The 2002 Acura RSX Type S pictured was a reward to myself for a work promotion in 2002 that meant a longer commute up and down 95. The mods started a year later. It started with a list called “fixing the issues”, then it became a show car, then I went auto-crossing and changed the direction of the build. After 139,000 miles it has ended up being a full on road course regular track day attending but still clean enough to go to meets and shows type car.
It is difficult to balance the very different needs of shows and track days. With the popularity of track themed builds these days the parts that work for the track now work for the meets and shows as well. Well, except for the hellaflush and way too low scene. My first track day at Summit Point, West Virginia taught me all I needed to know about the loss of car control with over-lowered cars and the value of high dollar parts. I dropped a rear wheel off the road and hit the flat face of the curbing just after a pass. With no suspension travel available for such a large impact the car practically lifted off the ground and spun me to the other side of the track and off into the grass only feet from a concrete wall. My Michelin tire was fine, my Mugen GP wheels wasn’t bent, my Mugen side skirt was gouged underneath but did not break, and my Mugen exhaust bent but did not crack. Solid parts saved the day and allowed me to finish my track day, vowing to raise my car back up to functional height. I haven’t looked back since.
Only the best parts were used in the build and many are the same parts throughout the ten year build. Buy it right and buy it once while hanging around the show kids long enough to buy their used parts when they get dirty. Most of the interior has been converted to JDM Type R with the blue Recaros, blue carpet, blue door panels, shift knob, and pedals replacing the stock parts.
The bolt in roll bar is from Autopower and has been powder coated blue. A Type R donated it’s cluster so I could steal the tachometer and mate it to my Type S cluster, higher redline and still reads in miles per hour! While the hatch used to have a flush sub and amp set up, it now packs nothing but fresh paint, Mugen and Spoon chassis bars, and a full size Mugen GP spare. A filler panel fills the hole where the Eclipse DVD/NAV used to reside. The exterior is Type R headlights (that aim the wrong way), Type R front lip, Type R rear bumper and lip, Mugen side skirts and rear filler plate, an 05 Type S decklid spoiler, Buddy Club vented hood, and the roof was painted black. The suspension is Tein SS-P coilovers with Type R aluminum control arms and front and rear sway bars, and Hardrace rear lower control arms.
The engine has Type R cams, uprated S2000 valve spring combo recommended by IPS, an RRC intake manifold, Hybrid Racing 70mm throttle body, a Mugen header, cat, and twin loop exhaust, Hondata gasket, and DC Sports CAI. Mugen motor mounts along with a Hasport rear mount hold it all in place. Tuned with Hondata’s K Pro the car made over 230 whp and 160 ft lbs of torque on Adrenaline Auto’s dyno in Richmond VA and needs to be tested there again with the latest round of upgrades. Stoptech’s awesome big brake kit with Ferodo DS2500 pads and ATE super blue fluid takes car of stopping the car from 120 mph over and over again down the straights of VIR. The transmission is helped out with an Exedy stage one clutch, Type R flywheel, a Type R 4.76 final drive, Wavetrac limited slip differential, and Synchrotech carbon coated synchros installed by Kmod Racing. Hybrid Racing shift bushings help keep the shifts accurate. Dressing up the bay a bit comes courtesy of the Downstar Inc. tucked clutch line, Hybrid radiator hoses, Mugen spark plug cover, oil cap, and radiator cap, powdercoated valve cover, and Raychem wrapped tucked wiring harness by Wire-Worx! The Odyssey battery resides behind the driver seat and the fuse box was relocated behind the bumper. I have gone through some wheels with 18″ SSR comps painted gold, 17″ 05 Type S wheels, 17″ 04 TSX wheels, and finally my current 18″ Mugen GPs. I have my eye on another set of SSRs or maybe even some Volks to really achieve wheel whore status.
Currently, I am piecing together the electric power steering set up from the Civic EP3, looking into tucking the ABS into the hood cowl, and am working with a guy in Canada to source the base model roof skin to delete the sunroof and shed even more weight. The car last weighed 2580 lbs, a loss of 200 lbs, and has had a lot of stuff removed since then. I have also moved up to the track day group that allows R compound tires, so I’m looking into that as well. Those are the last big projects for the car. The rest of the time will be spent attending more track days while learning all that I can in hopes of moving up to the advanced group and maybe getting into time trial events like Time Attack
I’d like to thank Hybrid Racing for the great parts and feature, Trackdaze.com for putting on great track events, Mark Brauning at Brauning Motorsports for the K Pro help, and fun times at the shop, Steve for getting me on board at K-series.com, Chris Dye at ClubRSX for many, many shopping trips and keeping K-series.com alive, Scott Zellner at King Motorsports for the hospitality and letting me loose in that awesome shop, Jeremy at Inline Pro for all the great info and letting me take all those leftover jdm parts off your hands, Jon Savage for some great installs and tunes, Marquis at Kmod for the trans work, and all the guys who wrecked their cars or got out of the game for selling me your parts!
If you would like to have your car considered for Feature Car Friday and a chance to win free HR SWAG drop an email with a few pics of you car to tim@hybrid-racing.com with FEATURE CAR FRIDAY in the title. If your car is selected we will shower you with Awesome Sauce and other Awesomeness.
Check out other Feature Car Friday Winners!