Every once in a while I get to drive a car for this column that really is more about the intrinsic feel and sense of the machine as opposed to the parts list and the numbers. Sure, it makes sense that looking at what a car has slapped on it can give you an idea of what the performance numbers should be and can even give you a vague sense of what the car might be like from behind the wheel. But then there are those rare cars where the mods, the performance numbers and what we perceive to be the potential are overshadowed by the sheer thrill and visceral enjoyment of the driving experience-the sounds, the senses, the smells-and the fact that such cars can make a 5-foot, 4-inch driver who looks like Chim Chim feel like a 6-foot bronze Adonis. For this month's column, I drove just such a car and it came in the form of a '92 Honda NSX, supercharged and otherwise perfectly enhanced by ScienceofSpeed in Tempe, Arizona
Although I had previously driven some of ScienceofSpeed's work and have even done a couple write-ups on the company's machines, this particular car was something different. Although primarily street-driven and used as a rolling showcase for all that is technically good about the work that SOS does, Chris Wilson, the company's general manager, saw fit to enter the car into the '09 Modified Tuner Shootout, which you can read about in next month's issue. I was eventually able to convince Mr. Wilson to bring the Honda out for me to shakedown for the mag. As always, he was very accommodating, and I must admit that I was more eager to drive this particular car than many of the machines I've been lucky enough to flog
In terms of visceral appeal, perhaps it is best to start with the visual impact of the pristine championship white NSX as it strolled casually down the Bondurant School driveway on a cool April morning ready for our shakedown. The NSX body has always been a favorite of mine, with its egg-shaped cockpit/engine glass encapsulation that sits so perfectly above the car's straight-edged and flat-lined main bulk. The NSX, in each of its various iterations, is futuristic, precise and elegant in its sight lines, exhibiting a delicate balance of purpose and beauty. The SOS team took that balance further toward the purposeful side of the scale by widening the body with a Cantrell Studios carbon-fiber/epoxy/nomex honeycomb mix bodykit and updating the headlight assembly (doing away with old pop-up-style lights). A Downforce NSX-R hood replaced the stock panel and an SOS rear downforce undertray (diffuser) and radiator duct were worked into the body lines. An exquisitely crafted carbon-fiber GruppeM Mugen spoiler finished off the body mods and resulted in a car that looked simply bad-ass.
Aesthetics are only part of the game, however, and SOS went the full mile with the '92 Honda, having worked hard to make the car perform even better than it's visually presented. Although my previous tour in an SOS NSX came from a spunky normally aspirated powerplant, this ride was running 10.2 psi of boost from an SOS supercharger system into an SOS-prepared 3.3-liter engine with Cantrell Concept headers. With a stellar AEM engine management system, the blown Honda put down a very respectable 460 whp with a flat, linear torque curve and a wide, flexible powerband. To maintain the reliability that is such a staple part of all things Honda, and in the face of such lofty power figures, an Accusump was used along with an SOS oil cooler and baffled oil pan. The pan alone would've been worth the expense, as the SOS car cornered at what felt to be well beyond 1 g of lateral acceleration. Certainly a stock pan would potentially allow the oil to pool away from the pickup under maximum cornering load, thus scratching one perfectly good Honda engine due to oil starvation