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Thanks bud! I'm so happy with the way the car came out. I spec'd the car out to satisfy my personal tastes, but it's pretty cool to hear and see the reaction the car has gotten thus far from my friends and people on Instagram. Just goes to show you don't need crazy bodywork or a ton of crappy titanium dress-up parts to stand out. Less is more!
Less is always more to me. I can't wait to see this back out on track!
I took the car to Sebring this past weekend for a Chin event so I got a lot of quality seat time with the car in what will likely be the state it stays in for a while. In preparation for Sebring, I made a few small changes to the car.
I went back to a 3.5" intake pipe into the stock airbox. I did this because recently I came very close to hydro-locking the motor, and I'd rather not take any chances with that going forward. Also, this allows me to clean up the airflow at the underside of the car. With my last intake, I had to chop up my plastic undertray and fender liners for the sake of routing the intake piping down into the bumper. Now, because there's no more intake piping, I can simply close all that up. I installed new undertray plastics and sealed up my fender liners, and reinstalled the A/C radiator fan that I had to remove because it didn't clear the intake. Initial impressions are favorable, as I've noticed the car doesn't heat soak nearly as badly as it used to, and I now don't really have to worry about standing water. One thing I miss from the old intake setup is the noise. At VTEC, the car sounded like a banshee from under the hood, and that effect has lessened considerably. I need to re-tune the car this winter to match the shorter intake length and filter, as well as refine the throttle tip-in to make it smoother as it's currently a little too abrupt for my taste. On track it's fine, but it can be slightly annoying around town.
A couple of other things completed before Sebring:
I made a change in the transmission fluid I'll be using as well, based on a recommendation from SHG_Mike. When I went and visited with him in August, I was blown away by how smoothly his transmission shifted. He recommended I switch to the same Torco RTF that he's been using, and the difference is unbelievable. No grinds, no pops, no missed-shifts.... just butter. Thanks again, Mike!
The car had the original 165,xxx mile rear calipers on the car, and one started to seize/drag around town, so I figured I'd replace those as well. I installed Centric re-man calipers which should hold me over for another 100,000 miles.
When thing I've been putting off forever that I finally got done was re-installing the cruise control. When I went to the Momo wheel, I knew I'd lose cruise control and would have to relocate the switch somewhere else. I'm terrible at wiring, so I had my friend Bryan extend the switch harness and do the install for me. The outcome is pretty clean, and doesn't interfere with my knees when I'm driving or getting in and out of the car. Now I can make the long trips to Sebring a whole lot more comfortably.
I towed the car to the track for the first time ever. I've been slowly rebuilding my track trailer as it's old and kinda beat up, but didn't have it ready in time for this weekend, so I borrowed my friend's truck and trailer and threw all my crap in the back. Now I'm not sure if I can go back to driving the S2000 to the track now. There's something so relaxing about knowing that you don't have to make it home in the car you've been pushing all day on track. That, and some of the worst stuff has happened to the car on the way home from the track (popping a motor, nearly hydro-locking one, alternator dying on me and stranding the car on the side of an under-construction highway). I'm going to be looking even harder at tow vehicles now....
Anyways, I ran the car in Chin's red group for the entire day. I did all sessions, including the warm-up and the day-ending happy hour, which resulted in over 3.5 total hours of track time. When I'm on track, 95% of the time I'm taking the car up to the limit and keeping it there, so the fact that the car did 3.5 hours of driving under these conditions, especially at Sebring which is known to break cars, is extremely encouraging and impressive. The new poly exhaust bushings I installed have solved the issue of the exhaust falling off the car at the track. I'm still getting a baseline setup together for Sebring, and in the video below you'll see what it's like to go out on that track with your shocks set for a smooth track, and some truly dead Maxxis RC-1s....
The car, still set-up for Homestead, was extremely loose at a bumpy track like Sebring. However, I dialed them down considerably as the day went on and the car's mid-corner attitude smoothed out in kind. By the end of the day, I had the right about of rebound and compression stiffness dialed in (IE: very little) and had the car slightly understeering at the limit instead of trying to kill me like it had at the beginning of the day. That video sure is fun to watch though!
A big change I've noticed is that the car has a lot more straight-line speed than it used to. Whether that's down to the lip/canards, or fixing all the underside plastic I don't know, but I'm using a big chunk of 6th gear on track now on the back straight, which was previously unheard of.
I also reduced total caster from around 6.5 degrees down to 5.5 degrees. I did this because I feel like the benefits of that caster, such as the straight line stability and increased camber on turn-in weren't really necessary, and I really wanted to improve steering feel. I prefer the steering to be light and delicate, which isn't something the S2000 is known for. Either way, this minor changed really affected the way the car drove for the better. I had no loss of grip and really no loss of stability, but I was better able to place the car because of the additional feedback gleaned through the wheel.
All-in-all, the car is about where I've wanted it to be for the last few years. I think with another 10whp, it would be close to perfection. I'm happy that the car can carry TT4-competitive speed around a track while not being a totally-compromised track car. I actually kicked around the idea of pulling the soft top, installing a hard top and wing, but after this weekend that definitely won't be happening any time soon. I was playing around in the low 2:30 range this weekend with traffic, and there's no doubt in my mind that with further refinement and new tires the car can go 2:28-9 on a clean lap.
Here are some of my favorite photos from the event:
I have a bum right knee and ankle, so long drives with no way to stretch out are truly awful for me. Having cruise control back makes the car a whole lot more usable as a road trip car.
10-16-2018, 05:06 AM
