Potato's AP2
02-20-2017, 06:18 PM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Potato's AP2
Hello!
After an unfortunate accident to my previous S2000, I had vowed to eventually come back to the chassis, potentially picking one up later on if the timing was right. After owning an FRS and an E36 M3 for the past 3 years, I decided to get into another S2000 after some convincing from Fernando and friends. I searched around for awhile, hoping to fall upon a GPW example, but the stars never quite aligned, and I didn't quite find the white car I was looking for. This lead to me searching around for other colors, which brought me to this MY05 NFR AP2 owned by a friend's brother who was looking to part with the car to purchase a BRZ so that he could have a little more room for his daily.
The car ended up being a 2005 New Formula Red S2000 with 62k~ miles. It had been previously lightly modified, but was parted out before I bought it, and the only remaining parts were a Tanabe Medallion Touring exhaust, a K&N FIPK intake, and a set of Buddy Club N+ coilovers. With an OEM AP2 lip and trunk lip, along with key hole covers and license plate holes, I was pretty stoked to find that I wouldn't need to source a new OEM lip for the car.
I have yet to take any pictures of the car yet because the car came with AP1 wheels... And I despise AP1 wheels with a fiery passion. My initial stage of modifications will mostly be me cleaning up some loose ends and light minor mods. While my mind has a plan for parts and a really grand idea for the end setup of the car, my wallet won't quite be able to cooperate as of yet, so things will probably be pretty minor, especially with my girlfriends insistence that I save money for our trip to Japan in April...
More pictures and updates incoming when it stops raining in Seattle... maybe.
Current Version.
Engine
J's Racing Circuit Muffler Ti 60RS
Berk 63.5mm Cat Delete Pipe
Ballade Sports Billet Aluminum Heavy-Duty TCT (Silver)
K&N FIPK Intake
Spoon Sports Reservoir Covers
Cusco Radiator Cooling Plate
Suspension / Wheels
Volk Racing CE-28N (17x9.5j et42, TI Silver)
Volk Racing TE-37 (17x9.5j et41, Bronze) / Achilles 123S (255/35-17)
Project Kics R40 Extended Floating Lug Nuts (Black Chrome)
Top Secret / Aragosta Coilovers
Swift Springs (12k/11k)
J's Racing S1 Camber Joint
Exterior
OEM Hardtop
OEM CR Clear Side Markers
OEM AP1 Front Bumper (Shaved Emblems / Plate Holes) / J's Racing Front Half Spoiler
OEM AP2 Front Bumper (Shaved Emblems / Plate Holes) / OEM CR Front Lip Spoiler
OEM AP2 Front Bumper / OEM AP2 Front Lip Spoiler
Js2k License Plate / Key Hole Covers / License Plate LED's
ASM IS-11 License Plate Bolts (Stainless)
Interior
ASM Racing Steering Wheel Boss
Works Bell Rapfix II Quick Release (Silver)
Nardi Classic Steering Wheel (330mm, Aluminum, Silver)
Bride Zieg 2 Fixed Bucket Seat (FRP Navy, Black)
Buddy Club Super Low Seat Rails
Carbing High Grip Shift Knob (Aluminum, Silver)
Js2k LED Dome Light
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S1 S2 (02-21-2017)
02-21-2017, 08:34 AM
#3
I enjoyed your E36 very much. I look forward to this. Welcome back.
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moomoopanda (06-07-2017)
02-23-2017, 04:13 PM
#4
Registered User
Thread Starter
02/18/17
Whew.
Where shall we begin? Above we have my new (to me) S2000 just after purchasing the car and receiving the keys from the previous owner. Like I mentioned before, the car came with a K&N FIPK Intake, Tanabe Medallion Touring cat-back exhaust, along with a set of Buddy Club N+ Coilovers. The car had a few little nicks and things here and there, but overall was in great condition. The previous owner only drove it 6k miles during his ownership, and it mainly was a garage queen that was driven on nice summer days, ironically it was raining on the day he sold it to me....
In any case, the first order of business was to swap out the shift knob for a Pivot Super Quick Shift Knob I had laying around as I strongly dislike the stock shift knob and while I was at it, I ended up borrowing my buddies offset shift extender that he wasn't using as well. I was initially pretty skeptical towards the offset extender, but ended up really enjoying that the shift knob was raised and moved closer to the wheel. I also installed a Bride Zieg 2 bucket seat with a Buddy Club Racing Spec seat rail as I much prefer bucket seats over the stock offerings. Admittedly, the Zieg 2 doesn't actually fit very well in the S2000 cabin. With the extended thigh bolsters, the seat was a struggle to install because the center console and the bolster was attempting to occupy the same space, and after the immense struggle to install the seat, I found that the shoulder wing portions of the seat actually rests up against the door panel and occasionally will rub around if the seat shifts. I am still debating if I want to switch my Zieg 2 out for a Zeta 2 or Artis 2 for better clearance, but for the moment, I'm just gonna live with the rubbing and hope it doesn't bother me too much. My plan is to get a Works Bell short hub so that I can transfer my steering wheel setup over from my M3, along with transferring my Pioneer head unit as well.
Whew.
Where shall we begin? Above we have my new (to me) S2000 just after purchasing the car and receiving the keys from the previous owner. Like I mentioned before, the car came with a K&N FIPK Intake, Tanabe Medallion Touring cat-back exhaust, along with a set of Buddy Club N+ Coilovers. The car had a few little nicks and things here and there, but overall was in great condition. The previous owner only drove it 6k miles during his ownership, and it mainly was a garage queen that was driven on nice summer days, ironically it was raining on the day he sold it to me....
In any case, the first order of business was to swap out the shift knob for a Pivot Super Quick Shift Knob I had laying around as I strongly dislike the stock shift knob and while I was at it, I ended up borrowing my buddies offset shift extender that he wasn't using as well. I was initially pretty skeptical towards the offset extender, but ended up really enjoying that the shift knob was raised and moved closer to the wheel. I also installed a Bride Zieg 2 bucket seat with a Buddy Club Racing Spec seat rail as I much prefer bucket seats over the stock offerings. Admittedly, the Zieg 2 doesn't actually fit very well in the S2000 cabin. With the extended thigh bolsters, the seat was a struggle to install because the center console and the bolster was attempting to occupy the same space, and after the immense struggle to install the seat, I found that the shoulder wing portions of the seat actually rests up against the door panel and occasionally will rub around if the seat shifts. I am still debating if I want to switch my Zieg 2 out for a Zeta 2 or Artis 2 for better clearance, but for the moment, I'm just gonna live with the rubbing and hope it doesn't bother me too much. My plan is to get a Works Bell short hub so that I can transfer my steering wheel setup over from my M3, along with transferring my Pioneer head unit as well.
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moomoopanda (02-27-2017)
02-27-2017, 11:27 AM
#7
Registered User
Thread Starter
02/21/17
When I purchased the car, it originally came with a set of Buddy Club N+ dampers that had been on the car since he purchased it a year ago. While the coilovers weren't bad per say, I just wasn't quite a fan of them and wanted to look for alternatives while I saved to one day (far far away) get a set of Ohlins DFV's for the car. While searching around the classified's, I ended up stumbling upon Elliot's listing for a set of Top Secret Aragosta coilovers for sale locally at a steal of a price. He had cleaned them up and they looked excellent, however the only gripe was that one of the rear coilover dampening adjustment knobs had broken somehow, and so there was no longer a hard stop for the adjustment, it just kept spinning endlessly. I decided it was worth the risk to try them out and potentially look into rebuild options if I deemed it necessary.
From my limited research, the Top Secret coilovers were built by Aragosta with their own specific valving and had 15-way adjustable shocks. Interestingly, almost every set I could find for sale had completely different sets of swift springs on them ranging anywhere from 10k to 18k. This set I got from Elliot ended up having 12k/11k Swift springs, and I feel they are a nice balance for the coilover setup. After a long night of installing them, I found that I really enjoy them compared to the Buddy Clubs, although they may be a touch too stiff occasionally. I found that 3 of the 4 seemed to be working fine and adjusted from soft to stiff good, while the 4th coilover with the broken dampening adjustment seemed to have too much rebound (or potentially blown?).
I also ended up picking up a set of clear CR side markers because I prefer clear markers, and one of the amber ones that came with the car had a broken clip. After finishing up swapping out the coilovers, I tightened everything up and took a short drive to the nearest well-lit gas station to take some quick pictures. I still need to adjust the height a bit, but for now this shall suffice. I'm waiting for my J's S1 camber joint to ship to me from Evasive, then will be installing the joint, and then doing some final height adjustments before getting an alignment.
When I purchased the car, it originally came with a set of Buddy Club N+ dampers that had been on the car since he purchased it a year ago. While the coilovers weren't bad per say, I just wasn't quite a fan of them and wanted to look for alternatives while I saved to one day (far far away) get a set of Ohlins DFV's for the car. While searching around the classified's, I ended up stumbling upon Elliot's listing for a set of Top Secret Aragosta coilovers for sale locally at a steal of a price. He had cleaned them up and they looked excellent, however the only gripe was that one of the rear coilover dampening adjustment knobs had broken somehow, and so there was no longer a hard stop for the adjustment, it just kept spinning endlessly. I decided it was worth the risk to try them out and potentially look into rebuild options if I deemed it necessary.
From my limited research, the Top Secret coilovers were built by Aragosta with their own specific valving and had 15-way adjustable shocks. Interestingly, almost every set I could find for sale had completely different sets of swift springs on them ranging anywhere from 10k to 18k. This set I got from Elliot ended up having 12k/11k Swift springs, and I feel they are a nice balance for the coilover setup. After a long night of installing them, I found that I really enjoy them compared to the Buddy Clubs, although they may be a touch too stiff occasionally. I found that 3 of the 4 seemed to be working fine and adjusted from soft to stiff good, while the 4th coilover with the broken dampening adjustment seemed to have too much rebound (or potentially blown?).
I also ended up picking up a set of clear CR side markers because I prefer clear markers, and one of the amber ones that came with the car had a broken clip. After finishing up swapping out the coilovers, I tightened everything up and took a short drive to the nearest well-lit gas station to take some quick pictures. I still need to adjust the height a bit, but for now this shall suffice. I'm waiting for my J's S1 camber joint to ship to me from Evasive, then will be installing the joint, and then doing some final height adjustments before getting an alignment.
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02-27-2017, 01:10 PM
#8
Clean af, thanks for fixing those pictures 
02-27-2017, 05:55 PM
#10
Registered User
Thread Starter
Speaking of which, two more pictures while I was at the bank the other day...
