CTNEWMAN ENGINEERING NSX "build"

[newman]

OK, I haven’t written any of this down or documented any of it so may as well do it here. For the past few years I’ve been uninvolved in cars and heavily involved in motorcycles. Since building and selling my RB26 powered E30 I have built a couple custom motorcycles, won some pretty prestigious contests/shows/awards, built some motorcycles for other people and companies, including Indian Motorcycles. All that can be found on my instagram, which is @ctnewman if you care to look. I’ve also built up quite a home shop, with about a 1/2 million USD worth of machine tools in it, all paid for by work I’ve done in the shop. I also work a day job still.

Anyway, I’ve had an itch to get an interesting car, but not necessarily a project car. Just something fun to drive around in and maybe do some minor tinkering, so don’t expect anything too cool here. I was looking at all sorts of stuff. My budget was 100-200k, but I was trying to keep it on the lower side. I knew I wanted something uncommon, so things like p-cars, bmws were out. I wanted something where there wasn’t a “cool” version but also a lame version. Like a GT3RS and a base 911. Not that a base 911 isn’t cool, but it’s not exactly uncommon.

I also didn’t really want something that was OBVIOUSLY super expensive. Lambos, Ferraris, Lotus, McClaren whatever, they were all a bit too flashy for me. I don’t want to pull into my day job in a car that everyone assumes cost more than all of my direct reports make in a year.

After a trip to Japan as a special invited guest for a motorcycle show, I went to the Diakoku Parking Area, which is basically that parking lot scene in Tokyo Drift. This got me jazzed up on JDM cars again (I’ve always been a fanboi). I got back and was eyeballing GTRs, Supras, RX7s but in the end I kept stumbling upon so many of the common LAME versions (non-turbo, whatever) that I was turned off by them. In the end, I settled on the NSX, just because they really tickled me in a way no other cars did. The Japan trip also made me excited to try to find a RHD one.

Long story (slightly) shorter, I wound up buying this car from a guy in phoenix who had only had it for a few months. The AC didn’t work, and I think that played a large part in him not wanting to keep it there.

Here are some pics from the ad. Bone stock except for some goofy wheels. 31k miles or so. It wasn’t cheap the price on these things is bananas.

[bing]

it’s a really great choice.

i personally would have gone with LHD but NSX’s are really rare and special. premium but not too fast.

i hope you show some pics of its current state and explain what you’ve done thus far and what’s still to come for it.

[newman]

I knew right off the rip I wanted to do several things to it. Change the color to something unusual (I don’t like silver, or quite frankly any of the colors they come in) and do some basic mods: exhaust, wheels, suspension. Before I had even taken delivery of the car, I ordered:

1. Wrap vinyl from a company in Netherlands (no distributor in USA)
2. Exhaust: RF Yamamoto straight from japan
3. Carbon Fiber NSX-R replica wing
4. KSP front lip from Japan
5. TE37 in a very specific NSX fitment
6. KW V3 coilovers
7. Stance Aircup Noselift

Once the car arrived many of the parts were already here. My goal was to do nothing that wasn’t reversible.

Step 1 was installing suspension and wheels:

The aircups are the little pistons on top of the springs that expand under air pressure and basically make the spring 2" taller, lifting the nose of the car, but the driving mode is pure coilover.

Step 2 was test fit wing:

Step 3) was a bit of a surprise because despite being NSX fitments, the front wheels needed some fender rolling. I also had to cut the sideskirts, so I ordered a backup set of front and rear OEM ones to keep in a box if I ever want to go back to stock. I didn’t have to roll them a lot though. I wanted the car to be pretty low, though, because I have the airlift.

Step 4) take car apart and wrap it. I did the disassembly/assembly. My buddy Nick at TheWrapFirm did the vinyl work. Removed both bumpers, door cards/mirrors, headlights, wing, washer nozzles. Nick said it was one of the hardest cars he has ever had to wrap and I think he did a very good job. There are a few spots that still need a touchup though. Also wrapped the front lip and installed that when reassembling the car:

Step 5) Exhaust went on next. A bit of a pain in the ass.

Step 6 was to wire and mount my compressor for the nose lift. I made these brackets to mount the tank and compressor. I used pushbutton quick release fasteners so I can remove it easily. It was mounted in the front of the car where the spare tire goes.

Here are the brackets I made. Sorry for the crap pics all I had are video screenshots.

I figured out what some of the connectors on the OEM harness were and made some jumper harnesses with male and female plugs to make it a plug and play setup to wire everything up without cutting a single wire.

[newman]

That ends the PLANNED modifications, and the car was really pretty cool.

I was about to buy some centercaps for my wheels and then at the last minute just decided to make some:

When I took the above pic, all I could think about was how ugly my stock brakes were. That started a worm in my head.

The next thing that happened was I wanted to upgrade the lights a bit. Just some basic plug/play LEDs for a bit more output. The LED balasts wouldn’t fit inside the OEM headlight caps so I made some extended ones:

The better brake worm then got the best of me… I designed a brake kit around some AP racing calipers and rotors. I was egged on by several people telling me it was IMPOSSIBLE to fit a 6 piston AP racing Pro5000R caliper under a 16" wheel. Don’t tell me I can’t do something! After many revisions of brackets, I had a complete kit with a standalone ebrake caliper. The calipers and pads were almost 2k… PER CORNER. Woof. Here are my brackets and carriers I made:

And then the brakes installed. The rears are actually larger than the front but the math on the bias is exactly OEM spec.

And here is a semi recent pic of the car:

[newman]

I also got some reclinable Bride Carbon Fiber seats:

Also, forgot to mention it but when I made the brake kit I needed a little more camber in the front so I first added an offset lower control arm eccentric bearing. That wasn’t enough so I machined some new ball joint perches to squeak me out a bit more.

Still a few things I want to do:

Different sideskirts is the main one.

I also want to change the “gathered leather” door inserts out for NSXR alcantara inserts.

I have the parts to do WP and timing belt, but that will wait til fall

Fix radio and AC

Figure out what squeaks in my front suspension. I think it is the aftermarket control arm bearings…

Probably other stuff who knows…

[bing]

yeah i was waiting for the explanation on the brakes.

come take me for a rip bro!!!

[HouseS2K]

The brake setup was the first thing that caught my eye.

[joelster]

The color combo looks great! I had no idea that you did all of that work to it. Any plans to track it? Or just going to be a sweet cruiser that you enjoy from time to time?

[LUC1F3R]

As ususal everything you touch is top notch and unique. Awesome car.

[bing]

what will your second car be?

GTR and NSX?

[TurboTSi]

Car looks amazing, nice job on the build. I saw it at the first cars and coffee but hadn’t realized all the work that you put into it.

Also it’s amazing how much these cars have gone up in value, had I only known a few years ago.

[newman]

I don’t really plan to track it… I’m busy all the time. If I am going to have a day to devote to a motorsport, it’s going to be dirtbiking in the woods.

[newman]

My next auto purchase will be a new pickup.

[Onyx_Z32]

Any lumbar on those seats?!

[joelster]

Steer clear of the GM V-8 trucks. My brand new~ish 23 Silverado with the 6.2 just fucking grenaded an engine. Spun a rod bearing, terminal failure, engines are on national backorder. USUALLY IT’S THE dod systems and their lifters exploding. I have heard great things about the 4cyl turbo. So i’m probably going that route next, in a Colorado. They can tow 7500lbs, and are relatively trouble free from what I’ve seen. Just can’t justify $60k+ for a truck anymore when the reliability is suspect. None of the big brands are immune either. Hemi’s, EcoBoost stuff, etc, all have issues. Same with the new Toyota Tundra engines.

[bing]

yeah… come pick me up in this nsx bruh