A Decade of S2000 ownership
02-08-2014, 05:38 PM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
A Decade of S2000 ownership
Sub 2 vid:
[Media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvadIfzK9UU[/Media]
For many of you who don't know me I've been a forum member since 2003, and a lurker since 02 I believe. I own the rights to the screen-name "AP1" on Honda-Tech and I used to go by forum name Squirtle. But most people just call me Ameer
Over the years I've blown thousands of dollars, spent countless hours behind the wheel of this lovely car, and made many a good friend all across America thanks to S2ki. I've decided to use this thread as a reflection of my time and journey with this car from the past, and to track the progress of my current car and track goals over the year. With that being said, let's begin at the beginning!
My first S2000 was a 2002 Sebring Silver AP1. I still remember the night I purchased the car, the first drive - the inexplicable tingle down my spine as I was first handed the keys. I drove home in disbelief that I owned such a refined and driver-oriented car.
I ended up selling the car to buy my younger brother a car and for a while I had an MR2 Spyder and later an STI. It wasn't long until I was back into another S2000, the next one being my first time driving the car on track.
This was the car I learned most of track knowledge with. Billy Johnson and I did a lot of KW testing, baselined some settings (which have been used on S2ki over the years) and gained a good bit of knowledge regarding this car and suspension setups as a whole. This car unfortunately hit a slick of coolant dropped by a Porsche 911 with a radiator failure and was totaled on track. I decided to take a bit of a break from tracking after the incident and enjoyed a few other cars. I would purchase a car, come back to the S2000, and rinse and repeat. Here are a few of my S2000 over the years.
Which brings us finally to my current car:
I picked her up in Texas from a forum member, de-modded just about everything sans the interior stuff, and prepped the car to be in tip top shape for a sub 2 buttonwillow lap. I will include a current mod list once I get some better pictures and a few more track days. Thus far the car has been out twice and has already clocked a 2:01 lap (not on camera, bc go-pro fail) on the second outing. With a little more trial and error and some weight reduc, I truly believe this will be the car I break the 2 minute mark in. For now, she sits in the garage until I can get some more development going. The alignment will need a bit of tweaking and some shock setting changes but for the most part the car is dialed in. Now I just need to up my game as a driver.
Latest video of non-aero. 2:01/current unofficial non-aero record for street tire/no aero S2000.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-YPqd111ao
^ Old pavement non-aero fastest lap recorded.
[Media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvadIfzK9UU[/Media]
For many of you who don't know me I've been a forum member since 2003, and a lurker since 02 I believe. I own the rights to the screen-name "AP1" on Honda-Tech and I used to go by forum name Squirtle. But most people just call me Ameer
Over the years I've blown thousands of dollars, spent countless hours behind the wheel of this lovely car, and made many a good friend all across America thanks to S2ki. I've decided to use this thread as a reflection of my time and journey with this car from the past, and to track the progress of my current car and track goals over the year. With that being said, let's begin at the beginning! My first S2000 was a 2002 Sebring Silver AP1. I still remember the night I purchased the car, the first drive - the inexplicable tingle down my spine as I was first handed the keys. I drove home in disbelief that I owned such a refined and driver-oriented car.
I ended up selling the car to buy my younger brother a car and for a while I had an MR2 Spyder and later an STI. It wasn't long until I was back into another S2000, the next one being my first time driving the car on track.
This was the car I learned most of track knowledge with. Billy Johnson and I did a lot of KW testing, baselined some settings (which have been used on S2ki over the years) and gained a good bit of knowledge regarding this car and suspension setups as a whole. This car unfortunately hit a slick of coolant dropped by a Porsche 911 with a radiator failure and was totaled on track. I decided to take a bit of a break from tracking after the incident and enjoyed a few other cars. I would purchase a car, come back to the S2000, and rinse and repeat. Here are a few of my S2000 over the years.
Which brings us finally to my current car:
I picked her up in Texas from a forum member, de-modded just about everything sans the interior stuff, and prepped the car to be in tip top shape for a sub 2 buttonwillow lap. I will include a current mod list once I get some better pictures and a few more track days. Thus far the car has been out twice and has already clocked a 2:01 lap (not on camera, bc go-pro fail) on the second outing. With a little more trial and error and some weight reduc, I truly believe this will be the car I break the 2 minute mark in. For now, she sits in the garage until I can get some more development going. The alignment will need a bit of tweaking and some shock setting changes but for the most part the car is dialed in. Now I just need to up my game as a driver.
Latest video of non-aero. 2:01/current unofficial non-aero record for street tire/no aero S2000.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-YPqd111ao
^ Old pavement non-aero fastest lap recorded.
02-08-2014, 05:56 PM
#2
I always wondered where "squirtle" went hahaha
Seeing all these guys sell and come back make me happy I have stuck it out with this car even when I really wanted AWD turbo.
Looking forward to watching everything you do with this car....or the next s2000.
Seeing all these guys sell and come back make me happy I have stuck it out with this car even when I really wanted AWD turbo.
Looking forward to watching everything you do with this car....or the next s2000.
02-08-2014, 06:03 PM
#3
Registered User
Thread Starter
Haha actually there won't be another S2000. I'm making a hell of a lot more money these days than I used to. I've also just about driven everything else I could want to drive. I am either keeping this car forever as a track car (since 07 Laguna with 25k miles + nice mods) or building an NA2 NSX. Anything else is just absurd to put through the rounds I like to do with my cars.
I think the S2000 is about the perfect car, ESPECIALLY if you track/enjoy the experience of driving. To beat it I'd have to get a GT3, which would be cool however a 100k+ track car just seems excessive. I could never blow that kind of money on a car in my lifetime regarding what kind of coin I was making. I could however do that with an NSX, because Honda ftmfw
I think the S2000 is about the perfect car, ESPECIALLY if you track/enjoy the experience of driving. To beat it I'd have to get a GT3, which would be cool however a 100k+ track car just seems excessive. I could never blow that kind of money on a car in my lifetime regarding what kind of coin I was making. I could however do that with an NSX, because Honda ftmfw
02-09-2014, 03:23 AM
#6
^he never really left.
Glad to see you finally made a build thread. Looking forward to whatever else comes out of this thread.
There are a few s2ks there I didn't realize you've owned. I know you told me you've have quite a few but didn't realize it was that many
Glad to see you finally made a build thread. Looking forward to whatever else comes out of this thread.
There are a few s2ks there I didn't realize you've owned. I know you told me you've have quite a few but didn't realize it was that many
Trending Topics
02-10-2014, 04:53 PM
#10
Registered User
Thread Starter
Alrighty! Let's track current progress on the build.
When I set out to reach my goals the first thing I usually do is start with a wheel and tire package that I am building the car around, and the rest sort of happens from there. Since my build consists primarily of a mild street car with no aero bits and it is my weekend cruiser a few considerations were taken from the start. For one - I couldn't be constantly getting stuck trying to get up driveways or going over speed bumps so a low offset wheel was out of the equation. I also needed BBK clearance in case I decided to go that route. And finally, because I am using no aero bits, every small detail counts - so in addition to the concerns above I needed a wheel that produced the widest grip with the least bit of aerodynamic drag due to offset. This led to me hounding a good friend down in San Diego for a good 3-4 months to sell me his wheels, and finally he caved in.
And enter these beauties: 17x9.5 + 47 CE28N, in none other than the size Diez made famous years ago. Lucky me
Excuse the poor image quality, these are some old photos off my cell.
So once the wheels were obtained - I set about to get some tires. I ended up using 255 ZII dunlops. Threw these wheels onto my old AP2 and set out on HKS Hipermax shocks to Buttonwillow. The car was completely stock elsewhere. Clocked a 2:03 with a big cautionary lift prior to bus stop due to a dust cloud. Weather went to hell shortly after but I was pretty happy with the time knowing the car was full weight and I didn't get a clean lap. Here's a quick vid of that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SF6AghXnz4
My impression of the ZII were nothing short of positive. I am not the type to overdrive the car, and this tire rewards that greatly. They are peaky, but when you use them right they are deathly satisfying. The next big change to the setup would come from the shocks. The HKS shocks, which are a great shock in my book for track use, had some limitations - primarily inability to be rebuilt, and lack of 2 way adjustment that I wanted to overcome. I will cover that in my next post however along with some of the suspension theory behind my rather basic build.
Thanks for reading!
When I set out to reach my goals the first thing I usually do is start with a wheel and tire package that I am building the car around, and the rest sort of happens from there. Since my build consists primarily of a mild street car with no aero bits and it is my weekend cruiser a few considerations were taken from the start. For one - I couldn't be constantly getting stuck trying to get up driveways or going over speed bumps so a low offset wheel was out of the equation. I also needed BBK clearance in case I decided to go that route. And finally, because I am using no aero bits, every small detail counts - so in addition to the concerns above I needed a wheel that produced the widest grip with the least bit of aerodynamic drag due to offset. This led to me hounding a good friend down in San Diego for a good 3-4 months to sell me his wheels, and finally he caved in.
And enter these beauties: 17x9.5 + 47 CE28N, in none other than the size Diez made famous years ago. Lucky me
Excuse the poor image quality, these are some old photos off my cell.
So once the wheels were obtained - I set about to get some tires. I ended up using 255 ZII dunlops. Threw these wheels onto my old AP2 and set out on HKS Hipermax shocks to Buttonwillow. The car was completely stock elsewhere. Clocked a 2:03 with a big cautionary lift prior to bus stop due to a dust cloud. Weather went to hell shortly after but I was pretty happy with the time knowing the car was full weight and I didn't get a clean lap. Here's a quick vid of that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SF6AghXnz4
My impression of the ZII were nothing short of positive. I am not the type to overdrive the car, and this tire rewards that greatly. They are peaky, but when you use them right they are deathly satisfying. The next big change to the setup would come from the shocks. The HKS shocks, which are a great shock in my book for track use, had some limitations - primarily inability to be rebuilt, and lack of 2 way adjustment that I wanted to overcome. I will cover that in my next post however along with some of the suspension theory behind my rather basic build.
Thanks for reading!