When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I've owned this S2000 for a bit over 2 years and now that I have done a little bit of work on it, I figured it was time to start a build thread. For the most part, I've owned only imports mainly in Nissan's (two R32 skyline's and a 240sx), Hyundai's (Genesis coupe 2.0T and Sedan 5.0L, I swear nothing else haha) and Honda's (mostly civic's), but the s2000 was a car I always wanted. Like a lot of my previous cars, the goal for the s2000 was to be a time attack and lapping car with some daily driving duties so it was key to find one with low mileage on the engine and not accidented. I ended up finding one in Ontario that was extremely well taken car of and for a fair price. It's a 2003 suzuka blue S2000 with 117,000km (72,000mi), never accident according to the carproof, one owner and he had a binder with every receipt of all the servicing done during the life of the car. Doesn't get much better then that!!
The only modifications it had was AP2 V1 wheels and an AEM cold air intake. The soft top had also been replaced due to wear and tear.
For the first summer with the car, my goal was to learn everything I could with the performance and handling of it at the track. I already knew how good of a car it was on the circuit so the last thing I wanted was to add parts that would hamper its handling and performance. The car already had a brand new set of Nexen N7000 Plus tires so there was no point in buying new tires just yet. Turns out these tires were actually pretty decent compared to other tires in the same category. After 4 or 5 track days, the only small issue I noticed was a bit of understeer with the larger ap2 wheels compared to the stock ap1 wheels. The only modifications I added near the end of the summer was Stoptech slotted rotors and hawk HPS pads at all 4 corners, and some PBR BF600 dot4 brake fluid. I must say, the factory brakes are phenomenal and held up great. I would only see a bit of brake fade on the hotter days after a few sessions.
At the end of that summer, the car went into storage and I started ordering some parts getting ready for the next season. With a limited budget, all my money went into the suspension. For coilovers, I decided to go with HKS hipermax 4 SP. I was considering a 3 way coilover, but they were a bit out of my price range and I didn't think they were necessary for what I was doing with the car. I went with the hipermax 4 because it is one of the best (not to say there aren't other very good coilovers of course), a very high quality product with good adjustability and the SP had the 16kg springs while most of the other coilovers, I would of needed to order separate springs (most offered between 6-8kg) and get them re-valved. I also ordered an Eibach Front adjustable sway bar. I decided to keep the rear factory sway bar because most of the aftermarket sway bars seemed a little to stiff and I felt like the back end would want to kick out to easily and give some snap oversteer. I ordered the Buddy Club P1 camber ball joints with roll centre adjuster plates and to finish off, some Enkei RPF1 17x9 all around. I know it is the common setup for wheels and tires but it is nonetheless a very effective track setup for this car. For tires I went with Nexen NFera SUR4 in 255/40. For those not familiar with these or are sceptical to try, I strongly suggest you try them out. It's a very sticky tire with good durability at the track and offers just as much performance as most tires in its category. This is not just a personal opinion, I have also tried the falken rt615 and the hankook rs3 ( I know they have rs4 now) and I can say it is a very similar tire, especially in the wet!
I had also ordered some wider front fenders knowing the tires would probable rub. However after painting them, I realised I didn't really like the look and fitment of that style on the s2000. Luckily I managed to sell them for the price I paid minus the $50 I spent on paint haha. So when I got the car out of storage, I simply got all 4 fenders rolled until I find other fenders.
Once I got the car out of storage, I installed all the parts so I can get to the track as soon as possible to do a shake down. I also ordered a Tanable Revel VLS oil pressure gauge and Blox oil sandwich plate to fit the sensor. If there is something you want to monitor on the engine at the track other than temperature, oil pressure is definitely one of the most important hahah! The final last minute addition was some Hawk HP Plus pads all around. The HPS were good, but with the added grip from the tires, I was able to upgrade to a pad with more bite.
After adjusting the suspension for height and camber and a couple test drives, it was ready for the track. Unfortunately, the first track/test day was a very wet one but none the less it aloud me to set the car up for the wet and half wet/dry as well as improve my driving skills in the wet. I didn't get any pictures however you can check some in car footage from my Vlog I had recently started on youtube about the car.
For anyone curious about the fluids I use for the car, I have Royal Purple 10w30 for the engine, Royal Purple 75w90 for the diff and Redline MTL for the transmission. I know everyone uses different products for different reasons, I am just letting you know what I have been using the last two years and never had any problems. This includes both daily driving and a lot of track time.
This brings us to more or less this month, I missed the first time attack event because of work however I should be able to make the next one as well as some track days so i'll be sure to post some content here!
The tires are great. Good traction in the wet however they took a little long to get heat in them. Really good and consistent grip in the dry even on a hot day!
Finally had a chance to go back to the track, and for once it was dry. Had the opportunity to work on the suspension setup a little bit and with a few sessions it was fairly easy to see where I needed to make some adjustments. There is a photographer that comes out to ASE (the track I go to) and these are some of the pictures he took of my car.
I also made a video for my vlog from that lapping day for anyone interested in watching. If you like it, please subscribe and share or leave any comments/questions you have. I will also be re-uploading Ep.3 seeing that because of a copyright issue with a song, I believe you are not able to watch it in the United States as well as 5 other countries (please correct me if it does indeed work).
I started to venture into getting some aero upgrades so I had a front splitter made. There is a small local company named DK Downforce that makes custom front splitters. As in they will template your car, make the design the way you want and produce it, you are just left with mounting it. The splitter is made out of a polycarbonate which is sandwiched between a thin sheet of aluminum on either side. The end result is a thin yet strong splitter. I wouldn't say it is as strong as maybe a carbon fiber piece but it should be good enough for track duties.
Just fits in the trunk of my CR-V haha
So I had them make the splitter to have a 3 3/4" front offset and it goes back up to my crossmember. As far as installation goes, I decided I wanted to chassis mount it completely separate from the bumper. So I went to by a couple different pieces of metal and started cutting away!
Hello Plastic....
....Bye Plastic!
So after a couple hours, had all the pieces cut and temporarily bolted, I also made two mounts to attach to the crossmember. I took everything back off, painted it with a rust paint and put it back together.
I kind of the like the street fighter look without a front bumper!!
There is a small gap between the bumper and the splitter which I will cover with either a plastic piece all across or one of the aftermarket lips. I will be adding a DIY video on my youtube channel in the next few days for anyone interested in making something similar so make sure to subscribe to know when it's up!! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyK..._as=subscriber
How do you like the HKS coilovers with the 16kg springs on the street? I can't decide between the HKS SP or the GT with the softer springs for daily driving and autocross a few times a month.
How do you like the HKS coilovers with the 16kg springs on the street? I can't decide between the HKS SP or the GT with the softer springs for daily driving and autocross a few times a month.
They are surprisingly not to bad on the street because the dampers work well with the springs. I've had other coilovers in the past with lower spring rates but bad valving with the dampers and they were more harsh then these. I don't really have anything to compare them to and I haven't actually tried the GT myself, but nonetheless I drive to the track (about and hour and bit away) on some pretty bad roads and even to work sometimes and I have no problem with them. Hope that helps.
Looks good thanks for documenting the splitter install, I'm about to do mine this week,only difference is I don't want to remove the plastic OEM tray just because I don't want the splitter attached to the bumper in any way and I don't want to sacrifice any OEM bumper mounting with my OEM lip. So, I figure I'll try and pass the splitter mounts through the OEM tray and install rivnuts into the brackets. I need to see what the load rating on rivnuts is I guess before applying so much downforce to them.
06-13-2017, 04:47 PM
Track/Daily AP1 - Canada
