The Acura Factory Performance Package offered no real surprises for the first few days I had it. Everything seemed in line with my opinions of last July. Of course, during this initial period, the roads I presented to the car offered little challenge beyond the rigors of day to day chores. It was during this period that I was able to establish the "liveability" factor of the Factory Performance Package. In my book, the car performed reasonably well in this respect. Road noise and ride stiffness have both increased with respect to the standard Type-S model, but not so much as to render the car unpleasant in any way, at least according to my tastes. In terms of ride quality, there were actually few penalties to be paid for the superb handling and grip of the Factory Performance Package. Only on certain road surfaces, under abnormal circumstances (i.e. traveling really slow over some rutted pavement), did I notice any peculiarities or excess harshness in the ride. In terms of road noise, the Yokohama AVS ES100 (P225/45-ZR17) tires did exhibit a fairly pronounced amount of tread noise. The tires on this test car had over 5000 miles of wear on them at this point (vs. last summer, when the tires were basically brand new, and virtually silent), and the treads generated quite a bit of thrum. The brake upgrades work phenomenally well when needed, but they do result in quite a bit more pad noise, squealing, and pedal feedback than the standard OEM-issue pads/rotors.

The Factory Performance Kit wasn't designed to improve your commute, so to test its mettle I shook it down on some of my favorite mountain roads. How did it perform? To put it bluntly, I was utterly astonished at how much of an improvement the Factory Performance Package is over a standard RSX Type-S. The excellent grip, virtually zero roll, superb braking and spring/damper calibrations had me grinning from ear to ear from the outset. As my day in the mountains progressed, I found myself pushing the car harder and harder, only to find that it never put a foot wrong. The balance of the car seems dramatically improved, with a very neutral overall feel. Compared to an S2000, which is absolutely fantastic on these types of roads, the FP felt like it could match an S2000 step for step, perhaps requiring less driver skill for the same level of performance. The S2000 rewards the driver with jaw-dropping performance, but drive it at 10/10ths and you feel like you're truly tiptoeing on a fine line. The RSX FP felt like it could be muscled through practically any situation with plenty of room left over to recover from a mistake.

The upgraded brakes are huge contributors to this added confidence. They were amazingly capable of hauling the RSX down repeatedly from high rates of speed without a hint of fade. After numerous repeated hard stops, there were aromatic and audible cues of the heat build up, but no fade. Unfortunately, instrumented braking tests were not possible this time, but it seems the lower stance of the car, wider rubber, and frictional upgrades have combined to create a world-class stopping machine.

As impressive as the car was on dry roads, the day became a lot more interesting with the onset of a rather sudden snowstorm. When it hit, I was at about 4000 ft elevation, and roughly 30 (hilly and twisty) miles away from any interstate-type roads, so I decided to cut the day short by a bit and start my trek back toward civilization. With the reduced road clearance (thanks to the lowered ride height and chin spoiler) I didn't feel like dealing with any sort of snow accumulation. The rate of snowfall was sufficient to dust the roads rather quickly, and traction was already beginning to diminish. In these conditions, I was again impressed by the balance and poise of the FP RSX. I was able to travel at an impressive clip with little fear of leaving the road. This speaks volumes for the car's usefulness in "everyday" all-weather type situations (apart from the ground clearance issue, at least).

The rub is that the Factory Performance Package does nothing to enhance power, and apart from larger wheels and tires, there is little to improve the prospects of getting even the stock 200hp to the ground. Too often, through tighter turns the RSX struggled to keep the inside tire from spinning hopelessly, sometimes also generating some nasty wheel hop. An LSD would work wonders here, and of course we would never turn away an additional 20 hp or so. The good news is that 20 hp (and much more) is relatively easy to come by in the ever-so-tweakable K20 motor, but an LSD is almost an absolute must-have upgrade.

Kreuzer lugnuts require a "key"

Instrumented testing showed the best 0-60 times in the 6.2-6.3 second range, but achieving these times required a perfect balance of launch rpms and a little clutch slipping to modulate wheelspin and wheelhop. The times were also highly dependent upon the road surface. On some surfaces the prospects of dipping into the 6 second range were slim at best.