The most recent engine is mated to an RSX Type S close-ratio six-speed transmission, equipped with an Exedy Stage II clutch and a factory JDM limited-slip differential. That extra gear is more than necessary as all those ponies wind fifth gear out in the blink of an eye on Virginia International Raceway's back straight. "Nobody would believe me when I said I was pushing past 145mph on the back stretch," says Wooddell. "I finally had to install a digital camera to get proof."
Sure enough, the shots show the car with another two grand left on the tachometer and the speedometer's needle already well beyond any digits that Acura deemed necessary.A HyTech exhaust header breathes into a custom three-inch exhaust (fabricated in-house) that exits via a gutted Thermal R&D muffler. A test pipe is run on track days and it sounds right at home among the other pissed-off Cessnas buzzing around the track. On the street, however, the car rattles the change in every ashtray within a four-block radius. The slippery-when-wet Type R keeps all four corners planted thanks to TEIN Flex coilovers, Suspension Techniques anti-roll bars with an Integra sub-frame brace in the rear, and a factory front and a DC sports rear tower bar.
Custom upper control arms help keep camber under control and force the for-track-use-only Hoosier radials to wear even. The DC2's dancing shoes are a set of Motegi TrakLites, which weigh a scant 10 pounds each. Wooddell rolled the rear fenders to accommodate the wider meat, but things are kept subtle on the street with a set of stock Acura six-spokes, wrapped in Kumho rubber.
"Before, our biggest problem with the car was getting it to stop," Wooddell says. Helping to bring the beast to a stop time after time are vented rotors in the rear and directionally vented rotors in the front, with custom aluminum hats on all four corners. The car currently runs Carbotech XP12 pads on the front, rated for a 3500-pound vehicle, on a car that weighs 1000 pounds less. The aggressive pads shred through whatever rotors Wooddell can throw at them within a couple of hard laps, but the stopping power has improved dramatically.
The Type R's interior holds a Sparco harness bar and Sparco seats, with a set of G-Force harnesses to keep the driver in one place from apex to apex. Auto Meter boost and oil pressure gauges inform him just how close he is to oblivion, while a custom sub enclosure in the rear keeps the 10-inch speaker from bouncing off anyone's head on the way there.
Wooddell claims his time poking at the Type R has almost come to a close, as any more power would demand a big brake kit, larger wheels, and a whole mess of parts he feels might pull the car too far from its stock look. Even so, a set of IPS camshafts wait on the shelf.
"Probably the wildest thing we've ever done was put a nitrous system on a vehicle that already had a supercharger," Wooddell says. "It worked for a little while."
When they aren't detonating supercharged Civics with laughing gas or working on another customer's ride, these guys are looking for new ways to get that last bit of performance. Their next target is an all-black Honda S2000 that looks strangely innocent, sitting among all the far-from-stock cars in Wooddell's playground. Can these guys make what many call an un-tunable roadster even better? If this Type R is any indication, one subtle but potent S2K will be prowling the streets of Yorktown and the raceways of Virginia very soon. n