Conversion: '02 Targa to COUPE Type-R

3 minute(s) of a 52 minute read

Friends, countrymen, Primers, lend me your ears.

I've been receiving a number of e-mails and/or PMs regarding dyno figures and my generous SWAGs of horsepower claims. Just recently, I received one helluva well-constructed PM articulating why I am just plain wrong, and why mathematically my claims cannot be so. Busted. The sender was entirely respectful, and I take no issue with being bitch-slapped in this fashion.

Let me clarify my position. After owning 79 cars, I gotta admit that I've never dynoed even one car -- because I don't believe in horsepower figures. Specifically, I don't understand the value of this single digit, termed "peak horsepower." 

To my mind, I'd any day sacrifice peak horsepower in order to raise the horsepower plus torque curvesacross the entire rpm range. If there's one thing I recall from integral calculus, it's a healthy respect for, and an understanding of, the "total area under the curve."

That's the goal.

For me, the area under the curve represents a goal we should all be striving for. It represents a real-world driving experience, across the entire RPM range. It has much more to do with daily-seat-of-the-pants comparisons between cars, as opposed to peak horsepower numbers. Clearly, I would like to claim that my car has a reading of 1001hp. But that claim is only useful for bragging rights, at dinner parties.

It's much more valuable to consider power delivery over the entire rev range. To me, anyway, it's that delicious quality of the NSX's power delivery, as opposed to the quant stats.

So at this time, I would like to retract any and all horsepower claims I've made in previous posts. I am sure, that like any other gearhead, I've either exaggerated or at least embellished the figures.

What I can claim is the following: that whatever horsepower the engine now puts out, it is being restricted (severely) by the intake vacuum we continue to measure. As such, the PRI show might turn-up a novel solution to the intake problem, one that allows the engine to breath better. Further, sloppy writing on my part incorrectly attributes acceleration entirely to the motor.

More accurate is to acknowledge that I'm running an aggressive LSD with 4.4 gears, plus a sick JRZ suspension and sticky tires...all of which puts the power down better than OE. So, what I should have said is that the whole car now feels like a Ferrari 430, or a lot like the 360/CS I drove. That is a much more accurate representation of the complete and immersive driving experience of this NSX-RR.

Finally, I am told by people in-the-know that there is a theoretical expected peak horsepower of 460 crank HP, on pump gas. That translates to approximately 400 RWHP. But the OE intake manifold and throttle body don't currently allow the engine to breath at these levels.

As I said, PRI will be an interesting show. If we find a solution that achieves an NA build at this level, you damn straight I'll be crowing about an engine with 460 PEAK HP...so much for principles