‘91 Formula Red - New Owner 1 Month Update

[fatalblitz]

Hello Prime,

Kevin here I’ve been meaning to introduce myself here on the forums after posting on the Prime FB group.

I’ve been casually on the hunt on and off for an NSX over the past year or so, but nothing really came to fruition until more recently. It finally took me listing my Integra type S up for sale before I came to a realization that I really wanted to get into an NSX.

It wasn’t until I came across an NSX Prime FS post to where things started becoming real. After contacting the owner and keeping in touch the next few days, I booked a flight to Chicago to meet the owner and the NSX. I could immediately tell that the owner loved the car. From the way he talked about it, to how he shared stories and the various memories and friendships made during ownership, I immediately knew that this was the car that I had to get.

He shared with me that the original owner was a gentleman named Ken Sax, which oblivious me had no idea who this person was. He asked me to ask any of my friends who has an NSX if they knew of Ken and then give him a call back. Sure enough, the few buddies of mine that did have NSX’ knew exactly who Ken was the owner kept extensive documentation on the car, from memorabilia, to service records from Ken and himself, along with a stack of NSXCA copies over the years. He even included an original, unopened copy of car and driver from 1991 when the NSX was first debuted against other competitor vehicles.

Knowing the bit of history and getting to meet Warren helped solidify my decision to purchase the vehicle. Fast forward 1 month later into ownership and it still feels surreal to finally make one of my childhood dreams come true.

My plans for the car is to do an OEM+ build, keeping most of the car in semi stock form/appearance with small changes here and there. Some of the smaller changes so far: Honda front and rear garnishes, Zanardi shift lever / Type S shift knob, Type R shift boot and ceramic tint to combat this brutal Texas heat. Volk SE37K 17/18 setup and eventually H&R lowering springs to round out the wheel gap will probably be the biggest updates.

I hope you guys enjoyed me sharing a bit of my story and I look forward to being a part of this community. Cheers!

 

[nis350]

Congrat on the beautiful car....

 

[ih8ricerz]

Congratulations! The car looks amazing

 

[docjohn]

Lol did Ken come with the car?

I would not do H&R springs, too low for the random shock like Bilstein/koni...get a prebuilt coilover like KW

 

[Mikexike]

Congrats! Looks like a great car.

 

[Wild Turkey]

Welcome to Prime! You've scored an excellent specimen.

Looking forward to hearing more from you. Not a bad idea to post your (general) location in your profile and some NSX details in your sig. It will help people answer if you post questions.

 

[fatalblitz]

Congrat on the beautiful car....

Congratulations! The car looks amazing

Thank you guys!

Lol did Ken come with the car?

I would not do H&R springs, too low for the random shock like Bilstein/koni...get a prebuilt coilover like KW

Haha unfortunately, only Ken’s essence came with the car. But I have been in contact with Ken here and there, bummer I won’t be able to meet him and others at NSXPO in Dallas.

Thanks, I might just omit the H&R and put the Bilsteins on the lower perch to get me by until I can get some KW V3s

 

[fatalblitz]

I finally found a set of KW V3s for a good price and pulled the trigger. While the car was up on jacks for the coil install, I decided to knock out some smaller maintenance items:

• Oil change
• Transmission fluid
• DDF coil guard install
• Front Brake Pads

A few weeks prior, I had both of the front wheel bearings replaced hoping to eliminate a rotational noise that the car has had since purchasing, but that didn’t get rid of the noise (my mechanic who replaced the wheel bearings was thinking it could be a shim or something from the brake pads rubbing against the wheel hub).

I was hoping that after changing the front brake pads, it would potentially eliminate the rotational noise but no dice.

Wondering if anyone could help chime in on other potential causes of noise during rotation.

• Note: The noise still persists even when the clutch pedal is pressed in
• If I’m rolling to a stop and put the car in neutral, the noise follows the wheel’s rotation and eventually goes away as the car comes to a stop)
• When in reverse, there is sort of a dragging type noise that is experienced

This week, I began to notice that my clutch pedal was getting soft and didn’t have as much “pressure’ when depressed. It isn’t getting stuck at the bottom, requiring me to pull back up with my hand. I observed something similar with my s2000, but I didn’t notice as much seepage or black gunk around the master cylinder housing underneath the clutch pedal.

From reading on Prime, I’m guessing I will be needing to replace my clutch master and slave cylinder’s soon

Hopefully by the next update, I’ll have the clutch cylinders replaced along with showcasing a few smaller exterior changes. In the meantime, hope you guys enjoy these pics of the car and hope you all had a Happy New Year

 

[Old Guy]

Have you put the car up on jack-stands and spun the wheels to listen for noises? If you have something dragging or a failing bearing you should be able to hear the noise as you rotate the wheel. At the very least, yo should be able to isolate the noise to a particular wheel.

If the wheel spinning yields naught, check the condition of the tire treads. On my 2000 I had a howl from the back end that I thought was a wheel bearing; but, the up on the jack-stand test indicated no noise. I took it into our local NSX tech who is fairly experienced and he said 'tire cupping'. The tires did not look obviously cupped to me. Certainly nothing like the images you get when you Google 'cupped tires'. However, new tires and an alignment to go with it resolved my problem.

 

[fatalblitz]

Thank you for your suggestions. When we were doing the front wheel bearing replacement, there was a slight noise that came from the rotation of the fronts so we thought that the noise for sure would’ve been isolated to the fronts

I originally thought that it could’ve been the tires before the wheel bearing replacement, since the car came with older tires up front. However, after switching to a different set of wheels/new tires, that didn’t help with the noise either unfortunately

 

[18000rpm]

Wow I remember Ken Sax from back when I got my first NSX back in 1994 lol.