November 12, 2023
And another seven years later
Time flies. It really does. Late 2023 now, and the RSX is still with me. It's sitting in the garage, shinier than it has in many years, thanks to a comprehensive detail job I treated the car to. I've had the car for 20 years now, got it new at Elk Grove Acura in November 2003 when I still lived in California. It has 28,350 original miles on it. And it's amazing how practically new a 20 year old car can look when it is always garaged.
The world has changed so much since I got the RSX. Back then, if you wanted real bolt-on power it was the usual intake/header/catback combos, which didn't really bring much, or it was the Jackson supercharger. The Hondata reflash added some nice midrange power by optimizing things and lowering the VTEC point so you switched to the high cam sooner. Then Hondata launched the KPro and Comptech entered the RSX supercharger business and things began taking off. Turbo barely was an option back then, with just a few 6psi Greddys around.
Back then, few of us RSX guys actually "built" a car with cams and pistons and blueprinting and balancing and all. With the Comptech supercharger, CAI, KPro and a few other Comptech goodies, my 04 Type S eventually got up to 290 whp on Driving Ambition's conservative dyno, so roughly 340 at the crank.
I used to love taking the RSX to the Wednesday drags at Sacramento Raceway. Lots of fun, some great memories, and a nice collection of trophies, including one "King of the Track" trophy where I came out on top of all classes in bracket racing. Then I moved to East Tennessee where there are only 1/8th mile tracks, which I hate because with our FWD cars' lack of traction (even with a Quaife), the race is over before before I get full traction.
And now it's a totally different era, what with ludicrously fast Teslas and other electrics, and, thanks to turbo, horsepower way up across the board. Turbo changed everything. I chuckle when I read a young kid saying on one of the RSX groups I belong to that he just wants "a small power boost, maybe 400-500". And apparently that is possible today. It would have scared the hell out of me back then. Heck, I still sometimes worry when I floor my RSX and hear that wonderful supercharger whine as the motor rushes up to almost 9000 rpm for the shift. I worry, even though my car was done by Comptech, very professionally.
But it's 20 years old now. Just five more years and it qualifies as a "classic." It looks like new, but it's 20 years old. It has ridiculously few miles on it, but I really need to change all the fluids, all of them. The synthetic oil, of course, I've changed very regularly.
I've kept a list and log of all of my mods. Most were done in the car's first couple of years. There's only been three entries since 2005.
One was upgrading my very early Hondata KPro up to version 4. That was a bit of a mixed blessing because the daughterboard was ill-fitting and had loose screws, and thanks to much stricter regulations there are now some hoops to jump through before the KPro activates. Honestly, I have barely spent any time with all the new capabilities. KManager still looks pretty ancient, but it has so many new features that I just haven't had the time to get into it.
Another was that I exchanged the OEM factory radio/CD changer with a Kenwood DNR476S head unit with touch screen, GPS navigation and Apple Car Play. I got that from Crutchfield, with all the proper adapters and cabling, and it wasn't a real big deal to put it in. It's one of those things that is a headache to do the first time, but a second time it'd take just a few minutes (not that I expect a second time). The Kenwood looks and works fine, but it's slow to boot and the tiny buttons are hard to read and operate. If I had to do it over, I'd go with a higher end unit and install all the other stuff the unit can do, like multiple cameras and such.
Finally, I put in an Acuity 4-way adjustable performance shifter. The Acuity is costly, but oh so nice. This was my third shifter replacement. First I went from stock to B&M (which had an inherent flaw in it), from B&M to Comptech (which was a bit of a work in progress), and now Comptech to Acuity). I love the Acuity! It is infinitely adjustable and feels much more precise.
Next I'll replace the replace my (too-harsh) suspension setup with its lowered stock springs with a set of front and rear strut & spring assemblies from TRQ. I had looked at various coil-overs, but decided on the TRQs that look almost exactly like the Mugen Sport Suspension that I had years ago, with a 1.5-inch drop. And I'll replace the idle valve to hopefully cure the often somewhat unsteady idle of the car.
Will I keep the RSX forever? Who knows. It's in such great shape, drives so well, and has such low miles that I'd hate to let it go. And with new car prices so very sky-high and RSX prices just slowly going up, it'd almost be stupid to sell it and getting little in return.
Posted by conradb212 at 7:49 PM