The NSX rear suspension is an engineering masterpiece. The aluminum “bridge” is visible thru the new cut-out @ center of rear bulkhead (but not for long!).

 After a few minutes on the bandsaw—bridge no longer in the way of Porsche transaxle, but a new crossmember is necessary to tie the R & L suspension components together.

This is the beginning of “VERSION 1.0″ rear suspension crossmember (would you believe VERSION 2.0 doesn’t evolve until 2 yrs later!)

 I’m the design engineer, pattern-maker, cutter, fitter, bolter-on’er, & “back-to-the-drawing-board” guy—but I’m no welder! (Steven Arlia of Arizona Precision Fabrication is my TIG “artist”)

 All aluminum fab work through-out utilizes 6061-T6 material, & is TIG welded.

 Aluminum bushings are 3 different lengths to accommodate the fact that the milled bolt bosses (in the NSX suspension pieces), are not all in the same plane.

 With aluminum plate perfectly aligned, bushings are positioned for weld-up.

 One bolt on each side, just to secure during weld-up.

 More pattern testing for gussets.

 Final welded assy. before “clean-up”.

 Trial fit—view from engine bay looking towards rear.

 View from back of car—before lightening holes & dressing-down.

 OEM suspension all bolted-up. Also visible is custom-fab “shock-bridge”, which ties the frame rails together in the same plane as OEM shock towers. Notice the special 3/8ths” plates that are  welded to underside of frame rails—these allow entire OEM suspension to be placed 2″ aft of stock placement (details in next 3 pics). Also in photo; foam-core “mock-up” of new engine bay firewall—gotta love that duct tape!

 Driver’s-side rear frame rail with new holes cut-in exactly 2″ aft of stock holes (front of car towards right)

 Close-up from previous pic.

 3/8ths” frame plates with bosses (that are drilled & tapped for Keenserts)—note boss placement is 2″ aft of OEM frame holes—which will still have bolts securing assys, in addition to full-perimeter weld-up!

 Driver’s-side frame plate ready for welding (rear of car towards left).

 Ditto to above.

Axle centerline 2″ aft of OEM—sort of funny-looking, for now.

 View from rear thru trunk shows “shock-bridge”, & newly fabbed chrome-moly engine-support crossmember laying on the floor of engine bay.

 View from passenger side engine bay looking into trunk area shows how shock-bridge welds into the strongest portion of rear chassis, namely where the 2 shock towers intersect with the frame rails. Also visible is lower transaxle support crossmember & how it ties the R. & L. OEM suspension castings together. (I know there’s a lot of you NSX’rs out there who think these are forgings—but they’re not—the control arms ARE forged, however).

 View from inside trunk looking forward into engine bay—engine-support crossmember is bolted in place, ready to cradle the LS7. Note how front of crossmember triangulates into the lower-main bar of roll cage (where it crosses thru tunnel)—this provides additional stiffening of the already incredibly stiffer-than-stock chassis—it also keeps the engine & transaxle from wanting to move forward in a critical event (front impact for those of you in Rio Linda).

 Another perspective on the 2 aluminum crossmembers—one ties the top-half of chassis together, while the other ties the bottom.

 Better view of how engine-support crossmember bolts into the lower-main bar of roll cage (@ top of pic).

 Engine support at top, & transaxle support at bottom.

 View from lower edge of “notched” rear bulkhead shows all 3 crossmembers in their relative positions.

 Close-up of drivers-side rear frame re-inforcement & chrome-moly shock-rocker (ball bearings inside tubing portion of rocker)

 Pin-hole just to left of top end of rocker is a pilot hole for the opening that will be cut that allows end of shock to “poke-thru” OEM shock tower, & connect to rocker.

 Frontal view at this stage shows passenger-side OEM NSX suspension still in place, while drivers-side is completely removed. This was done to gauge original axle centerline, while extending it forward by 2″ on drivers-side—it also allowed accurate calculations for increased track width (5.5″), as wheel-hub flange to frame rail dimensions are projected to yield a Zero scrub radius (easier to accomplish when you’re designing your own suspension!). The orange tie-down strap at top of pic is actually holding the OEM control arms (left side of pic) in their accurate static ride height position even though chassis is on “rollable” jig.

 Over-engineered battery tray is actually Version 1.0, & was designed around the optimum Odessy Battery configuration at the time. Of course Odessy came out with an even more ideal shape & size since this pic—SOOO, Version 2.0 looks totally different—will post when completed. Also visible in this pic is drivers-side front shock rocker (R. side of pic) already bolted to top of frame rail near firewall.

 Close-up of passenger-side front shock rocker (front of car towards right). In this photo rocker actually extends thru “window” in inner wheel well. Turned out later on window wasn’t necessary, as decision was made to remove entire wheel-well assy’s. (see pics below).

 Preview of upcoming horror flick?—no, just cutting away unnecessary sheet metal & wheel wells. (fabricator’s note: cut-off wheel much easier to control, & cleaner resulting cut than Plasma torch!)

 The aluminum sheet metal is several layers (laminations) —have to make certain cuts are all the way thru, & then carefully “tweak” until loose.

 Taking “wiggling” to an un-desired art-form—but it works (shoulda had the MsBadwrench girls stage this shot!)

 Voila!—entire structure only weighs 6 lbs, but the placement is relatively high to desired center of gravity!

“Cleaned-up” front end much easier to work with for all sorts of systems that will be incorporated in “Top-Secret” front suspension design.

 Now to perform the same “clean-up” procedure on rear frame rails. Cutting passenger-side wheel-well from inside of trunk. Notice OSHA -approved “invisible” safety-guard on 4″ grinder!  Nothing that is structurally important is cut/removed (i.e. shock towers, frame rails, etc.)

 Cut line leading towards bottom of pic is actually the outside edge of frame rail “stamping”—where the multi-layer frame is spot-welded together.

Cutting around back end of frame rails (easier from backside than laying under car, cutting overhead). Decision to remove box-like trunk structure was arrived at late in project—to facilitate a much more aggressive “slope” in rear body profile that blends with the rear hatch glass angle (between rear wheel tubs). Also, rear axle centerline is now plotted 3″ farther aft than stock—-which allows for state-of-the-art “aero” packaging. I have to build the rear body “clip” from scratch anyway…anyone want to buy a complete Cantrell GT wide body kit?

Removal is easy if you double check all of your cuts to make sure they are clean thru multi-layers of stamped aluminum—again, wiggling becomes an art form (shoulda let the MsBadwrench girls do this part for photo).

Entire shell weighs only 9 pounds, but placement is relatively high (to center of gravity)–which is undesireable.

“Cleaned-up” rear frame rails—different perspective. Note cardboard template for rear radius on left rear suspension sub-frame mock-up.