Prior to the revised 2005 models, the RSX Type-S was always a good, but not a great performer when it was thrown into some twisties. The back end would pogo down the road over small bumps, the body roll was a bit much, and people referred to my particular car as "the 4x4" since it looked so tall. Overall, it needed a bit of work. Around 2004, Acura (finally) introduced the A-Spec accessory package to help cure some of these handling bugs and make the styling err more towards the aggressive side. For the enthusiast, this was great news. However, a lofty price tag and the "all or nothing" approach to packaging the A-Spec parts made more than a few owners bitter. For drivers like myself, who prefer more of a "sleeper" look to their cars, the suspension bits are the only A-Spec pieces that really make sense. The search began...

I soon realized that if Acura would make the A-Spec kits available a la carte, it would save lots of headaches for those trying to buy one in the aftermarket. Every once in a while, the A-Spec suspension will pop-up in classifieds forums, but they're usually snatched-up pretty quickly. On eBay, I was conned into buying what was supposedly an A-Spec suspension for a too-good-to-be-true price, only to find out upon arrival that it was a Type-S suspension. This was getting frustrating. After the eBay experience and dead-ends with Internet forums, I finally found an Internet dealer willing to part the kit out and purchased the suspension brand-new, factory sealed. Considering that the A-Spec parts are simply off-the-shelf parts from Honda's Modulo line of accessories in Japan, it shouldn't be as difficult as this to find them.

Front A-Spec vs. Stock

Rear A-Spec vs. Stock

Before installing, I decided to take a look at what differences were visually apparent on the A-Spec pieces versus the stock units. As you can (hopefully) see in the photos, the steering linkage attachment points on the front struts look like they've been repositioned a bit. They've been moved forward, possibly in an effort to reduce bump steer that can surface with reduced ride height.

Front A-Spec vs. Stock Details

The front struts appear to have the top plates modified probably in an effort to correct camber, since negative camber increases as ride height is lowered. This seems to be confirmed since there was no change in the front camber when I put the car on the alignment rack. I'm still using my Ingalls camber adjusting bolts (review) in the front so I can increase negative camber, so the setting remains at around -1.2 degrees. The rear shocks do not have any provisions built-in to correct their camber, so the value did change by adding about 0.3 degrees of negative camber. Again, since I have an Ingalls rear camber kit (review), I simply dialed the additional camber out, bringing the value back to -0.6 degrees. These camber settings offer more grip than the stock settings without much of a penalty in straight-line traction or tire wear.

Copyright 2005, Temple of VTEC