Whenever we start putting together a feature story, one of the first things we ask the owner is what other cars they’ve owned and modified. With some owners, the list is short, either because they’re young and relatively new to the hobby or they’re simply the “slow and steady wins the race” type and have been building the same car for many years.
Others, like Dennis Meriel, the owner of this spotless Formula Red ’93 Acura NSX, have a tendency to roll through a long list of cars as they search for their automotive soul mate. For Dennis, this meant starting with a ’94 EG hatchback with a B-series swap some 10-plus years ago, followed by a ’03 EVO VIII, a ’06 Civic Si coupe, a ’07 Civic Si sedan, an old school ’79 Celica GT liftback, a ’98 240SX with the obligatory SR20 swap, and his current daily driver, a ’08 BMW 335 sedan. But for Dennis, none has the timeless appeal of his beloved NSX, a machine he’s likely to keep for a very long time.
“After owning various vehicles, I was on a mission to search for that one vehicle that would take things to the next level,” Dennis says. “I wanted a vehicle that was rare, fun to drive and supported by the aftermarket. I wanted a vehicle that had exotic looks but the reliability of a Honda, so the NSX was a natural choice. I turned to an NSX forum for advice and suggestions, where I learned that modifying and maintaining one was not going to cheap or easy.”
But as an experienced tuner, Dennis wasn’t discouraged by the challenges NSX ownership might present, so in the summer of 2006 he started his search. It took a lot of scouring of the Internet, classified ads and dealership lots to finally find his dream machine, but his patience paid off when he came across this ’93 NA1 with just 56K miles on it. According to Dennis, “The car was in Illinois, but with my family still residing there, I was able to have my dad take a look at it firsthand. It had just arrived at a local exotic car dealership and already had several people inquiring about it. I knew that if I didn’t act fast, it would be sold. After negotiating throughout the day, I worked out the details and by the end of the day she was mine. I then had the vehicle shipped to my place in Texas and it was delivered a week later, though it felt like months to me. Like any true enthusiast, I immediately started planning and searching for performance parts for the NSX.”
The first modifications Dennis made to his Japanese exotic were suspension and wheels. TEIN RE coilovers with an EDFC controller custom-mounted on the center console got the party started, and a very sexy set of matte-black Advan RS-D wheels over Spoon monoblock calipers heated the build up further. After that, Dennis turned his attention to the standard bolt-on power-adders, opting for a Taitec exhaust and its beyond-sexy soundtrack, a Downforce ram air intake and Comptech headers.
Messing with the lines of a car as perfectly formed as the NSX is always a risk, but Dennis found a killer combination that maintains his Acura’s classic lines while giving it a little extra punch. The Do Luck bodykit, which took about six months to arrive from Japan, includes a front bumper with a beautifully integrated carbon-Kevlar splitter and subtly shaped side skirts. Rather than doing anything too crazy out back, Dennis simply updated things with a ’02 OEM rear valence. Add to that some subtle carbon-fiber trim pieces on the A- and B-pillars as well as the trunk lid, and the overall effect is an NSX that looks so right you’d almost think it came from the factory this way.