Every once in a while you come across a car that just so happens to be spotted down the street from you. Next thing you know the person who owns beautiful 1992 NSX was a las vegas local. Then what i find out next was a big shocker. This was the same car that made the cover of Sport Compact Car Magazine December 2006 Edition. Which is already on store shelves.

So we (Me, Jamar, Marvin and Ashley) took it upon ourselves to see if we could get an exclusive photoshoot with this car that won the Sport Compact Car Ultimate Street Car Challenge. We were lucky enough to do so. We wanted to get some words from danny himself but was on a busy schedule. So in return he had his daughter (thanks mei) drive the car out for us to get a closer look at this monstrosity. The following are the specs of this vehicle.

Engine: C30A - 2977 V6, Turbocharged and intercooled

Internal Mods: CP 9.2:1 pistons, Oliver billet titanium Rods, Micropolished and balanced 3.2-liter crank, Sleeved andstressed block with billet mains, ported and polished heads, eibach valve springs, custom retainer, ARP studs, Cometic head gasket.

External Mods: UNI drag race foam, BBK 75mm throttle body, T3/T4 turbonetics turbo, dual hytech laminova liquid-to-air intercoolers with ceramic coated cutom intercooler piping, fluidyne scirocco heat exchanger, meziere 35gpm circulator pump, Tial BOV and 38mm wastegate, webcams 265 and 258 duration intake and exhaust cams, comptech adjustable cam gears, dali racing high volume oil pan, comptech high volume pump with billet gear, accusump three-quart, inconel valves, three angle-valve job, titanium retainers, ron davis radiator

Engine Management: dual in-line weldon 260gph fuel pumps, bosch 10000cc/min injectors, motec m48 pro engine management and sdi, gp performance wiring harness, mercury racing coils, msd wires, ngk spark plugs, paxton fuel rail and fpr

Transmission: tilton triple plate carbon clutch and flywheel, OS giken 1.5way lsd, roz moore 300m half shafts, 4.44:1 final drive

Wheels & Tires: 18x8 & 18x10 Ferrari Challenge Speedline Magnesium (first and only), Yoko A048s: 225-40x18/ 285-30x18

Suspension: EMI Penske Triple adjustable/ comptech hollow sway bars

Brakes: 14.5" MMC rotors/ 8 piston Billet Brembos (F), 13.0" MMC rotors/ 4 piston Billet Brembos (R) (first and only).   

Okay. We finally had a chance to sit down with Mr. Young and get the low downs about how he has come about to this day.

X: So Mr. Young. Could you give us little background of yourself?

DY: I am a 44-year-old anesthesiologist practicing in Las Vegas.  I have three great kids (ages 16, 20, and 22) and my beautiful wife and I recently celebrated our twenty third anniversary.  I also own a manufacturing business in China.  I stay rather busy with the family, practice and business and spend my free time finding more things to keep me busy. 

X: How did your fascination with cars begin?

DY: My fascination with cars began in the mid seventies when I helped my older brother restore and sell cars.  “Anything Ford” we fixed up and sold: 289-Mustangs, a Mercury Monterey, a Boss 302 and a 428 CJ Torino GT.  My first car was a 1979 Mustang with a 2.8-liter V-6.  This was the first year of the Fox platform, which is in most part was still in use until 2004.  My father bought this 102 hp graduation-gift for commuting to UC Berkeley. The engine blew up in 1981, two weeks after the warranty expired, and my brother and I immediately swapped in a 1970 Boss 302 motor with a C4 transmission into it.  The car was AWESOME and required a lot of custom pieces to make the swap work.   A similar swap appeared in Car Craft magazine two full years later.  My fascination with cars took a ten-year layoff from 1982 to 1992 after I got married and started my family during medical school and residency. During my last year of residency at Michigan, the NSX was introduced and I immediately knew I had to have one.  With three months of residency left, a job offer in Las Vegas, the “Buy American” craze sweeping through the states, and being in the “backyard” of Ford and GM, the local Acura dealership in Ann Arbor sold the car to me for nothing more than my contract in my hand!

X: Why the NSX?

DY: In 1994, Car and Driver featured a Comptech NSX in their May issue.  As soon as the two-year warranty expired (no blown engine here) on the NSX, I embarked on a very long journey of modifications that I still find myself on today.  I started with Comptech’s entire list bolt on stuff: DC Sports headers, HKS exhaust, Koni shocks, Eibach springs, and cat bypass tubes. Back then, no one in Las Vegas would touch the NSX and I eventually found my way the DC Sports in Corona to install the headers.  Turns out DC made the headers for Comptech! When the clutch needed to be replaced a year later, I turned to Comptech again.  They agreed to let me have their first high performance clutch if I would pay for a new unit that they could experiment on.  After waiting for six months with no estimate of completion, I requested my refund and started looking for alternative sources. I guess this is where I became one of the pioneer owners in NSX related modifications. 

 I first met Javier Guttierez of JG Engine Dynamics in 1995.  He easily solved my clutch dilemma with the first NSX carbon disc unit from Clutchmasters. Six month later, the NSX was back at JG for reworking the heads, larger stainless steel valves and valve springs, bored throttle body and intake manifold.  Stephen Papadakis, who worked there at the time, used to pick me up and drop me off at LAX whenever I flew down to see the car. The car ran beautifully. It made 290 rwhp @ 8000 rpm and after raising the rev limiter with a special Dinan chip, we hit 326 rwhp at 9400 rpm.  The car was featured in the April, 1997 issue of Street Power, a short lived magazine by Sport Compact Car to highlight high end cars.  Although the car was already special at that time, I wanted to do more.

X: Any projects you want to talk about in particular?

DY: My first one-off project began with the brakes.  There were very few street/track NSXs at the time so most to the brake upgrades involved aftermarket pads, stainless steel brake lines, cross drilled rotors, and higher temp brake fluid. During my search for alternative brake setups, which included carbon rotors and titanium rotors, I came across Cooltech MMC (metal matrix composite) rotors The MMC rotors were ideal for my projected needs; they are lightweight, durable, with great grip and good cold characteristics.  I believe there are only a handful of cars on the road today, such as Latrell Sprewell’s Diablo, with the same complete Cooltech setup.  According to Jeff Hayes, the owner, and Stoptech, the NSX was the best vehicle for the MMC rotors out of all the cars that had the setup. The mid-engine platform/ weight distribution of the NSX matched the heat capacity of MMC rotors.  The brakes are simply awesome. The choice of calipers, billet Brembo 8-piston (F)/ 4-piston (R) was based on fitment and quality. The 8/4 stagger gives my system a good bias to the front, without needing a brake proportioner.  Along with the brake setup, a set of Ferrari 355 Speedline magnesium wheels was adapted to the NSX to clear the wide-bodied calipers. JRZ shocks, Dali adjustable sway bars and a custom set of height adjustable Eibach springs were installed to finish up the suspension.

I brought the car back to Javier in May of 1999 after dropping a valve at 10,000 rpm on a missed shift on the track.  The plan was to build the ultimate street NSX.  Given the car’s other components, we felt a massive dose of horsepower was all that would be needed.   The car languished at JG’s for over four years with little to no progress as Javier became more and more involved with Edelbrock. During those long four years, I had to go into major NSX denial and fully absorb myself into my manufacturing business in China and my Anesthesiology practice.

 I finally pulled the car and brought it over to Autowave. I chose Autowave because they are first and foremost, a Honda-Acura repair/service center, and an NSX tuner second. My experience had taught me to avoid tuner shops that rely solely on one source of business. Also, Autowave’s focus on reliability first is the only way to embark on a project of this nature. Many thanks to Shane Lapier (owner), Mark Middleton (NSX tech), and Mike Lapier (tuner). The first year and a half was lost in finding out the hard way what was done incorrectly at JG including trying to install custom 3.2 L Oliver billet titanium rods onto a 3.0 crankshaft and pistons that were tapping the heads once the car was started. Luckily, the guys at Autowave had the patience and drive to persist in our goal to build the “Ultimate NSX.”

X: So fast forward today. What is this car to you right now?

DY: This car is now built for over 1000 rwhp but in preparing for the USCC, we were a little gun-shy/ conservative with our output (655 rwhp/457 ft/lbs @ 15 psi). Something about BLOWING up a clutch (good for 600 supercharged rwhp on other NSX’s) on the dyno the last time the car ran 8 months earlier made us a little gun-shy. Also, we have only put on 2 weeks of driving and 200 miles to date on the car and no track time at all.

X: So you used whatever parts you could find?

DY: Only top shelf items were used with performance/ functionality as top priority and aesthetics second. Things on the car that I know that are unique are the MMC rotors (8 lbs each) with 8- piston calipers, Challenge rims, triple radiators, twin Laminova intercoolers, Oliver billet con-rods, Motec/CDI unit with Mercury Marine Racing coils, Rob Moore axles, and Weldon fuel pump. Stuff like the Tilton clutch, OS-Giken LSD, Penske triple adjustable dampeners and billet mains are on only a handful of other NSX’s.  My philosophy boils down to the same as the original approach of the NSX; start with a superior platform and trickle down to the street. Basically, you can get to “5” by starting with a “1” (crude platform) then adding upgrades (stiffer springs, bigger tires, more cubic inches) to get to “5”. Back in 1992, a ZR1 was an example of this. The NSX, with its many technological breakthroughs was a “10” platform, detuned or minimalized to go down to “5” (fewer cubic inches, smaller tires, lighter). I did the same thing with my buildup. Basically overkill, then under work the components. For example, the intercooler water circulator pump is actually a motor water pump (35 gm), as is the sirocco radiator which is the heat exchanger for the air-liquid intercooler. So many FI’d NSX’s run a tiny motor cycle radiator for a heat exchanger, tucked away on the passenger side vent. Finally, I went with a Weldon 2345 fuel pump, capable of running 2500 hp (290 gph @60 psi), just so I can run it at a leisurely and quiet 6V, still good for over 1200 hp.         

X: We appreciate the time you have given us for this interview. Any other words you want to get out to the public?

DY: Having built the fastest street NSX now leads me to the question of what to do with it. I would like to return to club racing, hanging out with other NSX owners, and returning to the BMWCCA and SCCA clubs in town. I’m also looking forward to entering and winning the Car and Driver One Lap as well as a handful of Time Attack events in 2007. I’m sure there are other things on this car that can be improved, such a replacing the transmission with a Hewland 6-speed sequential gearbox, adding a dry sump system, and improving the car’s aerodynamics but I think I’m getting close to the finishing point (according to my wife) and I’m looking forward to tinkering with my kid’s cars or wait for the NSX replacement.

Surprising enough during this interview we got more than we bargained for. Special Thanks goes out to Mei who is the daugther of Danny for helping us out with everything from the interview to actually driving the car out to location. Also thanks goes out to Marvin for taking the pics on such short notice.