Conversion: '02 Targa to COUPE Type-R

4 minute(s) of a 52 minute read

I just thought I would share with you some comments from Tom Frederico (Mov-It brakes, Type-R carpet) after he drove my car in California. As you may know, he offered to replace the current R carpet with newer material from a new manufacture, resulting in a much better product. Tom picked up the car from Jon Martin in Cerritos, California and drove it to San Diego. Tom has an excellent installer in San Diego who completed the project in under 3 hours. Tom and Jon are extremely satisfied with the results, and say it looks like a real NSX-R interior.

Tom and I spoke for an hour about putting a set of F1-style ceramic brakes on the car, at a future date. The current setup is great for street, but could fade away quickly if the car was to be driven at any track days like Sebring.

Most interesting, he shared that he's been racing cars for a while, and that according to him...this NSX-RRis "sick fast." 

Sick fast.

Music to my ears...thank you, Jon Martin.

Tom also commented that Jon had built an exceptional power plant and that I should be ready to lose my NSX and gain a "street version of a race car." I asked him to compare it to any other cars he's driven and this was his observation:

"...it's faster than a Ferrari 360 and about as fast as the Ferrari 430...but probably not as fast as their CS version." Jeez-louize, I'll take it.

And, he repeated what I, and others on Prime have been saying on this forum for a while. That the JRZ suspension is an amazing upgrade to the car. Tom said that he drove over some pretty nasty roads in California and the JRZs allowed the NSX to ride smoother than even OE. But at the same time, when he pushed it, the car stiffened right up under any dynamic conditions. No lean, no nose dive. Exactly what I experienced in Florida.

Here's the best; Tom's about 5'11" and 180 pounds and he said the R seats were to die for. For his frame, they were perfect. It's just amazing how Honda took great Recaro seats, and made them even better.

Of course, he recommended that with all this new horsepower the car needs a new set of brakes. Doh! To which I responded that I had just upgraded the brakes to the current configuration! So in a non-pushy sort of way, he shot back that a set of ceramics all-around would nicely match the brilliant speed that Jon got out of this all NA engine. Tom and I will be having discussions in the future

I mentioned to Tom that I want the car back in South Florida for a while before making any more upgrade decisions. And as Mitch has commented previously, yes, people will think that I bought another white NSX. Its been away so long. I think the car needs to be around here for a while before we do anything more.

That said...Jon Martin will be in Orlando in December for the PRI show, where he and I will walk the show floor for any "future improvements" on the induction side of the motor. As Jon says, this is a weak point, and there could be 50+ more horsepower left in the motor...but that's for a future build.