The reasoning behind this duel was simple: I wanted more Hondas in the fleet. Since Project EG was finished a long time ago and Project S2000 came and went all too quickly, I've been looking for a little more variety. Sourcing the cars was simple, Andy Hope loves his newly purchased 1988 Civic and Jay Chen just took advantage of the used car market by picking up a now-affordable first-gen Acura NSX. A lot has changed in the aftermarket since these cars first debuted and many innovative products have since been released in support. So it made perfect sense to introduce two new Hondas to the project car fleet.
Beyond the tech analysis and build-up, though, how could we make these two truly interesting, something that would really raise the stakes? There was an obvious answer: a death match had to take place. Each project would be left in the care of its owner and they would go head-to-head to see who could develop the more reliable, faster, cheaper, powerful, better-looking, and easier-to-live-with project car. To add a little more spice, Hope and Chen will also battle to see who would be the first to clinch a randomly selected lap time at Buttonwillow Raceway. Nothing wrong with ambitious projects, right? Let the games begin. -JL
Project NSX
Just as I was wrapping up the paperwork and about to start licking the financial wounds from purchasing an NSX, Editor Leh hatched the hair-brained idea of having a project car face-off between Hope's daily driver, a 1988 Civic Something (who cares what model it is?) and my NSX. At the end of our so-called simultaneous build-up, we'd have a shootout at Buttonwillow Raceway. Naturally, this is a contest of speed geared for the underdog Civic in terms of money, feasibility and practicality.
At the outset, I thought I'd be getting the spanking of a lifetime from a Civic. Outside of the obvious difference in sex appeal and power, old stripped-down Civics can be very fast with the right parts. A Civic can easily get under the 2000-pound weight mark, while a NSX Type-R struggles to reach 2700 pounds. And any idiot with a few bucks can make a base-model Civic faster than an NSX. NSXs are more like Ferraris, where a couple thousand dollars spent on an exhaust will only make 3hp over the already well-designed and non-mass-produced factory part.
This particular beat-up example of a 1991 NSX (which is all I could afford), still costs twice more than the Civic cost new 16 years after the fact, even with inflation factored in. A new set of NSX windshield wipers (which can't be found in a junkyard) will cost more than a complete set of replacement Civic body panels. Add in Hope's grassroots racing past and pimp-look fanaticism, and Project Civic will probably end up as a caged and gutted racecar with a stereo and some JDM nostalgia parts. Hope has the winning equation and I couldn't care less.
That is, until we started our little contest by measuring some baseline numbers. We decided to compare the cars as they sat after purchase. The problem was, both were in such sad shape, going to the track to get performance numbers would be pointless and almost dangerous.
Instead, we measured what we could without risking lives and cars. I proposed the logical tests: scales, to get the starting weight of each car with a full tank of gas, and dyno. The Civic was significantly lighter, but the NSX still weighed under 3000 pounds-about the weight of a modern, entry-level commuter car. The almost 800-pound difference was offset by the laughable power difference shown by the dyno. The look on Hope's face was priceless as his car made a first pull to the tune of 82 wheel-hp, right after the NSX's 255 wheel-hp. Suddenly, the on-track odds didn't look so bad.