Performance TestToyo Tires Nitrous-Injected AccordThere's so much right with the Honda Accord that it's often the best-selling car in America. So what's wrong with the Accord is that it's common. But it doesn't take much to make it unique and quick. Built for Toyo Tires by Rytek Projektz Tuning, this '98 Accord V-6 sedan features just enough decorative tweaks and a nitrous oxide injection system to make it seriously speedy.
The nitrous system comes from Nitrous Express and runs from a heated 10-pound bottle in the trunk. Go-gas enters the engine through a CNC-machined fogger just forward of the throttle body and is managed by Rytek's own "Logic Center" integrated into the Accord's dash where the radio once was. With nitrous engaged, Rytek claims an additional 75 horsepower beyond the Accord's standard 200. Other functional engine mods are limited to a conical air filter, Magnecore ignition wires, NGK spark plugs, synthetic lubricants, and Dynomax Ultra-Flo mufflers expelling out Rytek's ExZt 2b billet exhaust tips.
Matching the engine's nitrous system is a set of Eibach Sportline springs that lower the car a bit more than an inch, and a set of ravishing HRE 18x7.5-inch wheels swaddled in P225/40ZR18 Toyo Proxes T-1 Plus tires. The wheels make the most profound styling statement, but the car's sinister countenance comes from a shearing of all its badges.
"Pushing the nitrous button on the Honda reminded me of 'The Incredible Hulk,'" test driver Mac DeMere reported.
"A flip of the switch turns the mild-mannered Bruce Banner into a potent superhero. Without nitrous this is a slightly quicker-and notably louder-Accord. With nitrous, it's a tire-spinning brute. I'd love to come up to a stoplight against a Z28 with this car: Unless the Camaro driver was spot on, he'd be looking at Accord taillights."
The Accord driver needs to be spot-on, too, because launching on laughing gas is even more difficult than getting a Viper GTS to leave effectively. Despite the sticky Toyos and the soft-shifting four-speed automatic, there's never enough traction when the gas is flowing. DeMere got the best times by brake-torquing and then, once the car is just barely rolling, triggering the nitrous. Done right, the 0-60-mph time dropped from 8.1 seconds without nitrous to just 5.8 seconds while sucking funny fumes, and the quarter-mile clocking plunged from 16.3 at 85.7 mph to 14.4 at 99.1 mph.
However the nitrous urge isn't this car's only talent. Those tires and springs make the placid-appearing sedan into a wicked corner burner; on the slalom course its 67.8 average speed was 4.1 mph better than a stock '98 Accord's. Ride quality is minimally affected. The chrome and polish job Rytek did on the engine and on-board Pioneer navigation system were also impressive.
Beyond all that, Rytek promises this four-door will be back wearing a supercharger and more fully developed suspension soon. That's too delectable to contemplate.