This article comes to us from member Steguis. Hopefully it will inspire us to get out, put the top down, and enjoy spring! -SF
As the weather starts to get warmer in the Northeast and the days slowly but surely get longer, many of us are once again excited to take our cars out, go to meets, hit the track and find any excuse possible to enjoy our cars. We are reminded of good times, hanging out with fellow S2000 owners, sharing our love for this amazing vehicle. Continue reading →
Chuckwalla and I Have... History.
Round 3 of the Challenge was crushing. I left Chuckwalla humiliated, frustrated, and furious with myself. Continue reading →
Editor’s Note: This is the first in our series of community contributions, courtesy of member Silence808. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. -SF
While it may be that you can get your kicks on Route 66, you take all the risks on Route 666. Highway 191- formerly Route 666, sometimes called the Coronado trial, often called the Devil’s Highway – is a drive with 450 hairpin turns, 6,000ft of elevation changes (often without guardrails), and multiple topography changes in the course of 100 miles. Imagine the Tail of the Dragon, only for six hours straight. If America’s Highway, Rt. 66, winds like a gentle dream across the US, then Route 666 twists wildly like the unrelenting nightmares of a madman. Continue reading →
Have a story to tell, opinion to share, or unusual DIY to detail? The front page is looking to add more community-created content!
All you have to do is write up a draft, add 2-3 pictures, and PM it to one of our Editors, ScandinavianFlick and SakiGT. We’ll work with you to polish it to perfection, and publish it when it’s ready.
Disclaimer: Please keep submissions clean and S2000-related. Otherwise we’ll dispatch ninjas to disconnect your VTEC solenoid. Or send you a strongly worded letter. Or something.
Once or twice a year, since the AP2 came to market, I hear some S2000 owner or another talk about the issue of clutch slip and the clutch delay valve (CDV) in the AP2 S2000. As well, over the years, I continue to hear the same incorrect “facts” spouted off by those owners about the CDV, as a sort of incorrect folklore passed on in the oral tradition, similar to “angry gods cast lightning from the heavens”. (If you actually believe that stuff, we’ll need to have a separate conversation…)
Continue reading →
The Advanced Group Heads Out
Ryan, in the white AP2, is gridded two spots ahead of me. He’s a great guy; he even lent me an air gauge earlier, but right now I want nothing in the world more than to see his headlights receding in my mirrors. It’s nothing personal; he was two seconds faster than me last session, and that makes him a target. Fortunately, the pregrid is rearranged between sessions to put the faster cars toward the front; I’m starting this lap in position number eight, with around twelve cars behind me.
The S2KI News Team is proud to announce that ScandinavianFlick will be participating in the 2012 Speedventures S2K Challenge. Come along for the ride as he details the intense preparation and fierce competition of nine events in this Time Trial series against the fastest S2000s in the Southwest!
The season opener is March 18 in Australia, and if the following video doesn’t get you in the mood, you’re colder than Kimi’s favorite beverage. Enjoy the video below and join in on the 2012 silly season discussion thread on S2KI’s Auto Racing Discussion forum.
‘Platypus’ style stepped nose designs seem to be the distinguishing feature for this seasons F1 cars. Will McLaren’s gambit to follow a conventional design prove beneficial or will Alonso and a resurgent Ferrari take the lead? Will Red Bull and Vettel dominate as in the season past? Join the discussion here on S2KI.
RELATED LINKS:
S2KI – Auto Racing Discussion
The above video is an example of how a bad Timing Chain Tensioner (TCT) sounds. TCTs go bad as early as 20k miles and the symptom is a metallic rattle or raspy noise when starting a warm/hot engine. Some people experience “baseball card in the spokes” sounds as well. Since there is no comprehensive DIY on this, nickp and I decided to make one when repairing a TCT. Below are the instructions for getting to the TCT and for removing and replacing it depending on whether you repair or replace the whole unit. My TCT went bad starting at 50k miles, but other owners have reported problems as early as 10k mi. Dealerships can charge anywhere from $200-800 for this simple fix, so its worth doing yourself.
With the advent of the new year, the 2012 S2K Challenge series is off to a great start. The first event was staged at Buttonwillow Raceway Park using the 13CW layout. Our member Dipstick reported on the event and his account follows past the bump. It may also interest you to know that our very own ScandinavianFlick is planning to participate in the series and we are looking forward to his coverage as the season progresses. In the meanwhile click through and read Dipstick’s account of the inaugural 2012 S2K Challenge Series event.
Many of us have memories of our very first track outing. The hustle and bustle around the paddock, purpose-built race cars being driven in on trailers, the whirr of pneumatic tools as lug nuts are tightened and the public announcement system calling groups to the staging area. All that may make a rookie feel out of place or insignificant in the grander scheme of things until the time comes to go out on track for the first session. Once you go out and run on track, you realize that you have crossed a threshold and that you now have something in common with all those people that you saw in the paddock. You now have driven on track, survived it and want to go out for more – an addiction takes hold. From the land down under (Australia mate!), our member, nofearofdanger, writes about his memorable first track day. We hope that this rekindles fond memories of your own first track day and we also hope that it helps those of you considering a track day to make an affirmative and life-changing decision. Be sure to leave a word of encouragement for nofearofdanger by sounding off in the comments.
Continue reading →
This is the EV-ster. It scares me.
I love everything about internal combustion. I love the noise, the mechanical complexity, the endless variation in character and delivery between motors; the smell of uncatalyzed exhaust wafting from the track is better than coffee on a cold morning.
Electric motors have precisely none of these things, yet Honda seems to have embraced them for their next generation of sports cars. Even the new NSX will be a hybrid. It would be unprofessional to panic prematurely, so I set out to determine whether electric cars can still be fun.
Peace of mind – it’s what we seek as we get on with our lives. Perhaps it is the litigious nature of global society, the world coming to an end in 2012 or sophisticated marketing that has us geared towards derisking or hedging every aspect of life. We set aside income for a retirement nest egg, purchase trip insurance when we go on an all-inclusive vacation to a resort where one need not worry about watching their wallet, and among a whole host of other things, also carry insurance on our car. Auto insurance, it’s that thing which calms you down as you realize applying opposite lock does not quite seem to be working OR the first thing that calms you after you’ve walked out to a car that has been the object of theft or vandalism. Yet not many actually know the full extent of their insurance coverage until an untoward event forces them to learn possibly the hard way when it is discovered that insurance will not cover the damage to your S2000.
Many of us enjoyed reading i_heart_my_db8‘s encounter with the McLaren MP4-12C. While we are all worshippers at the altar of VTEC, most of us remain at heart car enthusiasts and acknowledge other cars. Likewise, it warms our heart when a fellow car enthusiast acknowledges our enthusiasm as well. As things turned out, a group of Southern California S2000 owners were out on their routine Last Sunday of the Month Santa Monica Run when they encountered a McLaren MP4-12C. The door opened and jaws dropped everywhere when people realized who the owner was (Hint: the most famous chin in recent American talk show history).
“Don’t get a ticket, and don’t get dead.”
It takes a different part of your brain to speak than it does to think, so sometimes it’s important to verbally reaffirm your goals before you set out for the day. It had been a long week, so I thought I’d set out on a beautiful, sunny, Southern California Sunday morning and go get some mental help. At my last billing, my therapy costs me $4.06 a gallon, but it’s always money well spent. Advice is metered out quite vocally with my right foot.
[Jump in, fire up the engine, drop the top, select playlist, roll out]
