni coil-overs), adjustable sway bars, solid toe-link kit (like these), and noncompliance beam (like this). I'd get under there and take a good look. I suspect that all you'll have left to do is to install the NSX-R chassis bars to reduce cowl shake on your NSX-T - other NSXers report that the improvement is dramatic, especially with the top off.
As far as the issues that you are having with cornering, I'd check the alignment first and then the wheels/tires. I'd also consider a set of lightweight wheels (3 piece OZ's are heavy), such as white OEM wheels, since your top is already painted black. The car will be faster, handle better, and look like this:
And then sell me the car...
Mike
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Chris from SoS and I will be going to Bondurant to take the Grand Prix Road Racing course in late January. You should roll.
www.bondurant.com/courses/courses.php#racing
+1
Very wise of you EIFFEL...:smile:
Very true. I can gaurntee that any part you buy regardless of your talent will maybe give you a couple seconds faster, a turbo/supercharger, maybe a handful, but a driving school will do WAY more than that, you can transfer it to anything you drive, you're safer, and you'll have more fun.
Bondurant is good, I learned from Skip Barber, and keep in mind many club/regional 'instructors' claim to fame is taking classes from schools like Skip Barber. I've been to many events and you quite often get what you pay for. Not saying that you can't find a good instructor or class to take, and not saying that you wont benefit from those classes, but i'd recommend saving for SB than doing a few classes elsewhere.
Just my $0.02
Jetpilot3 said:
I would not classify any of those mods as being generally cost-effective. Putting money into anything to do with the NSX drivetrain be it bolt-on or FI/stoker is an extremely poor value, especially when compared to other cars. Squeezing more hp out of the NSX and/or modifying the tranny is expensive and yields far less "speed" than modifying the suspension, weight reduction, tires, brakes and driver skill ever will.
I know I might get some heat and I don't mean to be rough by attacking your attitude but I think this thread began more as "what mods are the best bangs for the buck" or a mod comparison, if you will, as opposed to your post which is essentially "what is the best bang for the buck X mod." :wink:
I certainly would not recommend pursuing headers or any NSX drivetrain mod for that matter if "bang-for-the-buck" is what you're looking for. The NSX is not a Supra. If you don't have the money to purchase good quality parts don't purchase them at all. Poor quality, cheap parts--especially headers--will cause you more problems than they're worth starting with fitment, then lifespan. And if you live in CA you've got CARB legality to worry about. The DC & CT headers are the only ones that come to mind that are CARB legal although there might be one or two more than are.
You can get away with a little bit more "price flexibility" with an exhaust but you might still encounter fitment issues with cheaper varieties. The cheapest exhausts I would recommend are the ARK or the Dali Wishuponastar. Anything cheaper and less known is bound to cause problems.
As far as tranny mods, I would not put anything in my manual NSX tranny not made by Honda with the exception of OS Giken. There is no "bang-for-the-buck" route here--please don't experiment with anything not OEM or JDM. Stick to the Honda JDM shorties and the NSX-R final drive, both of which cost around $750. The OS Giken costs over $2,000.
Just as a final comparison the NSX clocks in somewhere around $100/1hp where the Supra comes in at around $15-20/1hp. The bottom line is that you've got to pay to play with the NSX. If you're attitude is bang-for-the-buck the NSX is not the car for you. It's relatively expensive to extract any additional performance out of the NSX especially in the hp department.
It all depends on what you are after. Do you want to improve your 0-60 time? OR lap time?
I think if you have a NA1 car you can't go wrong with headers, it is a bolt on 12 hp gain. It is definately noticable. I personally would only run either DC Sports or Comptech due to emissions. Expect to spend between $1000 and $1600 plus $300-$400 for install. I recommend installing new 02 sensors at that time which is another $150 for NA1 cars.
I am more concerned with long term reliability, so I don't mess around with ECU chips or intakes. I run the stock airbox and paper filter.
In the suspension area there are a myriad of choices...depending on whether you want street performance or plan on going to the track.
Have fun and get ready to break out your wallet...:smile:
I think if you have a NA1 car you can't go wrong with headers, it is a bolt on 12 hp gain. It is definately noticable. I personally would only run either DC Sports or Comptech due to emissions. Expect to spend between $1000 and $1600 plus $300-$400 for install. I recommend installing new 02 sensors at that time which is another $150 for NA1 cars.
I am more concerned with long term reliability, so I don't mess around with ECU chips or intakes. I run the stock airbox and paper filter.
In the suspension area there are a myriad of choices...depending on whether you want street performance or plan on going to the track.
Have fun and get ready to break out your wallet...:smile:
