Hot Car Spotlight:

This is a spotlight of a track/race car that we love. We’ll examine some of the details that make these cars so cool, from examples of cutting edge aerodynamics and engineering to historically awesome cars that influenced today’s race car design.

Written by: Ryan Passey

The Car:

Some cars are legends, like the Calsonic R32 we touched on last week. Others are less well known, but no less interesting when you take a closer look. Such is the case with this NSX built by Kakimoto Racing.

Kakimoto is a high-end exhaust manufacturer in Japan with a philosophy much like ours; racing shapes and improves the product.

Kakimoto has been around since the 70’s and their approach of building cars both for their enjoyment and to develop and test products at the track shows in so many details on this NSX. The front aero for example has evolved over time, slowly turning into this multi-dive plane boxed in combo on both sides of the nose.

The view under the car really

highlights the attention this car has received. The flat bottom front to rear is crucial for the diffuser to operate effectively. Little details abound, like the small flaps around edges of the flat bottom where it terminates into the wheel wells to keep air from getting sidetracking into the wheel area. Also notice the dual-caliper set up in the rear, one with a factory caliper – presumably to retain parking brake function – which frees up that requirement from the other caliper so they could choose exactly the the one they wanted with performance being the only concern.

The large side scoops supply air to the motor’s intake. Other details to notice are the front fender venting, the rear diffuser design and bumper vents, the swept-back wing mounts which more the airfoil as far back as possible, and more…

The front of the car has been cut off and replaced with a tube front, with the entire steel tube section riveted and bonded to the aluminum chassis of the NSX. The radiator is slanted forward and ducted to evacuate all of its air through the hood. The engine attached to this cooling system is still naturally aspirated, but with more displacement, a 9,000 rpm redline and lots of massaging it now puts out 345 hp.

The interior speaks volumes about Kakimoto – this isn’t a car put together to sit on a marble floor and look the part, this is built to be used. Substantial safety additions, cage (notice the rivets where it is bonded to the chassis), etc.

To me, this interior is very refreshing – too often we see cars from overseas with minimal safety and half-finished interiors, even if the are being raced. Here there is none of that.

In some ways cars like this are almost more interesting to me than the ones that we’ve all heard of and seen everywhere – this is a tool for a business, a way to put parts and ideas to the test (and a fun way at that!), it doesn’t spend it’s time in the limelight, it puts in hours and eats through tires and gets little glory, but through that process a diamond is created.