Acura RSX-S - Rainbow Warrior

2003 Acura RSX-S - Rainbow Warrior

This is more than a car, it's a four-wheeled illustration of the American Dream. If someone works hard, they can achieve their goals. And if someone wants their car painted Heineken metallic green-then adds blue, red and candy purple highlights-well, by golly, it's a free country.

BK, 24, works hard, holding down two jobs in Charlotte, NC (restaurant manager/chef and grocery stock associate), toiling seven days a week. Full name Byung Kook Choi, BK always wanted an Acura RSX. It was his dream car while in junior high around 2002. After graduating, he went to a showroom and put money down and got this '03 RSX Type-S, stuffed with the K20A2 engine, pearl-white from the factory.

"A couple of friends took me to a Honda meet, and that's when I started thinking about what I should modify on my car," says BK. "My first part was an AEM cold air intake-that's when I got hooked! "

Before he got too involved with the engine, BK decided to augment the looks with a J's Racing Type S body kit. This consists of a front bumper, side skirts, a carbon fiber rear diffuser and a Type V carbon fiber hood. Further aerodynamic appendages include front canards with winglets, a front under panel, trunk lid and a GT rear wing-all fashioned from carbon fiber. For a final aesthetic flourish, BK went for Ings wide fenders and lit the JDM DC5 headlights with Ignited HID 8,500K bulbs, then got the whole shebang painted in Heineken green.

It was another friend who first suggested this hue. BK mulled it over for a couple of weeks then spoke to his paint guy, who assured him that it would look great. "I've never seen another RSX painted like it," says BK. It's doubtful anyone has.

The next phase was all centered on the engine bay, so those sunglasses can come off now (but look out for those blue Samco Sport radiator hoses and the J's Racing blue anodized valve cover). The lure of forced induction was too great to resist, so while BK was in a GReddy state of mind, he sprang for a T517Z turbocharger, manifold and custom polished intercooler and pipes. He looked to HKS for its SSQV blow-off valve, to RBC for an intake manifold, and oversees the power delivery with a Turbo XS manual boost controller.

A Hondata K-Pro ECU (tuned by RLZ Engineering of North Carolina) keeps another hand on the reins, choreographing a BDL fuel rail, RC 650cc/min injectors and NGK Iridium spark plugs for the internal combustion tango. With the dance in full swing, BK's engine now makes a claimed 298 hp at 7,800 rpm and 236 lb-ft of torque at a peaky 6,800 rpm. This is still with the stock compression ratio of 11:1.

A well-regarded upgrade to Honda's K-series engines is the fitting of IPS K2 camshafts and valve springs, so BK wasn't about to fly in the face of conventional wisdom here. He also hooked up an HKS muffler, three-inch KTeller exhaust and piping, and a three-inch test pipe called . . . what was that name again? Ah yes, Unforgettable. Before we forget, BK added a Mishimoto aluminum radiator, removed the ABS, air conditioning and power steering apparatus, then did a full wire tuck.

A project always reminds us that everything we do has consequences down the line. So more power requires a beefed-up transmission. In this case, an Exedy Stage 2 cerametallic clutch and flywheel do the business, along with a Buddy Club short shifter and custom chromed transmission brackets. BK gets the power to the pavement via a Quaife limited-slip differential and Driveshaft Shop Stage 1 axles.