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Old 10-23-2004, 01:40 AM   #78
tran_nsx
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Re: Re: Why would you want to buy an NSX (Seriously)

Quote:
Originally Posted by '97SLVRBullet
Why am I thinking Acura?
hehe, close. honda, honda makes acura. heres the article and link:

What makes the McLaren F1 such a special car? Performance. No other road car accelerates as fast, no other road car has a maximum speed of well over 230 mph. It can outperform every other road car by a large margin. But there is much more to it.

The McLaren F1 materialises the dream of a single man. Not just any man, but one of the most imaginative and successful engineers that Formula 1 racing has known. Gordon Murray designed the Brabham-Alfa Romeo "fan" car that in 1978 won its first and only Grand Prix-- then was immediately banned because it simply dwarfed the opposition. Murray was probably the first man to incorporate carbon fibre into the structure of Formula 1 cars, and he designed the world champion Brabham- BMW of 1983. When he moved to McLaren, it was to design a sports car to beat the world, and he was given carte blanche by Mansour Ojeh and Ron Dennis to pursue the dream, regardless of cost. The target Murray set was that the car should be as compact as possible, yet practical, weigh no more than 1000 kg. (2205 lb.) dry and be powered by an atmospheric engine (for immediate response) developing at least 550 BHP.

At the time, McLaren was racing successfully with Honda engines, and it seemed logical to approach Honda for an engine meeting Murray's requirements. But the Japanese declined, feeling that they could not spare the capacity to develop such a project. So Murray then turned to BMW Motorsport and his old friend Paul Rosche, who had provided the engines to the Brabham team while Murray was in charge. Rosche enthusiastically accepted.

Starting from a clean sheet of paper, Rosche and his team designed and developed a superb, all- aluminium 6.1-litre, 48-valve V-12, and it was a huge success right from the start. It immediately produced the required power and went on to develop as much as 627 BHP. Concurrently, the American Traction Company developed a fantastically compact transverse transaxle incorporating a differential with a 40-percent locking factor. To reach his weight target, Murray had no choice as to the material to be used for the car's structure: It could be only carbon-fibre composites, mostly in the form of an aluminium honeycomb sandwich, while, wherever possible, the mechanical parts were made of aluminium and magnesium.

There is hardly a component in the car that has not been specially designed for it, mostly to save weight. A typical example is the Kenwood CD stereo system. The unit proposed by the manufacturer weighed 37.5 lb. Murray said he would accept only half that weight. The company took on the challenge and eventually came up with a system even better than the original, weighing only 18.7 lb. Finally, the car weighs 1100 kg. (2425 lb.) dry, and Gordon Murray's biggest disappointment is that he had to give up the idea of carbon brake discs, as used in racing cars. It proved impossible to make them grip sufficiently at low temperatures, especially in wet conditions. The switch to cast-iron discs cost him 39.7 lb. In the end, however, Rosche more than made up for the 220 lb. beyond the target weight by extracting some 75 BHP more from his engine than originally required by Murray.


go to did u know? and theres a link on that page.
http://www.runeb.org/www_docs/Jexoti...exmain_all.htm
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