Ask us to build a kick-ass track machine out of a current Honda product, minus the NSX, and we'd pick the Acura TSX. Optimal suspension geometry thanks to double wishbones, healthy displacement, a slippery shape and good wheelbase combine to make an excellent starting point. In fact, RealTime Racing, which has profited handsomely from kicking World Challenge ass in everything from NSXs, Type-Rs, RSXs and Sentras, now has star driver Pierre Kleinubing piloting and winning in a prepped TSX.
Skunk2 stepped up to help us explore this chassis and drivetrain and will be releasing a host of parts for the TSX, many of which will be developed on this car. There's a performance hero waiting to be saved from commuter oblivion, and we're going to build the TSX we wish Honda would. This car is sold as the Honda Accord in Japan and, of course, the Accord Type-R, an amazing sedan that has wowed enthusiasts with its combination of raw performance and civility. Because we've been perenially denied the wonderful Type-R, we've decided to build our own. We're going to kick ass and keep our leather interior.
Footwork is the first area to be attacked, with the replacement of wheels, tires, front brakes and springs and dampers. Future installments include bling, functional items like supportive seats, and drivetrain modifications.
There's no room to grow unless you stretch, so the M3 was chosen as a benchmark. There's not much we can do to compete with BMW cachet, RWD balance and inline-six sweetness, but performance numbers are performance numbers, and even fully optioned, the TSX is 20 large cheaper.
The stock 17-inch wheel-and-tire combo is neither attractive nor particularly conducive to pavement-ripping cornering. Acura mounts the same awful all-season basalt-compounded tires that come on the RSX. The fix is a set of the stickiest damn street tires money can buy-the BFGoodrich g-Force KD sized 225/40-18. The gumdrops are mounted on blingalicious 18x8-inch Volk GT-7s with a 44mm offset, which when stuffed under Project TSX's pleasingly sculpted fenders, visually double the car's price tag. That fat polished lip means having to use The Force to avoid curb kisses and also means quality time sitting on pavement with a toothbrush, but maintenance is a requirement of vanity.
It's no secret the TSX is underbraked, especially given the crappy stock tires. Even a Mitsubishi Lancer Ralliart betters its numbers. We went straight for the big Italian guns in the form of a Brembo Gran Turismo front brake kit. Brembo has, well, a lot more experience building high-performance brake kits than, well, anyone else on Earth by reason of the company being the O.E. supplier for most bitchin' fast cars on Earth. The kit, which is sold by Skunk2, uses four-piston calipers with differential bores to squeeze two-piece rotors just under 13 inches in diameter and an inch wide. There are no tricks to installing this kit. It comes with everything you need. Follow the directions and you'll be OK. While an improvement in braking performance isn't horribly difficult to manufacture, doing so with proper pedal feel is, and Brembo succeeds with this kit.
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