Supercharged vs. N/A + short gears, 4.23 FD

[L_RAO]

I just wanted to get some users' input with regards to a CTSC setup vs. an N/A setup with the 4.23 F/D & short gears.

I am finding a lot of NSXs for sale with the CTSC already installed.

I think I would prefer a N/A setup with short gears, but without having driven a SC'd NSX, I may be selling myself short.

Thoughts?

 

[BATMANs]

Forget the CTSC.

Go right to Turbo'd setup or if it's in california, SOS SC.

 

[tbromley]

It's really hard to say how a cars been driven that already has an SC on it. That's the only kind of car that I've ever heard of blowing an engine. What does that tell you. Really have to be careful in my opinion.

 

[Brylek]

I just wanted to get some users' input with regards to a CTSC setup vs. an N/A setup with the 4.23 F/D & short gears.

I am finding a lot of NSXs for sale with the CTSC already installed.

I think I would prefer a N/A setup with short gears, but without having driven a SC'd NSX, I may be selling myself short.

Thoughts?

The CTSC'd car will be way faster, why not do both?

The 2.23 FD is a cool thing to have when running a CTSC. If you had turbo you would propably want to have longer gears but if you will be running a CTSC you want to build your tranny just as if you were NA.

Good luck!

 

[NSXAMG996TT]

I have the JDM short gears and 4.55 R&P. Car revs up real fast for a NA car. But I'd rather take a CTSC or turbo anyday.

 

[Brylek]

I might be wrong but I heard that JDM gears have better acceleration when in 1st and 2nd but worst when in 3rd and 4th, USDM gears are the oposite. The US cars have better top end, the JDM cars are faster from a dead stop to around 60mph.

Please correct me if i'm wrong.

 

[Jack Sparrow]

I might be wrong but I heard that JDM gears have better acceleration when in 1st and 2nd but worst when in 3rd and 4th, USDM gears are the oposite. The US cars have better top end, the JDM cars are faster from a dead stop to around 60mph.

Please correct me if i'm wrong.

That was my understanding of it as well. The JDM gears are faster to 70 and the US gears are faster past 70.

 

[otto_joe]

I had short gears installed on my 1st NSX and loved it. On my 2nd NSX I decided that since I tried out the short gears before I should try the CTSC route. IMHO, you get a lot more fun out of the short gears around town because in order for the CTSC to hit its stride you'll be going illegal speeds. So... when it comes time for me to do the clutch, I'll most likely be going to the short gears again. :biggrin:

 

[Hapa88]

Forget the CTSC.

Go right to Turbo'd setup or if it's in california, SOS SC.

Has anyone in California passed smog with the SOS SC? I'm very very curious . .


Technically speaking the SOS SC isn't CARB certified/approved. I imagine that it could/should still pass CA smog if:
1) it's properly tuned
2) still running the OEM cats
3) use the Comptech CARB number and hope they just don't know (most likely they won't)

 

[BATMANs]

Has anyone in California passed smog with the SOS SC? I'm very very curious . .


Technically speaking the SOS SC isn't CARB certified/approved. I imagine that it could/should still pass CA smog if:
1) it's properly tuned
2) still running the OEM cats
3) use the Comptech CARB number and hope they just don't know (most likely they won't)

I'll let you know if my registration with coming up in a couple of months requires a smog test.

I don't smell anything different and one can always tune to pass the sniffer. Of course my cats have 105k+ miles on them, so they may not pass smog by themselves.

I have the CTSC CARB EO sticker with the number. No smog technician will break out a ruler to mesaure if the SOS SC is a larger size (unless he's a virgin trekky)

 

[NetViper]

I had short gears and 4.55 and the CTSC is much faster and more fun. I didn't like how high the car rev'd on the highway at 80MPH.

 

[Chris NSX]

I have 6 speed, 4.23 FD and CTSC and I go through the gears very fast. CTSC is faster than Short gears and 4.23. Short gears with 4.23 is a lot of fun to drive.

 

[VegasSpeed]

The short gears and 4.23 FD ratio is great for the track on a budget. It depends what you are looking for. If you have a NA1 car I would say going to some type of forced induction will be the way to go since the car is kind of slow out of the gates. The NA2 has the 6 speed plus the 3.2L motor. The shorter gearing of the 6 speed is nice to have I say. That shift from 1st to Second is not the greatest.

What makes our 5 speed transmissions suck to me is that once you shift out of 1st gear you have to be at 40 mph to be in the sweet spot for the car to take off again. between 5-35mph out of first the car lags like a turbo. That is the downer I see. That is where the SC or turbo will make up for this issue. The shorter gears helps some but not that much.

Personally if I wasn't concerned with smogging the car and emissions I would do a SOS twin turbo. It is a very nice setup and can do all types of hp numbers.

 

[powerslave7]

can you just change the first and second gears? my car is euro spec and changing from first to second you really notice the drop out of the powerband... 2nd onwards is perfect.

fwiw i asked chris from sos the very samequestion and he said that it, while short gears and fd would liven the car up significantly against stock, it is no comparasin to a sc car.

 

[Honcho]

can you just change the first and second gears? my car is euro spec and changing from first to second you really notice the drop out of the powerband... 2nd onwards is perfect.

fwiw i asked chris from sos the very samequestion and he said that it, while short gears and fd would liven the car up significantly against stock, it is no comparasin to a sc car.

Nope, if you change 1st and 2nd, you mess up 3rd and 4th. You can replace just 2nd with the 95-96 US 2nd. It is about midway between the long 2nd and the JDM 2nd. Otherwise, you need to do the full short gears.

 

[cptnsx]

can you just change the first and second gears? my car is euro spec and changing from first to second you really notice the drop out of the powerband... 2nd onwards is perfect.

fwiw i asked chris from sos the very samequestion and he said that it, while short gears and fd would liven the car up significantly against stock, it is no comparasin to a sc car.

Based on what has been posted on prime. CT Supercharged cars dyno between 330-370 and those numbers typically run between 113-117 trap speeds. The fastest (near) stock NSX drag times has been the NA2 coupes. The fasted posted I'll seen was a 111.xxx mph. Which was repeated a number of times. I've seen someone post a 113 mph time (?) but when they ran with a passenger the mph dropped to 109. So I'm going to assume the car had massive weight saving.

So unless you have a NA2 couple with I/H/E and massive weight saving you will not come close to the (slower) CT Supercharged cars and even with one of those you would still lose.

 

[VegasSpeed]

I have a supercharged car pushing just short of 400whp and it still isn't fast enough for me. Gearing will help a little but it will not make a 260whp car feel 150 hp faster, not even close. Are you tracking the car? The short gears are nice at the track since the gears are so tall for the 5 speed.

 

[cptnsx]

I have a supercharged car pushing just short of 400whp and it still isn't fast enough for me. Gearing will help a little but it will not make a 260whp car feel 150 hp faster, not even close. Are you tracking the car? The short gears are nice at the track since the gears are so tall for the 5 speed.

You are in Vegas, so you're not even getting all 390. Get a smaller pulley and get that 1 to 1.5 psi back. I'm thinking about get a slightly smaller pulley but I have 412wrhp and 315wrtq (SAE corrected so not in Vegas) plus JDM gears and the type-R 4.235 so gears 1-3 in my car feels plenty fast. Part of me would just like to have all the power I paid for. However I went out in some of our 50 degree weather last weekend and was able to see 9-9.3 psi. I typically never see anything over 8 mostly 7.5 after 7K.