(race car revving engine)
(drives off)
- When you think of an Acura NSX
you probably think things like
reliable Japanese supercar
and exotic daily driver.
You're probably not thinking of an NSX
warming up at slicks in the burn-out box at the drag strip.
But, this is an NSX drag car.
Look at those big old meats!
Why would someone do this?
Take something designed to be
one of the best driver's cars of all time
and turn it into something built for straight line speed.
And, more importantly, how did they do it?
Let's dig into it.
It's time to go bumper to bumper
on this Acura NSX drag car
and we might start it up at the end.
(energetic music)
(pulsating notes)
We want to give Acura a big thank you
for sponsoring this episode.
The Acura brand has a legacy of performance
that is always embraced independent thinking
so we're excited to be working with them
to tell a story of a car that came
from one of the most independent thinkers we've ever met.
That thinker is Adam Saruwatari.
But before we can appreciate his NSX
and find out just how fast it is,
first we need a little background
on the philosophy of the NSX in general.
(electronic music)
After five years of thinking outside the box,
meticulous development, and fine tuning
by Ayrton Senna and other racers,
Honda gave us the world's first
Japanese supercar.
In the US, it was the perfect performance jewel
to set in the center
of the new Acura brand's crown.
It was called the NSX,
which stood for New Sports Car Experimental.
The engine was mounted right behind the driver
because that's where you put it
if you want to go around corners as quickly as possible.
(electronic music)
While a particular kid's uncle
happened to get one of the first NSXs in the state
and he let his nephew drive it
to his high school winter formal.
That's a very cool uncle, I drove my Taurus.
That kid was Adam Saruwatari.
The NSX made such a big impression on Adam
that he later bought one for himself
and when he got into drag racing,
he didn't care that it wasn't built
for straight line speed or that no one else was racing one.
Adam is a lot like Acura in that
he didn't want to follow the herd.
An NSX is what he'd always wanted to own
and it was what he wanted to drag race
and he was gonna be the independent thinker
that made that happen.
(mentally screaming OH MY GOD!)
When I heard that we're doing an NSX
that was also a drag car
I was stoked.
I've been drag racing since I was a kid.
I did Jr. Dragsters when I was ten years old.
Me and my dad,
we had a Pontiac Trans-Am that we ran as Sportsman class
and then I also crewed on a nostalgia funny car.
Trust me when I say that turning an NSX
into a pro-level drag car is a huge accomplishment
and also really freakin' difficult.
But with Honda and Acura's support
Adam and a small team of experts
challenged the status quo.
Here's how he did it, let's look together.
(light electronic music)
Just as Acura builds all of their cars
with their customers in mind,
this NSX had to be purpose built for drag racing.
That means from the ground up.
First, came a pro stock tube framed chassis
made by Gary Hansen Race Cars.
Now, most tube frame race cars never
end up looking like the cars they're modeled after.
NHRA pro stock drag cars,
they look really weird and kinda bloated,
and you'd never guess what they're based
on without the badge.
But, Adam took a different approach.
Even though he was building a tube frame race car
that was much longer than a stock NSX
he wanted it to look as much like
the real thing as possible.
So, Acura shipped OAM body panels over from Japan
which Adam then used to have molds made.
Next, fiberglass panels were made from those molds
then modified to fit the new tube frame chassis.
Finally, carbon fiber was used to create the panels
that are on the car right now.
The rear wing here really should be bigger
than this for down force reasons
but Adam insisted on sticking as close
to the stock profile as possible.
He felt so strongly about that,
that he even had the door handles
made to look just like the originals
and damn if this car isn't still instantly recognizable
as an NSX, not some janky imitation of one.
(groovy electronic music)
While we're back here, I'll explain some stuff.
We've got the rear wing here.
You want the wing as low to the car as possible
so you don't create drag,
pulling the car backwards when you're going down the track.
See this little handle over here?
It says push off.
If there's an accident and the engine is still running,
a track official can you know, jump the wall,
turn the car off just by pushing that thing.
We've got the parachute here.
This is the cable that holds it all packed in place.
Adam has a handle in the car that he pulls after a pass,
the cable would release the parachute.
There's even a hydraulically actuated spring back here
that pushes the parachute out
because brakes aren't enough to slow this car down.
And of course down here we have the wheelie bar
which is actually set in the high position
for just going around the pit,
it actually goes a lot lower than this
which I shall now demonstrate.
I got Adam's permission to do this
so don't flame me in the comments.
You'll notice that the wheels here are white
and they do not come like that.
This is years of shoe polish blotted on here
and why they do that
is when the car launches they can see
for how long the car will wheelie
and if it's kind of squirrelly at all,
and that tells the crew a lot
about what the car is doing at launch.
If it didn't have it,
the car would just probably do a wheel stand
and just destroy itself on re-entry.
(synthesizer music)
I also want to point out that they use
the stock brake light back here,
which I think is really cool, you know?
They spent so much time molding
these panels out of carbon fiber,
but then used these stock lights.
I think that's so awesome.
You can even see the cable
for the parachute is routed through the old key hole,
which I think is a great little detail.
I love this thing, it's amazing.
(synthesizer music)
It wasn't easy to keep the original shape
of the car in tact.
All those traditional muscle cars
with shaker hoods and big air intakes
sticking up out of their engine base
don't do that just for attention.
Those changes make real power.
But the NSX is a very low hood line,
one that was never supposed to have
an engine under it at all
and Adam wasn't willing to compromise it.
Adam had to go through several custom manifolds
to find something that worked well
while still keeping that slick, low hood line.
(synthesizer music)
Since it's the V-6, Adam went with the twin turbo set up
with one ball bearing spinny boi per cylinder bay.
Two small CO2 bottles have two pre set pressures
and help control the boost via the waste gates.
It's (spits) that's sick.
I just spit, that's so awesome.
CO2 regulated boost pressure.
Are you serious?
There's an on board ice water tank
that feeds a liquid to air inner cooler
to ensure the turbos get nice cool air
for every pass down the drag strip.
The turn signals on the body even pop out
to feed more air into the turbos.
That's what these tubes are for,
these little trumpets,
it's not because Adam's a huge ska punk fan,
it's because he wanted more air going
to the turbos down the track.
(synthesizer music)
A stock 3.2 liter NSX makes 290 horsepower,
this NSX makes over 1,300 buff horses at the crank.
To whoa all those horses,
it's also got bitchin' carbon fiber brakes.
That (beep) is not cheap.
The struts are made by Lamb Components,
a top supplier of pro drag car suspension.
The rear uses Koni electronic adjustable shocks
that have a unique setting for each gear change.
Let me say that again,
the suspension changes itself for every gear.
That's some trick (beep).
(electronic bass music)
Along with Acura, Enkei Wheels and Nitto Tires
were the two major sponsors of the A&L Racing NSX
but Adam ran WELD racing wheels with Nitto's up front
and Goodyear drag slicks on the rear
with both of their blessings.
At the time neither Nitto or Enkei had products ready
for this level of professional drag competition
so they were fine with the NSX running
a more tried and true set up.
At drag strips, they prep the launch box
with this stuff called VHT, it's like a glue.
That's what helps these cars launch so hard.
There's barely any tire spin on launch
because of the contact patch and that literal glue
that the officials spray onto the track.
You might be wondering what exactly
this car can do at the quarter mile,
we'll get there, but first let's hop inside this NSX
and see how Adam designed the fully custom (beep) of it.
(car door opening)
(clicking)
(humming)
I don't know where to put this.
(mumbling)
Okay.
Oh (chuckles) no.
(laughing)
Okay.
(steering wheel clicking in position)
(car door closes)
(cage net fastens)
I'm a little shorter than Adam.
This is probably the nicest (beep)
that we've ever seen on this show,
and that includes factory cars.
This is immaculate.
(electronic bass music)
Everything in here is either aluminum or carbon fiber.
I'm sitting in a Sparco seat with Sparco harnesses.
On the passenger side,
we can see the MoTeC ECU, CDI, and Koni shock control
for those electronic rear shocks
that we were talking about earlier.
This red button the the steering wheel is very important,
it operates the line lock.
So you might have seen videos of drag racers
doing huge smokey burn outs
and what that does is heat up the rear tires
so they really hook on that sticky VHT
that I talked about earlier.
(engine revving)
This other red button on the shifter here is for overboost.
Adam says, you know, if you're going down the track
and you don't think you're going to win
he would hit that button and that tells these tanks
to send more boost into the engine
and hopefully get the win.
(electronic bass music)
So this shifter is a sequential shifter
which requires only one use of the clutch at launch.
For the rest of the pass, Adam is shifting gears as usual,
this small little lever down here is for the reverse.
The transmission turns a carbon fiber drive shaft
that goes into a titanium yoke,
that goes into a titanium spool
inside of a titanium housing.
If a combination of words like titanium spool
make you say "huh?",
here's the deal.
This drag racing NSX
has some fancy, expensive titanium trucks back there
that make the rear wheels always go the same speed,
in a straight line instead.
So it's like having a welded diff,
only way cooler and a lot more expensive.
(electronic bass music)
In its heyday,
this championship winning pro drag racing NSX
ran the quarter mile in the high six second range
at speeds around 200 miles an hour.
Even as a dramatically different kind of NSX,
this car challenged convention just like
the original NSX and the Acura brand.
Import tuning wouldn't be where it is today
without this car and I'm not bull (beep) you.
Now let's stop dilly-dallying
and fire this thing up.
The water pump's on.
The fan's on.
Ignition.
(fuel pump turns on)
(engine starts)
(revving engine)
OH!
HOO HOO HOO!
(revs engine)
(turns engine off)
Can I drive?
(joyfully laughing)
Oh my gosh, I'm shaking.
Dude, thank you Adam for letting me do that.
My nose is running.
Check out Adam's YouTube channel,
Adam Saruwatari Xtreme,
follow me on Instagram @NolanJSykes,
follow Donut @Donut Media.
Acura forever, man.
This is, that was, nuts.
(sighs)
I'm gonna go take a nap.