There isn’t much to be done to an NSX when it comes to making it handle better. More times than not, most changes made aren’t improvements at all. Even slight changes in wheel and tire sizing might drastically change the car’s limit-handling character.
Coilovers
We originally wanted to use the KW V3 coilover kit on our NSX project. The V3 is a true street coilover which uses a stainless steel shock body, appropriately soft spring rates and stroke lengths, and is designed to be used with the original factory upper mount. The reason for the stock upper mounts is the stringent safety standards implemented by the German TUV regulations, which has now been adopted by most EU countries. Since all road-going vehicles in Germany have a regular safety inspection, in addition to smog testing, all aftermarket parts used on these vehicles must also be TUV approved. This is why KW designs its V3 kits to be used with OEM upper mounts and non-adjustable shock body lengths. Having non-adjustable body lengths is also KW’s way of guaranteeing that cars are not lowered past TUV maximum safety camber limits (when the vehicle is at fully loaded weight) or slammed to the point where tires can potentially contact the chassis. All these anal safety measures make sense when you remember that KW customers typically commute at more than 100 mph on the autobahn.
Final evaluation and validation...
Final evaluation and validation on the Nürburgring.
Unfortunately, the need to change suspension becomes unavoidable as the car gets older. At 18 years old, our suspension was due for an overhaul. With OEM NSX parts costing a fortune, you’re better off looking for a higher-quality, less mass-produced suspension in the aftermarket. Fortunately, the NSX market isn’t flooded with cheap imitation suspension brands. Only the best brands and manufacturers like TEIN, JRZ, MOTON, Penske and a few other private labels bother making products for the NSX. But we wanted to be different. So we made a phone call to KW Suspensions’ head honcho, Klaus Wohlfarth, to see if the company was interested in building a KW coilover kit for the NSX. It was a longshot, but Klaus immediately agreed and put the plan into motion.
A couple months later, I got an email invitation to Germany. In a matter of months, Klaus had scoured all of Europe and dug up two NSXs (including a JDM Type-R race car) for development cars and wanted me to be there to witness the final development process and testing of the two cars at the Nürburgring. While the weather didn’t work out and the rained-out track didn’t provide accurate back-to-back lap times, we did get to see the entire KW operation and how the company developed a suspension kit from initial measurement, to damping testing on its seven-post suspension shaker machine (bought from the BAR Honda F1 team), to final track testing.
But we got greedy, and in anticipation of some minor track testing in the future, we convinced the KW guys to upgrade from the V3 to the Clubsport kit that’s intended for weekend warriors. (We tried for their full race three-way-adjustable, external reservoir, monotube setup, but were turned down by their very sensible German logic.) The Clubsport is, like the V3, a low-speed rebound and compression damping adjustable coilover built around the same architecture. The only difference in this case is a shorter body length to accommodate the KW pillowball upper mounts and higher spring and damping rates for the shorter stroke. If you’re not planning to track your NSX, don’t be greedy and stick with the V3s.