Guitarwiz

I'm a new 2004 S2K owner, 2 weeks old. I have some questions about the handling characterstics of the S2K. Does the throttle affect the cornering greatly? I've noticed the car getting a bit uneasy when I lift a little during cornering. Is this normal? I'm new to rear wheel drive cars so this may be a characterstic that I need to learn to get used. Any comments would be appreciated.

Ash

yes.... do some reading on how to corner in rwd and what not to do... it's a great change from driving fwd.

S2Thizzle

The stiff chassis, short wheelbase and quick throttle response combine to make the car twitchy. Just be smooth with the controls and you shouldn't have a problem.

ttb

lifting during a corner is a no no. when you lift you're transfering weight to the front, the rear end has less traction and you end up spinning. i know, i've done it a few times

SuperDyu

Brake before a turn and don't shift during the turn if you can help it...

lifting is no good too

Combine lifting and shifting in a turn and you can cause your car to drift

If you look up principals of drifting (just the theory, I suggest against practicing it unless you're DongTran ) You will get a good idea on the physics going on with an FR car if you can understand what you are doing to make a car drift.

jedwards

I was making that error too when I first started with a performance RWD. Just like SuperDyu says... the corner is no place to shift, change braking... or lift.

If you get a good slip going (different that sliding... tires don't lose adhesion with slip) and maintain that speed you'll get some proper under or oversteer and maybe even a full 4-wheel drift going. Whooo eeeeee!



You'll love your car.

SuperDyu

I'm no physics major but I tried to do some thinking today, and basically difference between FR and FF is this -

FF your wheels that propel you forward will change direction and because its not a solid forward motion I think this causes turning to be consistent, you only turn the angle of the turn, speed shouldnt be an issue (anyone with more know how please feel free to own me if this is wrong).

FR your rear wheels are always pointed forward and thus your front wheels are more like rudders. No matter what you will have to turn more than the angle of the turn, and the more speed you have the more redirection of the speed you need (Forward moving vector and an angled vector).

Unfortunately I don't know the math values because I'm not sure if the front wheel speed in an FR is the same as the rear (don't want to assume so).

Basically this makes me believe that steering in an FR has to be dynamic based on speed and angles where as FF is constantly based on angle.

With all this in mind, taking baby steps on mountain roads and working your way up to faster and faster speeds based on comfort (if you're not comfortable don't even try).

I got to learn angles of steering according to speed and at what angles require downshifting and rev matching by doing highway 9 repatedly... prolly did it over 50 times by now... but I have to stress if you're not comfortable doing it, dont!

Don't want you flying off a cliff at 60 mph screaming "DAMN YOU SUPERDYU!!!"

snowball

Yup, highway 9 is the place to be if you want to learn this kind of stuff!

I also suggest Page Mill Road for an even slower speed experience.

Guitarwiz

Thank you for all your suggestions. I've autocrossed with my previous car and have raced my friends frist gen Rx-7 at Thunderhill. I guess I'm just not used to the S yet. It's quite a car. I think I'm going to take it out and Autocross it so I can learn it's handling capabilities.

M-Type

congrats on the car, just remember about throttle lift in the turns. And unlike other Vtec equipped cars, when Vtec is on you'll feel it.