We're applying the lessons of the Sport Compact Car Technical Assistance Program to Project RSX--taking a perfectly nice car and making it lighter to go faster. While the initial cost of such an effort can be low, experienced readers may recall that results are not always without compromise. For example, a stock RSX has a back seat, making it an acceptable means of taking friends out to a movie that's not too far away. It's also fairly quiet, with front seats that are comfortable for a long distance. You can hear the stereo clearly. It is a well-balanced, all-rounder of a car. You wouldn't hesitate to drive it a long distance. The world is full of cars like that. They are for sissies. Exterior Non-structural body panels are usually heavier than they need to be, so we looked around for lighter options. We've seen Seibon parts on other cars, so we chose an OE-style hood for Project RSX. It was initially installed in about 15 minutes with one 10mm combination wrench, and all the gaps were, if not as precise as Acura's, far better than average for aftermarket carbon fiber parts. We were pleased. We already noted that the turbocharger's turbine heat shield actually touches a power steering line, and other plumbing and wiring is also close. GReddy instructed us to install some sort of duct or scoop to direct air to this region for cooling if we intended to use the car on the track. A NACA duct looks way cooler than a scoop sticking up into the air stream, so we decided it would be the way to go. Skip to the sidebar to see how we built a real NACA duct in our spare time at home, using simple tools any former model airplane nerd will have around.
We also installed Seibon's carbon-fiber hatch. This was much lighter than the stock unit, fit the outline of the car quite well and looked bitchin'. It was much fiddlier and more time-consuming to install, however, as the portion of the wiring harness that goes inside is difficult to get in and out, especially with the rough surfaces inside the new hatch. When we eventually made that work, there remained several issues with hardware. The latch could not be adjusted far enough without modification to hold the hatch all the way shut. The mounting features for the third brake light simply didn't exist, so we would have had to modify the brake light assembly and glue it in place. Finally, the handle to open the latch did not bolt up in a straightforward manner. We were less pleased.
Lay out the location on the car. Masking tape and pencil are a good strategy when starting out. Overlap of the hood with the cowl area can be deceiving. Measure to ensure the opening will actually deliver air where you intend it to go under the hood. Also, make sure there is enough vertical clearance so that the duct doesn't run into underhood components, such as the engine or throttle cable.
We paired the carbon fiber hatch with another weight-reduction strategy that turned out to be a bit of a headache. Flex-A-Lite manufactures pre-molded, scratch-resistant polycarbonate windows for the RSX and other Hondas. Plastic is lighter than glass, so we had to try. Flex-A-Lite does not recommend the windows for use in street cars. We ignored this guidance, confident that a warning about race parts not being for the street should not apply to us.We soon remembered that polycarbonate has a high coefficient of thermal expansion, which is a problem with large panels. On hot days, if the RSX was parked in sunlight, the rear window expanded to the point that it overlapped the edges of the rear-window inset, rubbing the paint on the outer surface of the car, and the upper edge interfered with opening the hatch.
Not good. We could have trimmed the whole thing so these problems didn't occur, but then the gaps around the edges would have been excessive when the window was cold. Also, we tried to be really careful when washing the window, rinsing all the dust off first and using a microfiber cloth with plenty of gentle car-wash soap. We still got light scratches on the surface.
Commit to your penciled-in outline by retracing it in pen. Drill small holes at the square corners, both to mark the position of the duct on both sides of the hood and to provide a starting point for cutting.
Since both sets of headaches were attached to each other, we took them off and reinstalled the stock hatch. Doing so also eliminated a mysterious electrical drain that had required us to disconnect the battery when parking the RSX for longer than a day. That removed all the things that made the RSX a non-streetable PITA (pain in the ass--for the uninitiated). We crossed the line, backed up, and now we're good.Seats Seats are among the heaviest items in many cars' interiors. Most stock seats are more about accommodating a wide range of posteriors (or a range of wide posteriors) than about supporting the driver and communicating the car's behavior.
We sought to improve both areas by installing a set of Status Racing Monte Carlo seats. These Kevlar shell seats are lightweight, just 11.7 to 12.5 pounds each. The color also works with our red/black/silver theme. Any Status Racing seat can be ordered in Kevlar, carbon fiber, or glass-reinforced plastic (GRP, or fiberglass) for those on a budget, as well as cloth, suede or leather upholstery.
With a dual-layered hood like the Seibon part, it makes the rest of the process easier to cut out an area underneath the hood somewhat larger than the duct; one inch larger in each direction should be plenty. We cut less, and wished we had done more. Once the inside layer is cleared out, cut the outer surface along the lines. | 
Normally fans of the 11-amp Sawzall, we chose to use a tiny, hand-powered X-Acto saw for this project, gaining precision and control over speed. The blades come in a pack of five, which was good, because we dulled all of them cutting just this one hole. If it seems like it's getting harder to cut, switch blades. If our plan had been to paint the hood, we'd have used something a lot faster. We'd have been okay with more marring of the surrounding surface and the possibility of having to use filler material. | 
The edges of the duct are completely cut, leaving the cut-out material attached at the front to serve as the `floor' of the duct. Any step or other disruption of the surface at the ramp entrance causes a separation of airflow that hurts duct efficiency. Plus, it looks cool to have the weave unbroken. |