There's a really good article on the new '05 RSX Type-S over at http://www.vtec.net that compares the new model with the '02-'04 model.

I know a lot of you guys were interested in finding out what's new and how it compares to the older models and their article does a great job of explaining the differences. (Note: registration required to see the article; it's free.)



Modified by pr0ns74r at 11:13 PM 9/12/2004

 

awesome man. I have been wondering what the new RSX was gonna do. We just need someone to crack the code on the ECU and see how much power is in there.

 

Hopfully a lot since I just bought one, but damn right now it has all the power I need.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by skygtr01 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Hopfully a lot since I just bought one, but damn right now it has all the power I need.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree. I just bought one myself and right now it's very impressed. I'm still going through the break-in period so i can't really get on it right away, but from what i've felt so far...


Modified by pr0ns74r at 10:57 AM 9/13/2004

 

im jealous of the new goodies =x

 

Honda slowly giving us what we want... lol

In 2006 they will throw the LSD as well

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Nikos &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Honda slowly giving us what we want... lol

In 2006 they will throw the LSD as well </TD></TR></TABLE>

Haha, man ain't that the truth. Sad to say but i wish Honda took a page from Mistu and gave us a close to JDM spec version of a car. (Like the Evo 8)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pr0ns74r &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I agree. I just bought one myself and right now it's very impressed. I'm still going through the break-in period so i can't really get on it right away, but from what i've felt so far...


Modified by pr0ns74r at 10:57 AM 9/13/2004</TD></TR></TABLE>

you can drive it hard, no worry

 

Someone wanna cut and paste that bastard so everbody who wants to read can? 150 people signing up to read an article is annoying.

 

Here you go:

http://vtec.net/
Article: First Drive: 2005 Acura RSX Type S
Author: Jeff Palmer
** Pictures and movies aren't include, you'll need to register to see them.

Having read everything there is to read about the enhancements to Acura's compact sports coupe, the only thing left on my 2005 Acura RSX To Do List was to climb behind the wheel and turn the key for the first time. That moment was actually supposed to take place this week at a press introduction in West Palm Beach, Florida, but since West Palm took a direct hit from Hurricane Frances, those plans were scotched on Monday.

The RSXs that were supposed to be in Florida for the event were diverted here to Atlanta, allowing us to get our hands on one for a full week rather than part of a day. While we'll miss out on the track impressions (Moroso was on the itinerary of the press launch) for the time being, at least we'll be able to go ahead and dyno test the new motor and we'll have extended street time with the car. We will get the track impressions during a followup road test later this fall.

At first blush, it would seem that the changes to the 2005 RSX are pretty subtle. But if you look a few layers below the surface, you will see that Honda engineers have been working diligently to dramatically improve the RSX-S. While the RSX-S has been widely praised by the press in general, I've always felt that there were some areas that could use improvement. These feelings were cemented after I finally had the chance to drive "real" Japanese-spec 2004 Integra Type Rs and Civic Type Rs.

In my opinion, the '02-'04 RSX-S's shortcomings were primarily related to the engine and the chassis. While the K20A2 engine makes nice power once the high-rpm cam profile kicks in, it feels a little too flat in the low and particularly the middle rpm ranges. And since VTEC doesn't activate until about 5800 rpms, that means pretty much everything below 6000rpms, which doesn't make for a very pretty picture in terms of power delivery. From an aesthetics standpoint, the K20A2's slightly boomy, somewhat uninspiring engine note left a bit to be desired, particularly when stacked against the glorious sound of the Type R's K20A. From a chassis perspective, the RSX was a fine drive around town, but once you'd pick up the pace, it wasn't quite up to normal sporty Honda standards. My biggest beef with the handling was the slightly twitchy nature of the rear suspension and a lack of composure under certain challenging road conditions. The other problem was that the chassis wasn't tuned to deal with the velocities that the vehicle can easily and quickly achieve - it was just too soft and the tires didn't provide nearly enough grip. So I was really keen on Acura addressing these two major areas for the '05 model.

I figured it would be really easy to address my gripes. All Acura had to do was federalize the Japanese Market Integra Type R, and everything would be set right.

While those dreams will remain unrealized for 2005, Acura has pretty much addressed the key areas of concern. As you already know, the new motor (now labeled K20Z1) has been fitted with several Type R bits, and packs 10 more ponies and a few more lb-ft of torque under the hood. That's all well and good, but a larger concern for me was how the new car was going to deliver the power. After driving the Integra Type R, the extra 20hp at the top of the rev range was certainly impressive, but the truly lustworthy aspect of it was the tremendous advantage in grunt it holds over the K20A2 at the lower and midrange rpms. THIS is what I was really hoping to see improved in the 2005 model, and Acura has pretty much delivered the goods, but thanks to a couple hundred pounds of additional mass (vs. the ITR) it obviously doesn't quite have the snap of the ITR, but it feels quite a bit stronger than the '02-'04 RSX-S. To help it along, the '05 RSX-S runs the same final drive ratio as the ITR, but it seems that the torque has indeed been fortified in the low and midrange rpms. The dyno test (on the page that follows) provides corroborating evidence.

One of the things about the previous model RSX Type-S was that it had this peculiar knack of disguising its rate of acceleration. Nothing illustrated that better for me than driving it side by side with something that provided a tremendous sense of thrust, in our case it was a 260hp 6-speed Acura CL. During our weeklong combo test two summers ago, the RSX-S we had felt almost doggish in comparison to the CL Type-S, yet once the cars were underway, the RSX-S would put up a great fight. The CL's big advantage was really in the launch, aided largely by its limited slip differential (ooh, another sore RSX-S topic - we *still* don't get one here). But this new car is different. While it may not show much (if any) advantage in published 0-60 times (thanks to gearing so short that you now have to shift twice just to reach 60mph), perhaps far more important from a subjective standpoint is how quick this new RSX feels. It's simply a blast to rip up through the gears, and it even sounds a little better now too. Honda engineers were unable to match the smooth sound of the K20A, but much of the boominess of the K20A2 has gone away, and the K20Z1 now carries a deeper overall tune. The overall sound is still closer to the K20A2's than I had hoped, but it is indeed improved.

At this point, we've only had the car for a couple of days, so I haven't had the opportunity to really challenge the chassis, but from the driving I have done, it's definitely polished off many of the rough edges of the '02-'04 models. Body roll in particular seems to have been at least halved, while ride quality doesn't seem to have suffered at all. This leads to a dramatic improvement in overall poise. The car now wears (Type-R sized) 215/45ZR17 tires and lateral grip is quite a bit better than before, but the car still comes up a bit short in terms of longitudinal grip, particularly when it comes to hard braking. We understand that MOST drivers are better off with nice all season tires, but there should still be a low-cost option for performance tires. This is a "sports car", after all. The 5-spoke wheels must be reasonably light, as the wheel and tire combo tilted the scales to the tune of 41.0lbs, a reasonable figure. For a point of comparison, the similarly sized wheel and tire combo on the TSX requires additional postage for nearly 6 more lbs. For now, that's all we can really tell you about the chassis. Once we have the opportunity to challenge it more, we'll share more of our impressions, but at this point things are looking really good.

Overall refinement has been improved incrementally, but there's still a bit of engine rumble at freeway speeds. Wind noise and suspension noise are well controlled, but tire noise is moderate. The 2005 RSX's gearbox is said to have been enhanced for 2005 (with changes similar to those seen on the 2004 S2000's gearbox), and indeed gearchanges are quite excellent. While I wouldn't say that the earlier gearboxes were vague, the precision of the 2005 gearbox seems better with similar (light) weight feel. Gearchanges are smooth and can be executed quite quickly. I am glad that Acura didn't "enhance" the motor with an electronic throttle body - the instantaneous response of the mechanical linkage makes driving and shifting that much more fun. Seat comfort remains quite good, though I would like to be able to raise the front of the bottom cushion a bit more. The interior trim revisions are nice, but I really wish they would have retired the red dash lighting. It just doesn't provide adequate contrast for nighttime legibility.

Special thanks to Dynolab of Marietta, GA for providing the dyno testing facilities for this test.

For some reason, I was expecting to see this motor put down somewhere around 178 to 180whp, and that's pretty much exactly what we got. Note that the torque curve is virtually flat (+- 5 lb-ft) from just over 2500 rpms to over 7500 rpms. For the test, cold tire pressure was set at the factory recommended 31psi. The car had 1045 miles on the odometer at the time of the dyno test, so with another 5000-10000 miles of break-in, we might even see dynosheets showing another 3 to 5 hp. The car produced very consistent results run after run, and the cooling system seemed to have no problem keeping the coolant temps in check, easily settling to a rock solid 180F several minutes after each fourth gear pull.

We did a test run with an open intake, in an effort to gauge the restriction of the stock airbox. As you can see in the following plot, we saw a gain of around 7WHP.

I was hoping to be able to pull up the run file from our 2002 RSX Type-S dyno test to show a direct comparison, but it seems that the data may have been permanently lost as a result of a system hard drive failure. We do have the image of the plot however, so you can see the results below. It should be noted that the 2002 RSX-S we tested was a rather weak example, posting only 158whp in stock configuration

 

 

the only thing i dont like on the 05s is the taillights. other than that they're awsome