aozora

Through some sage advice and experience from my own job, everything needs a baseline or starting point so that any changes can be measured and improved upon. This applies to personal improvement for many things and in particular here - cars and track times.
If a change or modification is made, it has to make some sort of improvement in times. If it does or even if it doesn't - we need to analyse why to find out what went right or hopefully to a lesser extent, what went wrong.

From this, I encourage every S2000 owner to bring their car to the track - stock. Buying a catalog full of parts and installing them all at once is not going to teach anything but how to spend poorly.

I hope after putting some effort into writing all this, I can share my experiences so others can learn, improve themselves and most of all - have fun with modifying cars



Links

My Youtube channel - Blueskiesforever
My Instagram profile
Nakama - Facebook group page


Lap times (Fastest by tyre type)

Calder Park
- 1:09.51 (I/E, Suspension, 4.44 FD w/1.5 way, with Street tyres (Dunlop Z2))

Phillip Island
- 1:58.2 (I/E, Suspension, 4.44 FD w/1.5 way, CR wing with Street tyres (Dunlop Z2))

Sandown
- 1:29.6 (I/E, Suspension, 4.44 FD w/1.5 way, CR wing with Street tyres (Dunlop Z2))

Wakefield Park - NSW
- 1:10.29 (Unofficial - Racebox lap timer) (I/E, Suspension, 4.44 FD w/1.5 way, Amuse GT wing with Street tyres (Advan AD08R))

Winton Raceway (Long)
- 1:39.44 (I/E, Suspension, 4.44 FD w/1.5 way, Amuse GT wing with Street tyres (Advan AD08R))
- 1:38.54 (I/E, Suspension, 4.44 FD w/1.5 way, CR wing with Semi-slick tyres (Hankook Z221 tyres))


Thread index

Reserved...


Current Modification list - 16/06/15

Engine and Power:
Berk 63mm High Flow Cat
Cusco oil catch can
GT Motoring - air pump delete kit
Honda upgraded engine oil banjo bolts (AP2)
Honda upgraded intake cam cotters and retainers (AP2)
J’s Racing oil filter bracket
J's Racing SPL header
K&N FIPK Intake kit
Spoon baffled oil pan
Spoon Sports single 70mm exhaust catback
Toda TCT

Cooling:
Cusco air diversion plate
GReddy oil filter and radiator hose sensor adaptors
Koyo aluminium radiator
Koyo high pressure radiator cap
Spoon thermo switch
Spoon thermo stat

Chassis and Drivetrain:
AP2 built differential with 4.44 Cryo/Shot peened final drive and ATS 1.5 Metal Clutch type LSD
Cusco rear subframe brace
Cusco floor pan brace
Exedy Heavy Duty clutch kit
Hard Dog 4 point roll bar with diagonal and harness bar to CAMS Type 2 specification (Fabraications)
Spoon braided clutch line
Spoon differential mounts
Spoon driveshaft spacers
Spoon engine and gearbox mounts
Spoon lightened flywheel
Spoon rigid collars

Suspension:
Eibach adjustable front swaybar
Ikeya Formula rear adjustable toe arms
J's Racing 12mm RCAs Rear
J’s Racing L2 front camber/RCA joints w/4mm RCA plate.
Powerflex/Energy Suspension Black suspension bushings
Spoon front anti-bumpsteer kit
AST 5200 (F/R: 14/13 kg/mm)

Brakes and Wheels:
Advan GT - Racing White, 18x9.5 +45 square with Advan AD08R 265/35/18 tyres
Brembo GT - Silver/Slotted BBK
Cusco brake master cylinder stopper
Goodridge braided brake line kit
Project Mu brake fluid
Project Mu Front and Rear Club racer pads
Project Mu Racing Floating wheel nut set
Wasp Composites brake ducting kit (Not installed completely)

Exterior:
Amuse dry carbon GT wing
Amuse R1 front bar
Flared front and rear guards and shaved badges
GT Motoring front tow hook powder coated blue
Honda AP2 complete headlights
Honda AP2 tail lights
Honda flat amber side indicators
Honda hardtop
Honda side strakes
J’s Racing Type-S rear tow hook powder coated blue (Track use only)
Soft-top with glass rear window (Stripped out)

Interior:
Alarm system
Alpine headunit
eCliptech Shift-I rev meter
CAMS approved fire extinguisher and alloy mount
Defi Advance Control Unit w/Defi CR Oil temp, Water temp and Oil pressure gauges
Honda AP2 gearknob
Honda AP2 radio door
Izzys/Rockstar Garage front and race rear hardtop brackets
MB Quart (old generation) splits w/ upgraded tweeters
Modifry headunit control S2000 integration
Recaro ASM limited RS-G w/ Recaro rail (Drivers side)
Seeker Japan gauge dash mount
Willans 4 point harness (Track use only)


Random compilation videos

I can't believe I forgot to add Hann's videos! Definitely check out his work... amazing stuff.
I'm pretty sure I've watched these videos well over 20 times... each?!

October 2012 Winton track day
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-70D1hFTik[/youtube]

November 2013 Winton track day
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwPp2LX4ZMw[/youtube]

jonner

Keep up the good work....

aozora

Most of the following entries are from an old blog that I have since neglected and will probably refer back to here so excuse the messy layout/lack of organisation/poor writing style...

Why the S2000?

Back in the later years of High school - a High school friend introduced me to a series called Best Motoring International... and the Hot Version series.

One volume/episode introduced a showdown between 2 Honda S2000s... between workshops Amuse and J's Racing. The late braking, corner entry speed and sliding had me excited in the pants really bad ahha.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5kdHYypqqw[/youtube]

I was in the market for a car at the time. Checked my bank account - $3,000 odd. S2000 price at the time second hand - $50k...
No chance. So I went off to find the closest thing... a S13 (RWD, decent power etc.).

Fast forward 7 years later... I was in the market again for a car. Around 20k was the budget... It was either an Evolution 7 or 8, Chaser JZX100, Mazda FD3S RX-7 or the Honda S2000.

The Evolution was fast, had 5 seats but.. 4WD and heavy electronic assistance.
The Chaser had potential for power, had 5 seats but was a bit on the heavy side.
The Mazda was fast, had 2 or 4 seats but... rotary and not as fuel economic as I would have liked.

The Honda was kinda fast, was my dream car back then but... 2 seats.
But then...
- I wanted to own the "dream" car.
- 2 seats didn't matter. It was 1 extra over what I need anyway.
- The handling and responsiveness of the steering was awesome
- Power wasn't a major selling point but the engine was responsive (NA) and great power wise for it's class.

After making up my mind, I went to Japan and started shopping for parts (backwards I know) after some recommendations from a friend... came back with...

- Cusco front lower arm brace
- Cusco floor pan brace (I wouldn't bring another one back on a airline even if you paid me )
- Cusco rear subframe brace
- Defi Advance CR gauges and unit




I was originally after a White S2000 but after watching the market for so long, the fact that it was White meant that it was worth atleast +5k more. Not only that but it limited the amount of cars I could look at and their respective condition. That didn't make sense really... so I was looking at any decent S2000 that I could respray.

Despite alot of crap from friends and the like (Mostly Nissan turbo owners ) and months of searching for a decent condition car... I finally found one - again with Vyets (another forum member) help.

1999 Red S2000 AP1 with just under 120,000 kms.

- AP2 front bar
- AP2 rear bar
- AP2 taillights
- Partial AP2 interior
- Glass rear window
- Alpine headunit
-...and a blown clutch

It was perfect... I had planned to upgrade the clutch and flywheel anyway so I would get the engine out, spray the engine bay and ta da.



Being a high revving car, a lighter flywheel would be ideal to get to the power band faster.
I have used Exedy parts in the past and have had no problem with them and personally like the the feel of their HD pressure plates.

Exedy don't make lightweight flywheels for the S2000 unfortunately so I just ordered their HD clutch kit (Thanks to a friend again)



And likewise ordered a Spoon lightweight flywheel to match (4.2kg made from chro-moly as opposed to standard which I think is around 8kg? This is thanks to Jesse/Street from Japan who gets most of my parts)


Once the parts arrived, I had the car sent to Status Tuning (Now Chequered Tuning) to get the engine out and following that, towed to a friend's panel shop - DT Panels to have the engine bay resprayed


Tip from my friend - take high res pics of the engine bay. This was priceless when putting it all back together. I thought I had a good memory until I started putting things back together a week later... the pics helped immensely along with some friends help.


Because of a tight deadline - I ended up doing some of the work overtime and breaking a few clips along the way... but all the wiring loom, brake lines, clutch lines etc were back in again after the spray.



Had the car towed back to Status Tuning to have the engine put back in after the clutch and flywheel were installed.


Only one problem was encountered - the thickness of the flywheel and the way it mounted caused issues with the clutch slave. Being a pull clutch system, the piston on the slave didn't push the lever (there's a better name for this) far enough to get good clearance from the flywheel to engage gears better.

After some tweaking and readjustment though with the positioning of the clutch slave, this was sorted.





Heheh...


The old clutch - You can see how far it's worn down...

The following day I had my first proper drive (got my licence back somewhat). The car felt awesome... it was raining which made me a bit cautious but it eventually dried up and I racked up nearly about 1,000 kms in the first day.
Over the S13 and S14... it easily was far more responsive than modified versions of either cars.

For added Honda-ness...

An APEXi N1 exhaust... overnight parts from Japan...


And... what initially surprised me... was that Honda's apparently have a really high water temp? I was getting worried because normally a S13/S14 would keep the temps below 80 through thermostat and clutch fan. But the S2000 turned the thermo fan on at 100 degrees?! I dunno, this was strange to me... but apparently normal.

Cusco rear subframe brace (to replace the existing one) - difference?
None. Just looks pretty.

Cusco front subframe brace though? Not a huge difference but tightened up steering response.



A track day at Winton raceway was coming up and I knew OEM pads were hardly enough...

So... after some research, quite a few recommendations and good heat range and friction levels through out...


Almost done... Yes my garage is messy.

...and the day!

... was great fun taking it out just to learn how well they set the car up standard. It was easy to control but the roll wasn't confidence inspiring.

This was all good until...

...turns out that S2000s have a nasty habit of vibrating/shaking loose oil filters on track. I tightened it back up (while burning my hand) but ended the day on a 1:51 on Falken Concretes, I mean Ziex 312 or something.

Things to do, moving forward...

The oil filter coming off prompted me to order what is probably a useless part now in hindsight and could've easily been made up...

This bolts to the block and simply tightens around the oil filter to prevent it from coming loose (and also making it a bitch for oil changes because it even tightens it up for you too...).

aozora

Post first track day...
Not too long after the first track day... the engine light would flicker on and off. I pulled over and had a look around in the engine bay. Nothing. Drove off... and the engine light would stay on and it wouldn't rev above 3k and was running insanely rich. Safe mode.
LUCKILY - I was right out front of the Honda dealer in Yarra. Or was I?
I needed to find out what the engine light code was. Surely it would take probably.... 10 mins max after they plug in the diagnostic tool.
Wrong - it would take them 45 minutes... (I asked them twice if they were serious, they were) AND I had to book in a time tommorow. F*&k that.
I limped home and did some research.

This is the relay for the engine light diagnostic mode.

And this was the tool to enable it haha... oh and my sister's dog I was babysitting (Note: Dog not necessary to diagnose but will cover your face in slobber regularly if that helps?!)
You simply turn on the ignition and it will flash a code - and it pointed to the CAS.
Sure enough...

After some retarded soldering work. The engine light didn't come on again

Suspension - Coil-overs
Remember the Amuse S2000?


The feeling of my dream car was partially coming true...

Car height update as per Amuse recommended settings

Hindsight note
I think at this point with the new coil-overs I should have taken it to track instead of adding more than one mod, there was no telling whether the mods were making me faster or if I was improving as a driver... but lesson learnt? I can also understand how exciting it is to throw mods at the car to level the playing field with others but I suppose once you reach a certain point of plateau, you need to make single changes then measure if there was an improvement or otherwise... anyway back to the updates...!

Intake

Some goodies from the US of A... guaranteed 10hp or something apparently (I didn't bother to dyno before and after to prove them wrong sorry)...

Engine bay update pic

aozora

Accident..?!

I wonder what happened to his front number plate...

...a S2000 AP2 rear bar that's what.

Insurance handled it all but still annoyed me... that even though it was red, had imperfections...

Cusco brake master cylinder stopper, catch can, cooling plate and strut brace
So I bought some rice to cheer me up



Summary - Brake master cynlinder stopper improved brake pedal feel.
Strut brace is purely rice and engine bay bling - double wish-bone suspension does not relay anywhere near the same loads as MacPherson suspension does on the strut tops - this providing no benefit except incredibly incredibly minor if not close to no structural reinforcement.
And the cooling plate I had installed later...

My first set of rims...!
Made another order (mind you these are months and months in between.... this is just a blog I've been meaning to update and write for a while now!).


Mmm non-staggered goodness - 17x9 front and rear. All my previous cars had staggered wheels but I thought I'd try something different... usually the steering response is hampered in most cars but in the S2000 I don't think this would be affected much.

The gloss paint was stripped back so I could do something a little bit different...

Wheel arches were rolled and lipped... then...

Bam - huge thanks to my friend Vu for getting this done in such short time.



Front bar was delayed - was patching up the holes... so didn't have time to respray it...

In similar time, got the rims back...

Not quite the blue I was after... but eventually it grew on me. Was strange and weird at first cause I pictured some else in my mind but turned out ok?

Picked up some Advan AD07s from a friend who had them imported along with his Evo


Fitment...


Front bar back on... and a bit of interior cleaning


Front bar is still unsprayed but worked out ok considering the drive up and during Winton would have abused the fresh paint... (ie. about 2 days away)
Also didn't have time to do a few things I wanted... namely an alignment.

Track day update to follow...

aozora

Track Day #2 - Winton Raceway
Gonna try and keep this as up to date as I can... with both rice and technical blabber

Anyway..... Melb Cup day - 2nd November track day!
I had chucked in the radiator cooling panel and floor pan/chassis brace... don't know about the cooling panel but the chassis brace made it feel even more like a go-kart.. it's hard to explain but "felt" more responive.

Little sleep as usual... a warmish day... a large attendee list... the MelbS15 crew...




Nice rear shot thanks to David.


Why the tape people ask?
Was scared of chipping paint seeing as it was so fresh... kinda matched the wheels anyway
Didn't bother taping up the front bar since it was going to be resprayed anyway.



Vu lining up to overtake me...

Summary of the day?
- Was good to get out on track again after soooooooo long, awfully painful. Decent track time overall, slight traffic but otherwise good!
- Car was awesome but didn't feel as nice to drive as it did.... stock? Was kinda weird but I managed to get a new PB of 1:47 on the aged Advan AD07s. So a time saving of 4 seconds over stock...
- Weather looked like it was going to rain but held out... which was good and bad Was kinda hoping for some sliding fun ahha

Things moving forward...

I learnt...
- I am NO WHERE near the cars limits
- Locking up on your first lap at the first corner and spinning out is not cool
- I need more balls...
- ...and an alignment I think could have helped
- I know the car is easily capable of braking later, entering faster and carrying more speed overall
- The long sweeper I managed to overcome my fear of (One of the SAU guys recommended I take the middle line and just carry my speed throughout...), my glances at the speedo indicated roughly about 130km/hr through there... the rest I'm not sure... I know right at the end of the S I have to gear up into 3rd.... not sure on the speed.
- iPhone Rev application failed. I tried using it to monitor my laps etc but when I pulled it out after a few sessions, the "track" it drew reminded me of retarded primary school drawings.

From here on... it was suspension and driver refinements.
- ABS wiring on the front left is gone... thanks to my sh!tty coil-over install which stretched the wiring. So I'll have to attend to that...
- Alignment... going to try Amuse's recommended settings and adjust to my preference (I like good turn in with slight controllable oversteer)
- Grow bigger balls.

aozora

Post track day improvements... bump steer

Excuse the poor drawing...

See the problem area?

Something that is really pissing me off lately. Thanks to Melbourne's lovely roads, I find the car steering itself lately.
Basically when one side of the suspension compresses, because of the existing tension it puts on the steering rack, it "tugs" it to one side...

How to correct this?
Make the steering rack level again with the tie rod end by spacers which raise it up... ones I will be ordering soon online.

Unfortunately something similar happens in the rear with "bump steer"... the toe changes under compression and the dynamic changes are drastically different from what it was originally designed to be. A similar fix is available for the rear in the form of an adjustable toe arm with spacers.

Ikeya Formula make one which I'll be ordering eventually... and not one of the copies available from the US... namely T1R and Megan Racing...
I don't think I can link it but there's a pretty picture of a buckled wheel and a sheered bolt which failed and caused what could have been a major accident...
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=739016

I've been querying the thought of swaybars from my experience with the Silvias, this has always made over/understeer quite controllable/gradual. BUT the spring rates of the Amuse coils lie in the 12/14 range which really negate the need for swaybars...? Unfortunately Whiteline don't make any adjustable option for the S2000 so I'm forced to look overseas, not sure if this is even worthwhile looking into. As hard spring rates = soft sways, hard sways = soft spring rates.... right?

Hindsight note
This is still relevant to a degree. Running too much bar with too high spring go hand in hand. So there obviously has to be a balance. However there are many factors in all of this, available grip, wheel motion ratio, aero use etc.

aozora

Brake lines, powder coating and safety in general
http://robrobinette.com/cale_accident_report.htm

Another thing I found interesting... unfortunately at a track day, Cale lost his life by crashing side on into a wall.
The above link shows it was due to a simple brake line failure.
It's scared me and rightfully so... after all - it is now a 10 year old car as hard as it is to believe.



Regarding the wheels... and powdering coating...
This thread suggests https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=747360 (http://www.timeattackforums.com/foru...html#post35666)
That powder coating due to the temperatures required to cure it, actually weakens aluminium, making it harder/brittle?



But there's engineers and metallurgists on both sides of the fence so I'm guessing that this is only in extreme cases. I enquired with my powder coater and they advised it's about 200 degrees (celsius, which is below the apparent evil 400 degrees fahrenheit). So I'm somewhat relieved.. but still cautious, so I'll be checking the rims every now and then for cracks but Enkei's are usually known to be quite durable AND I'm sure there's been millions of people who powder coat their rims...

aozora

EXE skidpan day - Morning
Anyway... 12th December 2009 was a skidpan day.
8am start I think... was quite difficult but I was pumped and excited



Props to MacGillaz for the pic!

And to Mr. SenK9 for the diligent video camera work
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upRjGq-Epwg[/youtube]

Overall... needed to do laps in 1st gear and careful yet aggressive throttle work. My lack of sideways ability, the lack of torque and the S2000 wanting to just stick made it a bit of a handful with uneven slippery surfaces but plenty of fun!
Was possible to do it in 2nd but was a bit more difficult then I would have wanted... overall the car is insanely responsive and steering response awesome.

Spoon anti-bumpsteer kit
Fast forward a week or so... and I find a nice package from JDM land waiting for me.


Went straight to work...



A somewhat bad pic will show you what I meant by the steering rack being misaligned


As the kit basically just raises the steering rack, longer bolts were needed. There are 4 in total but by no means easy to fit...


See the spacers on the centre white bar?
Directly below that are 2 holes in front of the swaybar...that's the steering rack that needs to be lifted up, spacers put underneath and all bolted down.
PLENTY of obstacles in the way and I probably wouldn't tackle it again without some angry juice/being completely smashed and immune to pain.
Note my ghetto lighting on the strut brace...

Tip if anybody ends up doing this, unbolt the steering rack column joint. It basically pushes against the steering rack making it incredibly annoying to align everything back in place to bolt down. There are also a few other things in the way but this wasn't so obvious to me...



Something else I found the other day too

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XXpj1at02g[/youtube]


Next on the list?
- My front bar and front lip finally being finished
- Alignment
- ABS sensor
- A few JDM goodies being prepared for the shipping container

aozora

First photoshoot...?

Time for a big update... been neglecting this blog more than I should!

Thanks for the above pics - here are some more from that photoshoot... I was away in Hong Kong/Singapore and my friend Vu drove it there and rearranged it during the shoot so mega props to him and the photographer Vyetz







Some might notice a few cosmetic changes.
- AP2 OEM Lip
- CF AP2 lip... lip
- CF sideskirts
...and a painted front bar haha

Unfortunately there wasn't enough time to slam the car so it still looks high...