Keeping it in the family

Dimers NSX Feature.   How many times in this scene we have all grow to love, do we turn to Japan, America and our homeland of the UK for inspiration, to see some of the finest Honda's built whether it be in a garage by a company or an enthusiast with the know-how in his garage. More than often, anywhere else in europe get's written off all together. But in the Netherlands, the honda purists are in just as good form as their over sea's counterparts. The Van Santen family are Honda enthusiasts. Stepping back to 2005 for a moment, Gerard Van Santen is racing his NSX in the European Honda Trophy. Travelling all across Europe to compete, whilst also doing very well in the championship, Gerards luck ran out on a very wet lap at Blanchimont and the NSX went nose first into a wall at over 200Km/h. This was not the end for one of the Van Santen's families NSX. Fortunately they had an amazing team behind them and were able to rebuild the NSX, even taking a win in the next event. During this rebuild period, with some influence from his son Dimer, the NSX took on a new persona, Taitec 2000 front bumper, Taitec rear fenders, Yokota front fenders, Marga Hills sidesteps and a Taitec GT500 wing are the additions which create this the widebody effect on the car. Making it a huge precense whether it is on the track on in the Rising Sun Performance garage where it gets regularly checked up on and fixed if any issues to arrise. Gerard's back had been causing him a lot of trouble, as this got worse, so did the appeal of driving an NSX Race car around as a daily, so he purchased a completely standard '91 NSX and worked out some form of deal with his son Dimer, as lets be honest if your dad was selling a car like this, you would try to make some form of deal too. With the Car now in Dimers possession, it didn't take him long to start improving on his dads creation. An order from Downforce saw a selection of diffusers, intake scoop & a few other carbon items were purchased, along with a new Taitec C3 Model 2 exhaust, which isn't loud, this is due to having to stay within limits for the track use it gets, but you can still here that distinguished NSX Roar. Fast forward back to today, Where the car is still in Dimers possession. Now part of the Rising Sun Performance Toyo Time attack team and regularly see's track action with his father in his NSX. The NSX has 390Bhp with 380nm of Torque, this is created by some very carefully selected modifications to the engine. Dimer selected a Comptech Supercharger to fit onto the NSX. Comptech are an American company that specialised in forced induction and their NSX kit was one that Dimer was most attracted too, with the Supercharger, he purchased the Comptech Manifold & B-pipe. Dimer chose the GruppeM Carbon fibre intake to also added. GruppeM are also one of the most highly sort after and desired intake manufactures, who have been creating intakes since 1996 and since then really have proven themselves for being high quality at a price you have to be willing to pay, other companies have tried to replicate their intakes but come no where near close with fitment and quality. The AEM ECU was selected to be the brain of the NSX, Together with a new fuel pump, 550cc injectors and a high boost pulley Dimer also got his hands on. The AEM ECU is a complete engine control system that plugs into the factory harness and uses the factory sensors, which is what attracted Dimer to it so he would not have to replace the whole system, as the NSX's system is more than up to the standard Dimer wanted. After experiencing some gear box issues, Rising Sun Performance diagnosed the problem to be far worse than first thought and the gearbox had to be sent to a Honda transmission specialist to get it fully rebuilt, including new exterior casing and new gears with a closer ratio for quicker gear changes. The Clutch had also gone when the gearbox went, so he replaced the previous clutch with an Exedy Sports Ceramic Clutch Kit. The Sports Ceramic Disc uses unique metallic configuration and low gravity, lightweight metallic material. This thick type disc has larger heat dissipation. Recently Dimer decided to pick up a new set of Varrstoen 18 inch wheels, which are a replica of the TE37's. Varrstoen are a dutch based wheel manufacture who pride themselves on quality, all be it using designs already well established in the car world. These are tightly wrapped in a set of Toyo R888's for ultimate grip on the track. The NSX now along with the extravagant body kit also has a custom made carbon front splitter for that additional down force through the corners. The Main focus for Dimer & his team is to make the car perform on its absoulte limits. Whilst I was over with Dimer & the Rising Sun Performance team Dimers NSX was having its check up before the Second round of the Toyo Time attack. The first round of the Time attack held at TT Circuit Assen, Dimer took the NSX along aswell as Team Rising Sun Performance to tackle this race. The RSP team over the last month had put in countless hours to get the car running for the race, yet the Saturday one week before the race when they were tuning the car on a dyno, the coilpack gave up and wouldnt let the car run above 4000RPM. Fortunately RSP were on the ball and managed to get hold of another one and get the NSX running just right for the first part of the Time Attack Series.  Unfortunately, after only the second lap on qualifying, Dimer saw the engine temperature rising and once getting back to the pits they found that the Radiator had been damaged. So they called it quits and looked ahead to race to at the legendary Zandvoort Race way. Race 2 held similar disapointments for Dimer. On his first lap out on the straight at around 200Km/h the engine failed & the NSX was towed back to the pits, the problem was that a fuel pump had failed, even though he managed to sort this reoccurring issues prevented him from continuing. Dimer keeps all his racing progress on his blog www.//racing.dimervansanten.com/ so if you would like to keep up to date with his progress you can do via the internet. This car has been through a lot with the Van Santen family, and I can only expect it to keep going through thick and thin, it is now very much a part of the family and Dimer hopes to have some success in the Toyo Time attack once it is running properly again. Engine Comptech Supercharger Gruppe M carbon/kevlar intake Downforce intake scoop Super Taitec C3 Model 2 exhaust Comptech headers Comptech testpipes Comptech fuel pressure regulator AEM ECU 550cc injectos Walbro fuel pump High boost pulley Close ratio gears Exedy ceramic clutch   Exterior Taitec JGTC 2000 front Custom carbon splitter Taitec JGTC 2000 rear fenders Taitec GT500 carbon wing Yokota JGTC front fenders Marga Hills sideskirts Gruppe M carbon sidevent Downforce carbon GT diffuser Downforce carbon decklid Downforce carbon bezel   Suspension Tein RA coilovers Dali racing race swaybars front Dali racing race swaybars rear Wheels and Brakes Varrstoen 18×10.5 Varrstoen 18×9.5 Toyo R888 Movit front calipers Brembo discs Movit steel brakelines   Interior Sparco EvoII seats Sabelt 4 point belts Sparco pedals Momo steering wheel Zanardi shift knob