My Interview With Shigeru Uehara some NSX R/S myths dispelled.

[8400RPM]

For the record though he was correct about Zanardi and Type S suspension being identical.

 

[NoelWatson]

- Is it true that 2002+ actually DO have more HP than advertised?

No, we have tested several 02+ cars in the UK

 

[Meeyatch1]

Ask about the NSX-R GT, if I remember correctly only 5 of them were made and sold to private collectors for $500k each before they we officially on sale. There is very little to no chance at all that we will ever know what the actual differences were betwen NSX-R and NSX-R GT.

I would be more curious about if those cars even exist. I find it hard to believe that they actually do since nobody has ever seen or photographed one beyond the (likely) computer generated Honda literature showing the alleged car. For 5 of those to be sold, presumably to seriously devoted and wealthy NSX collectors, after all these years at least one of them would have showed up by now, yet that has never happened.

 

[Swift]

^^ It is quite the mystery. Like the search for Atlantis or something.

 

[latzke]

As RYU and Stuntman asked: what exactly is the effect of the trunk lid spoiler on the facelifted NSX? Drag reduction, reduction of rear lift, both, or something else? All we have now is conjecture.

I thought we had more than conjecture pointing to drag reduction. Did I take speculation as fact at some point along the line?

 

[HBui39]

I thought we had more than conjecture pointing to drag reduction. Did I take speculation as fact at some point along the line?

i speculated the wing did something, others said it did not... then i found an article that stated the lift coefficients before and after the facelift supporting my speculations... and people don't want to believe those numbers for whatever reason. i don't really care, though.

if 8400RPM doesn't mind asking, then by all means.

 

[Moses]

Not every amenity.

Apparently, the NSX-R cannot be ordered with OEM Alarm, I checked. Most likely because the NSX-R doesn't come with auto door locks, as in central locking. You have to use the key, insert to driver's side key hole to unlock driver's side door, get in car, reach over to passenger's side and pull the door lock lever to let passenger in. Reverse process to lock the car, quite troublesome.

NSX-R doesn't come with the oem radio, isn't the alarm implemented into the radio?

 

[fiestycolumbian]

Very informative interview. Thanks for posting!

Glad to hear about the Type-S and Zanardi suspension.

fiesty

 

[greenberet]

I thought we had more than conjecture pointing to drag reduction. Did I take speculation as fact at some point along the line?

We have educated guesses but I don’t think we have hard data from Honda to confirm them.

On this web page, Honda discusses the aerodynamic changes made to the facelifted NSXs. Regarding the rear of the car, they say, “車体後部の乱流発生を最小限に抑えるために。ボディとスポイラー間の流速を高めるサブスポイラーをトランク上に装備。リアバンパーには、後部下面流の流速を高めるスカートを採用。" Google translates that as, “To minimize the occurrence of turbulence rear. Equipped with a spoiler on the trunk to increase the flow rate between the sub-body and spoiler. The rear bumper is adopted to increase the flow rate of the flow skirt rear underside.” So it sounds like both the trunk lid spoiler and the rear valence reduce turbulence. Consequently, both should help reduce drag. Unfortunately, Honda didn’t provide any drag reduction data for either the spoiler or the valence and a reduction of lift is not even mentioned.

On that same webpage, Honda lists the front and rear lift coefficients of the facelifted NSXs: 0.055 front and 0.020 rear, or 0.075 in total. That doesn’t tell us how the front and rear lift changed with the facelift because we don’t know what they were before. At least I have never seen any data published by Honda regarding that. What Honda has published is that the total lift (front plus rear) of the pre-facelift NSXs is 0.050 (see here or here). So the facelift seems to have increased total lift but we don’t know how it changed the front/rear balance and even less what, exactly, the trunk lid spoiler’s contribution was.

In another thread HBui39 quoted numbers from squidoo.com, where it was written that the pre-facelift NSXs have a coefficient of lift of 0.073 at the front and 0.042 at the rear, or 0.115 in total. Unfortunately, that’s very far off the lift Honda said the car has (total lift 0.050) and even if squidoo’s data were correct, there was no breakdown of what aerodynamic effect the individual facelift components (like the trunk lid spoiler) have.

I’d expect the trunk lid spoiler reduces lift and drag but as far as I know, we don’t have any hard data to prove it. I put a trunk lid spoiler on my NSX anyhow in the hopes that it reduces drag but it would be interesting what Mr. Uehara says. I do care!