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Bored at work and been reading/scrolling through a lot of builds lately. Decided to finally start my own after about 12+yrs of owning mines. I purchased MY04 in mid 2006 at some used car sales lot in Vallejo. Was so excited I didn't even check the car over and basically paid what the sales guy told me to pay. Think I got like $500 off (Yes I suck a bargaining when it comes to cars). That first drive home with the top down was unforgettable.
Current Mods
Engine/Drivetrain
Mugen Intake
ASM cooling plate
Toda Header-some kind of heat treatment
Berk test pipe 63.5
EVS 70mm single
Fluidampr crank pulley
Radium dual catch cans
Koyo radiator
Spoon baffled oil pan
J’s engine damper
ACT heavy duty pressure plate oem disc
ACT flywheel
Cusco 1.5 LSD
4.44 final
Suspension/Chassis
Ohlins TTx 16kg front springs 14kg rears
Eibach front sway
Spoon front strut bar
Cusco rear lower tie bar
J’s S1 front lower ball joint
SPC upper ball joints front and rear
Spoon sub frame collars
Blox axles spacers
Exedium diff collar
Spoon compliance bushings
Brakes
Stoptech trophy kit
Urge rear 2-piece rotors
Winmax w6 front and rear
Winmax fluid
Wheels/tires
Volks CE28RT black edition 17x10 +45
255/40/17
Body/Aero
Sorcery front bumper with carbon splitter
Shine spoon fenders
ASM hood
Ebay side diffusers
Voltex swan neck
Password JDM canards
RSG Mugen rep hardtop
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This will be a general summary of what I remember from the pictures that I found.
From the start:
One month into buying the car I purchased a set of Tein springs and had them installed right away. After I got the car off the lift I remember thinking "this is definitely not low enough". So I took everything back off and cut one coil off and put everything back together. The height was perfect to me now. Sorry no pictures. Drove on that for awhile and saved up for some Koni's. Installed those and set on the bottom perch. Think i was on this setup for about 5 years and about 50k miles. Within that 5 yrs I purchased/installed/removed a bunch of different intakes, installed a ebay front strut bar, Comptech (I think) front sway. Saved up enough to purchase my favorite rims BBS LM's. Shine ASM front bumper which I cracked in half when i f**ked up and flew down the side of a cliff(Long Story). Then went back to stock with a CR lip. Not much else besides alot of miles on the mountains Till 2011...
Pre 2011 mods:
Koni shocks Tein spring (1coil cut)
Aem V2 intake
Greddy SP single exhaust
Berk 70mm
Ebay strut bar
Comptech-ish sway bar
J's Stiffy
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Ever since I purchase this car I've always wanted to take it to the track one day but always made up some excuse when it came down to it. Don't know if I was scared or what. In late 2011 my best friend signed up for a track day with NASA @Sonoma Raceway and he couldn't make it. He told me to take his car (90 240sx w/sr20) and GO!!! I started to think of excuses right away again but I couldn't think of one this time. I reluctantly agreed and went. This is where my addiction started and where my bank account started to go down....
A week after that day I ordered everything I previously made an excuse about with. New clutch (OEM AP1 flywheel), TR Motorsports C3 rims, F+R pads (XP10 F XP8 R), ATE blue fluid, Dunlop Z2, fake F1spec bride-ish seats, used Bilstein PSS9's. Got everything installed but was unable to go till early 2012
From 2012-2014 no real changes except trying to install the "driver mod"
As my laptimes started to fall and I start to get more comfortable and start to understand the car I started to really empty the bank acnt starting 2015...
1st up was the suspension. The PSS9's were the absolute best STREET coilovers. I'd have to say more comfortable then OE suspension, but not what I was looking for at the time. Since I still wanted to drive on the streets on some weekends I still wanted some comfort. I decided to go with Ohlins with a slightly higher spring rate 10/8 with hyperco springs. Also to correct all oops moments from mountain driving, and flying down a little cliff I got a new front subframe since the old was bent and I couldn't get the caster and camber to line up. Was getting tired of swapping in my OE exhaust just for Laguna Seca so I got the quietest exhaust I was able to find for the s2000 Fujitsubo Legalis R.
After I thought I had a pretty good handle on the suspension. The brakes needed some attention. Was burning through pads pretty fast and by the last session of the day I would start to feel some fade on (Project Mu CR pads) so I thought I would add some cooling. APR & Girodisc helped with this area kinda..
After running a couple track days with the apr cooling up front I found that it does almost nothing. Looks awesome but does close to nothing. I tried rerouting the brake ducts making sure they were letting air through but the rotor temp shows almost not drop in temp. Before the cooling rotors were at about 650-700+ degrees with 1/2 cool down lap and some laps inside pit. After cooling ducts temps were maybe 20-30 degrees cooler. Still starting to get some fade at the end of the day. Oh yeah, at this point I'm running Project Mu fluid with SS lines and PMU CR pads all around. Moooore brakes, mooore bright rims, mooore safety, and moooore POWA
found this used Toda
Safety 21/Cusco for some protection
MORE TRACK DAYSSSS
After about 5-6 more track days I had to retire the Neon Weds. I was getting sick & tired of cleaning them after every track day. This is one day
So some black wheels were ordered...
I loved the way the car handled and everything at this point but then..............the horn button and turn 6 at Laguna happened.
Story is. Horn button (Spoon steering wheel) started to dangle around after turn 2. I thought after turn 5 i'll try and put it back in. Was not able to put it back in on time. Got to my braking point and braked on time, turned in on-time but messing with the horn button made me loose my Mojo/concentration so I didn't brake enough. Spun 540 and hit the outer wall. Was able to still drive home. No suspension damage. Just all body.
Car was dropped off at a friends body shop Chow's Automotive. He told me that he would definitely need to paint the driver side and also blend the paint to the trunk, hood, blablabla. As soon as he told me this I answered right away with "paint it white!!!'. During the time of this accident I had 2 other white cars...
I loved the color of my S5 (Glacier White) so I decided to paint the s2000 the same. Along with full makeover.
Fake Spoon fender
Fake Amuse bumper
Fake ASM rear overfenders
Real ASM hood
Some kinda CF side diffuser
New OEM Headlights
Used Mugen intake (wasn't part of the damage but since I was spending so much anyways)
Meet Taylor aka TayTay
Off work now. Will continue this later....This is 10/2016
All new/used parts installed along with new alignment and corner balanced by Elite Performance. The very next week I'm at Sonoma Raceway aaannnnddd she tries to kill me again. Turn 1 going about 102mph the right rear upper control arm snaps mid turn. Luckily somehow I was able to save it and didn't hit the wall or anything.
After this incident I was quite frustrated with the car and even thought about selling it and starting with something else. I remembered how much I really missed the car when it was in the body shop for 2 month so I fixed it. I replaced both left and right rear upper arms. Along with brake upgrades. The Spoon calipers was definitely an improvement over stock but didn't give me the stopping power I needed/wanted. I was still also burning through pads. I upgraded the front brakes to Stoptech Trophy Kits and the rears I went with Urge 2-piece rotors along with some Winmax W6 pads for front and rear. Also got a new Helmet since the car kept on trying to kill me....
Arai GP6S
Next track day was the S2K Mega Meet w/Blacktrax
Was able to put down a PB of 2:03 flat. Car felt better then ever at this point so I brought her to Laguna 4 days later. I was able to bring both cars that...
OK I got the timeline all wrong here. I guess the Stoptech's didn't go on yet. LOL.
First time taking the GTR on track and I didn't like it at all. I most likely don't know how to drive it and was comparing it to the S2. Just felt like a fat whale. From November 2016 to July 2017 not much was done besides new tires (Yokohama A052<--best damn tire out now IMO) and the Stoptech's was installed somewhere in between.
July 2017--She broke again. This time the final drive broke. I've never replaced this and I knew it was gonna break eventually. So I ordered 4.4444444444444444 Final Drive, Cusco 1.5 LSD since I had the diff open, and new diff mounts. Sorry no pictures.
Nov 2017--my roommate and best friend got me a new exhaust for my Bday EVS 70-SSP
FF to March 2018.
Every time I look at my car in pictures or when I open my garage I felt the front end was missing something even after I first got her out the bodyshop with the new bumper. I wanted a more aggressive look but didn't want to be like EVERYBODY with a Voltex front even though I loved the way it looks. So I started to search. A day later I found in-stock and bought a
RF Yamamoto/Sorcery front bumper w/carbon lip. I liked it because it looks like the Voltex but different. SameSame but different. Received the bumper a week later (Thank you ICB Motorsports) and sent it over the the body shop to paint. Some pictures....
If you guys are thinking about getting this bumper DO NOT get the carbon fiber splitter. The quality sucks. I should of stuck with my original plan and wrapped the splitter in carbon fiber.
I finally gave in and got a wing. I was not intending to get one so soon but I called my friend to check pricing and stock on the Voltex swan neck thinking it'll be a couple month wait. The asshole calls me back in 5 min and says his supplier has it in stock. So yeah I got a wing now...
Freaking amazed at how much different the car feels with just a wing. I didn't do any special adjustments for alignment settings and/or suspension. I was able to improve my PB at Thunderhill (East Bypass) by 4.1 seconds.
Was able to set a new S3 class record with a 1:57.94...
Nice car man! I can sympathize with all the struggles you've been having. Over the years I've had a ton of issues getting my car around a race track in one piece, and I think I FINALLY figured it out.
Your sig is also perfect; don't need no damn wing!
10-27-2018, 02:00 PM
Build...04 S2000 Track hoe
