Temple of VTEC Rumors and News - RDX and TOV Project Civic Si Road Test Status

Jeff, Shawn, "LudegarH22A7", and I are out in Atlanta, GA for our TOV road test of the new Acura RDX and TOV Project Si. Shawn and I arrived from California and Texas respectively Wednesday night and were picked up by Jeff at the airport in an Alabaster Silver RDX. Riding back to TOV HQ, we immediately start to observe first hand the interior accommodations and features of the RDX.

That night Shawn and I get our first driving impressions of the RDX around town. It's very strange to hear a slight turbo whine from a factory Acura and a "foooosssshhhhh" sound on throttle lift-off. Having owned cars with the B, D, F, and J series motors, I admit a certain familiarity with normally aspirated Honda engines. The turbo K-series in the RDX is definitely not what I'm used to in a Honda/Acura engine. I will defer to Shawn's report for TOV's stance on the topic.

After a quick drive in the RDX, Jeff tossed me the keys to the Project Si. With a huge grin on my face, I take the Project Si for a spin. This is my very first time driving the Project Si and I immediately feel the ferocious potential of the car. The power, sound, and g-force hit me all at once and reminds me of a very strong 2.2L S2000. Again, more details later.

Waking up very early Thursday morning, Shawn, Jeff, and I drive the RDX to Honda Manufacturing of Alabama. We're promptly greeted by several Honda Associates and the One Lap of America Honda Odyssey race vans parked out front. After a great on-camera interview we get treated to a special opportunity to drive the race vans on Honda's test track! Wait for Shawn's report on what modifications were done to the car and instrumented 0-60mph and 60-0mph results. Feel free to guess the time and distance respectively.

After having lunch in the spacious Honda cafeteria and seeing a brief tour of the Odyssey production line, we all head back to Atlanta to pick up the rest of our test gear. Picking up the Project Civic Si and meeting up with TOV reader "LudegarH22A7", we begin our drive to Knoxville, TN. Along the way, we use our Motorola radios to communicate with one another and share our impressions of the cars.

First thing Friday morning, we take the short trip to Highway 129, also known as the Tail of the Dragon and TOV's favorite road test venue. We explore the capabilities of each vehicle in the fantastic curving highway. The RDX was very adept at keeping up with any car it met and we even had a little fun with a Ferrari F430 Spyder in the twisties. If you were at the Tail of the Dragon on Friday and heard the sweetest sounding K-series motor at full song, that was TOV tearing up the tarmac in our Project Si. In-car video driving impressions were done and will be processed as time permits.

Update:
Saturday morning, we were able to get the RDX on Dynolab's 2 wheel drive dyno and made several runs. We got typical Honda engine numbers and learned a few things about the characteristics of the turbo K23. It gave us some good ideas for modifications to the car. TOV's video report will be forthcoming.

We then headed to Ed Voyles Acura in Atlanta, where they graciously allowed the use of their lift so that we could do our undercar analysis video. The techs immediately swarmed the car and provided us with a few interesting comments. We also obvserved a few car shoppers take several looks at the RDX when it was parked up front.

We will be releasing a progression of articles in the next couple of weeks.