NSX-Tuner

Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the CompTech facility in Sacramento, CA. I made an appointment with Nate who was very accommodating and informative. He gave me a tour of their facility and I have to say I was very impressed. They have some serious and elaborate machine shops and engine rooms beside two engine dynos and a chassis dyno and a lot of bays for prepping prototypes and race cars.

I also saw quite a few NSX engines, among other types in various stages of assembly. Speak of which, they ran a NSX prototype in GTP IMCA which won several 24 Dayton and Sebring races, among other races back in the 90s.

It was obvious how much they are committed to racing by how clean and organized their layout is. I feel even more confident and justified with the CompTech mods I've got on my '03 CLS 6 speed (CT springs/sways/headers/intake) and the additional mods (Konis, CT Strut bar, CT exhaust and CT B-Pipe) I will be adding in about a month. They also had some new prototype racing and street parts on display which are in the pipeline for the RSX and S2002. But that's all I'll say about that since this a CL forum.

It was about a 320 mile round trip in my CLS between San Jose and Sacramento where I got 28 mpg averaging 72 mph. I know I could have gotten closer to 30 mpg if I kept it at 65 mph and didn't get on it a couple of times (tempting a 350Z into a race - but that's another story), but I just couldn't wait to go for a test drive in CompTech's prototype CLS.

Now for the test drive which was in their blue '03 CLS 6 speed (with Nav & OnStar) prototype that has everything installed CompTech offers or is going to offer on the CLS. So here's the list:

• CT Springs
• CT Sways
• Koni Yellows
• CT Titanium Series S.T.B. Front
• Brembo 13" front brake kit
• Cross drilled rear rotors
• CT Supercharger and Intake
• CT Headers
• CT Exhaust
• CT Flywheel and Clutch
• CT B-Pipe (catback) - hopefully it will be available within a month maybe two.
• 225/40ZR18 BF Goodrich g-force T/As mounted on O.Z Racing rims

Ride & Handling
Now I have CT springs and sways with stock shocks and Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 225/50ZR17s mounted on stock rims. The CompTech CLS's ride with the Konis and Strut bar was almost as smooth as my car but just a little stiffer. They had the Konis dialed in about half way toward stiff. Handling was quite a bit more sure footed and stable in the CompTech CLS. Even with very similar ride quality between the cars, the handling improvement was a lot more pronounced - in straight line acceleration and cornering. In my car, as the stock shocks rebound up and down, I can feel moments when the car feels slightly unbalanced or uncertain. With the Konis and Strut bar, those moments of unbalanced handling are eliminated all together or at least as I could tell without doing some really hard cornering. Never the less, handling was definitely improved without destroying the ride quality.

Acceleration & Drivability
Again, I have CT intake and headers installed in my car and the CompTech CLS has the I/H/E/SC/B-Pipe/Flywheel installed. The car dynos somewhere close to 325 WHP in which you can sure tell just off the line with the added low end torque. First, Second and Third gear acceleration makes you strain your neck forward to kept your head steady. The car just pulls so much harder from low to high RPMs, something my car lacks. And the sound of the SC impellers, kind of a whirl sound that screams at you in higher RPMs. Interesting to note, I felt less torque steering than in my CLS. This could have been the difference in tires, shocks and strut bar. The exhaust did have about twice as much droning sound when accelerating from low RPMs, but quieted out to nothing above 2800 RPM. However, the droning sound was about the same as my car when cruising in low RPMs.

Braking
It's already been said before, but WOW. Stab the brakes and you scrub off some speed really quick. Unfortunately, we didn't do any high speed hard braking, just braking from some moderate speeds. But overall, I could tell there was far more braking power available than on my CLS.

I would like to thank Nate at CompTech for his generosity and time and for letting me take some pictures of the prototype CLS. Please note that some of these pictures are of the B-Pipe which is a prototype unit and unpolished and may not fully represent the production units yet to be released. By the way, it's already mentioned in CompTech's Acura 3.2CL brochure and has a part number. No price listed yet.

Slide show of CompTech's prototype CLS

mc222

Nice review

mattg

cool


i've ridden in the car but never been to the facility.

chikai

Saw a white MDX in the lot. DId Comptech start producing parts for it?

NSX-Tuner

Couldn't tell you. Might have been someones personal vehical.

darrinb

sweet

JRock

Very cool

NOVAwhiteTypeS

nice, i wonder how much gain the B pipe will provide.

tankmonkey

damn. comptech closed the forums on their website...

NSX-Tuner

CompTech told me a while back there may several (3,4,5 ???) HP gain with the SC and a little less without. No dyno yet.

NSX-Tuner

Kind of interesting that they shut it down on Friday the 13th... anyway, I called them yesterday and they said many of the people who posted to the forum were also calling up CompTech or sending email to them with the same questions. So they figured that the forum was a waste of resources. I kind of see their point, but will miss the forum never the less. It would have been nicer if at least they gave us an advance warning.

NighthawkBlack

Hey what size and brand tires are those. They look like they have flex in the sidewall for a comfortable ride.

NSX-Tuner

BF Goodrich g-force T/A 225/40ZR18

RaptorCLS

awesome....ha! now I know what my car will look like with a supercharger in it...it'll look good with the Aegean...hehehhehehe...


Great review

Zapata

wow those are some heavy duty tires......much needed i'm sure because of the blower.

NSX-Tuner

Zapata... Great choice in car and color... same here...

============================
- '03 CLS Anthracite 6 speed
- Pilot Sport A/S 225/50/17, Hardwired V1
- Comptech ICE BOX and Comptech Exhaust installed by the PA/NJ/DE Acura crew
- Comptech Swaybars
- Amsoil SAE 5W-30 w/ SDF 20 oil filter
===========================

I've got nearly the same setup except the addition of the headers... car is so much more sportier...

I was considering switching to a syn. oil at my 7500 mile service. I've been looking at Redline and Amsoil 5W-30. I've noticed Amsoil seems to get much better reviews and spec'd better than Redline. Any thoughts?

Chaptorial

Great review and great pics.

NSX-Tuner

ATTENTION MODERATOR - SUGGESTION

Although I might be a little biased, should this thread be moved after a week or so to the "ACURA-CL.COM Forums > TECH TALK > Comptech Parts" forum and made sticky there?

DigiBox

I rode in that car too!! That thing is AWESOME!!

Went from the hard excelleration to the hard braking. I love the sound of the car too!!

03TL_PlaTinUM

how will the supercharged cls6 engine hold up over time compared to a n/a one?

NSX-Tuner

That's a very good question. I've asked this myself. From what I understand, the SC provides no more than 3 lbs boost which is very conservative. As far as how long a SC'd engine will last as compared to a stock engine, I'd like to know what other people think. How much mileage does each SC'd CLS on this form have without needing a rebuild or blowing up?

thanks...

NSX-Tuner

Another question about the CT SC...

CompTech claims they have put alot of consideration in their design of the SC to provide high reliability.

What does this really mean?

Those of you who have installed a CT SC or know someone who has, how reliable is the SC?

Have any failed?

Does it required any maintenance? If there is any maintenance required, how often and what parts need servicing or replaced?

Can you just install the SC and forget about it like it's part of the factory engine that's highly reliable?

03TL_PlaTinUM

one more question I have is this:

is there a difference(in terms of internals) between an engine thats supercharged from the factory, and one that isn't?

NSX-Tuner

I think you're under the wrong impression. The CompTech SC is a aftermarket bolt-on component which only includes the following:

-Blower unit
-Icebox Intake
-Fuel System Upgrades
-ESM Unit
-Battery Tray & Comptech Battery Tie-down
-All Brackets, Belt and Hardware
-Requires new 51R battery.

Other than these components, there are no changes to the engine internals.

NSX-Tuner

After looking at the picture of the SC, I noticed that the battery is no where in view. This makes me think that replacing the battery could be a major undertaking.

Red Rider

Comptech is Awesome I should be their poster boy STB and B pipe next !!

Red Rider

At our West Coast Meet last year, they told us they would be working on the SC for the MDX. That would be

NSX-Tuner

Same here... STB and B-pipe... and konis and exhaust too...

CLS2001_97124

Nice review!!

I got the STB.. my next mod would be the B-pipe... and maybe the S/C..

NSX-Tuner

Thanks...

CLS2001_97124 ... I noticed you have a TL body kit on your CLS. Didn't realize a TL body kit would fit on a CL. Who makes it, how much, was it purely a bolt on solutions and was it unpainted OOB?

CLS2001_97124

Nope, not a direct bolt-on solution... I think most people on this fourm would agree that this horse has been beaten to death more than once, so I will spare them the trouble.. just check out 2nd Gen gallary, and you can find more info there.

pimpscls

very nice

Good Ride

I gotta do it! Is it hard to arrange a test drive? Who do you call? What's the deal -- great review!

NSX-Tuner

I just called them and made an appointment.