SlowTeg

Thanks. My build is mainly about common sense/reasonable mods for a fun street/track car and my opinion of them to try and help others. While some high dollar mods out there (like bumpers/etc) might look nice, I can't justify their cost as they don't have a strong performance/cost ratio.

On that note I got the Urge rear rotors installed today and everything all set for my track day Sunday. I actually have quite a few mods since my last track day which was a year ago so I'm curious to see how things do.

SlowTeg

Trackdaze May 15- Shenandoah

Alright, well the track day on Sunday was a blast. I'm pissed because I just went to look at the datalog files and it looks like Racechrono lost my previous settings for recording from my bluetooth gps and bluetooth obd2 reader, so I have shitty/no data (the internal 1hz gps sucks). I'm f'ing pissed. Lesson learned, I'll have to check the settings at the start of every day. I'll post a video or two up later but it won't have the nice data overlays.

So I went into the day with a bunch of new mods. I'm happy to report the oil cooler looks to be working well. It was a cold/cool day, and temps were steadily in the mid 220's F. I think I might've hit 230 once, but for a 50F or so ambient day, that's pretty good. On a hot day, they will be a little warmer, but shouldn't be bad. I haven't checked the catch can but will next time I swap the street pads on. I imagine it's fine though. The intake seems to be sucking in air, and working as well. It makes a lot of noise and probably makes a bit more power. It's hard to say as it's been a while since my last track day, but the 9k rear springs seem to make the car a touch more neutral and understeer less.

Regarding the brakes, I installed the Urge rear rotors and the brakes seemed to be fine. I'm too lazy to measure pad wear before/after events so I'll just have to keep a general eye on them and see how they do. They certainly run cooler than the oem solid discs, so they definitely can't hurt.

I also flashed the latest firmware from Hondata, which allows you to modify another throttle table, and I'll say the throttle pedal now is much more linear and part throttle is much nicer on track. Previously the throttle had a fine window and would got to WOT too easily.

Now to comment on the track day and my driving/etc. I'll say I still have some getting used to with the square setup and BBK. My last track day was a year ago at this event, and it was my first with the sq setup and BBK. I was having trouble last time getting used to the new pads/bbk/square tires and getting the modulation right (the oem brakes w/ dtc60's up front needed more pressure from my foot). This time around I was locking up the tires much less and felt more comfortable with them. I've been trying to focus on having more steady brake pressure when heel toeing (I tended to apply less pressure before when blipping the throttle) and I think I've improved a lot in that regard. I'm not sure if it's 100% smooth, but it's gotten a lot better. The brakes are phenomenal and very consistent which is nice to not have to think about.

The one thing I really struggled with was braking too early/overbraking for turns. I've done shenandoah so many times on the old setup, a couple brake points are ingrained in my head that I tended to overslow for a couple corners and I didn't carry enough speed so I could trailbrake in/through them. I'm losing a lot of time there. It's sort of like a mental block that I need to get past (the grass and oncoming wall sure seem to approach fast ) and more seat time will help. I did manage a couple consistent low 1:43's which is good as I've put in a new best time. I have a recorded 1:42.5 but the track was fast in the morning and I'm not 100% sure I trust the crappy internal gps.

I also met a couple folks skilleds2000, topplayer, and skatebrian. to you guys for letting me try out your seats and a pleasure to meet you. After some test fitting I've come to find out my big girl hips are too big for the bride vios seats, the sparco EVO are VERY snug on me, and a little too tight in the hip area, and the Recaro PP's were the only ones that fit me but I think they might've been a little snug in the shoulders. The harness holes did seem a little low also. My next mod is certainly going to be seat/harness/hans, although probably not till next year. I wish there was a local recaro dealer.. anyway.. that'll be a bridge to cross later on.

I gotta couple fun ridealongs and it's always fun to see how others drive and where I need to improve. Derek's beast with the J35 is sick. Torque is crazy and the thing doesn't sound like a honda anymore. The big downside is he needs taller gearing badly as he was in 6th on the straights and Shenandoah doesn't even have long straights.. Also because of how low things sit he had to baby it in the carousel which was hurting his time. I'm not sure how he can fix this but it's probably only an issue at this track, as the carousel is VERY hard on the car and suspension. It was hilarious seeing some driver's expressions as they were shocked when Derek was literally ON their bumper if they didn't give him the point soon. There may have even been a couple passes without a point, or we got the point as we were already next to them.

I also went for a ride with skatebrian, and damn can he drive. Definitely a humbling experience. I think he was on 225 hoosiers and man it's impressive and fun to sit shotgun. Be warned though, he has a 5 pt harness on the passenger side, and it's called a "nut buster" for a reason. I thought I was secured in pretty well with the harnesses but I guess not. In the carousel he bottomed out a couple times so hard I thought he might've broken something, but he didn't seem to flinch. He rattled off many 1:38x laps with me riding shotgun, and it was impressive to see him consistenly turn fast laps. He transitioned so smoothly from full threshold braking to trail braking effortlessly. I don't know what the track record is for s2000's on Shenandoah but he must've been pretty damn close or beat it with his best of the day.

I might put up some more thoughts later as well as some pictures and video. All in all a fun day for sure. Here's one obligatory track photo:

SlowTeg

Here are a couple pictures I took from Sunday:



Here's a video of my fastest laps of the day. The data sucks as I mentioned before because I didn't realize till the day was over that I wasn't using the data from the obd2 and external gps module.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNZoZQmS4EQ

SlowTeg

A couple more thoughts and notes.. With the oil cooler I was seeing a max pressure of ~68psi in vtec. I went back and zoomed in on my gauge from last May pre-oil cooler, and was able to see my oil pressure. With oil temp in the 220-230F range, I was seeing a steady pressure of 75psi in vtec. With oil temperature of ~260F, I was seeing a pressure of mid to upper 60's psi (it's really hard to distinguish the exact number).

I find this interesting as it's clear the oil cooler setup has resulted in a pressure drop of about 7 psi at the same temperature. Is it a big concern? I don't think so, as I was seeing similar pressure with even hotter oil w/o the oil cooler. This is on 10w30 castrol syntec titanium oil (stuff that comes in the gold bottle).

For easier future reference:

Pre-oil cooler:
220-230F oil temp: 75psi in vtec
~260F oil temp: mid to upper 60's psi in vtec

Mishimoto oil cooler:
220-230F oil temp: 68psi in vtec

King Tut

That's awesome you got a ride with Brian. He is definitely one of the quickest S2000 drivers.

SlowTeg

Yep, definitely awesome to see what a good driver can really do with similar mods. The brakes are so good now I'm learning to trust them and not second guess them. On the OEM brakes they were inconsistent and I had some odd behavior at times.

Funny part is I've read the problem of fuel starvation on long sweeping turns and wondered what it felt like.. Brian was clearly having this problem at the end of the long sweeping left hander (called Big Bend) and it basically feels like fuel cut. Not that I was planning on running a surge tank anytime soon.. but it's pretty clear if/when you have the problem.

King Tut

If you have an all OEM fuel system you should be okay. I know the key to fixing it in mine with a Full Blown 340 pump was to make sure that the fuel sock was on the bottom of the bowl in the tank. With the non DBW you have a rubber hose that adjusts the length, but with the DBWs you have a fixed length plastic tube with grommets. The OEM fuel sock sits the lowest. I haven't had any fuel starve issues going down to a half tank. The fuel starve can be dangerous if you are loaded up in a long sweeper with weight on the rear end and suddenly your throttle goes to zero.

SlowTeg

So not a whole lot going on for me. It looks like the new Dominion Raceway track has some serious problems and who knows if/when it'll ever open so the TNIA I signed up for on the 21st is most likely cancelled.

I did wash the car after my track day later that week. Guess it's been a couple weeks now. I snapped some quick pictures with my phone then as this is the cleanest my car has been in a couple years. Fortunately my car is a quasi-garage queen these days so it should stay nice and clean. I have a short commute that usually entails lots of traffic so I have little desire to drive the car if the weather isn't nice. I used some 303 on the top which gives the top a nice dark non-faded look. One of these days/years I'll have to try and take some nice pictures of my car with nice lighting and a decent backdrop. I like that the car looks relatively stock and people always comment how it looks very oem-ish, which I like. Anyway, a couple pictures I took.. Excuse the rust on the rotors as I just washed the car and didn't get a chance to run around the block to clean them off..



I even used some of that metal polish stuff that I haven't used in ages to clean the tips.


Life has been busy lately so I don't have as much time to mess with the car and do as many track days as I'd like, but hopefully I'll get more time in the future..

skatebrian624

looks good man. I didn't realize you had the interlagos, I also had a set on my CR. Pretty sweet.


I also gathered that you like to polish the tips of pipes, hahaha dick jokes.

SlowTeg

Well... I wouldn't say I like it, but we all gotta do it once in a while.

Ya I like the Interlagos and they look better in person than I thought they would. I was debating on going with black wheels and am glad I didn't. I think they're good wheels, especially for the price.