For those who don't know, I have owned a 02 spa yellow for 3 years and then got an 03 silverstone that I've been driving for about 6 years now. So, basically, between these two cars, I've been driving an AP1 for 9 year for a total of 130,000 miles. The 03 is now getting old at 80K miles. I know that many would not consider this old for a Honda and such, however, I have doubts that this car would reach the 100k mark without needing some major work that would cost me $$$ and more importantly time. In any case it's not going to last another 5 years.

So, I have been looking at trading in the 03 for an few year old low mileage AP2. I drove an 05 few years back and did not care for it, last weekend I drove an 06 and had a similar or worst experience.

My biggest issue is with the steering, it seems much much slower to respond compared to my AP1s (specially when moving from straight ahead position) - this is very noticeably to me during normal driving on ~30 MPH winding back roads. I'm not talking about spirited driving here. The problem I have is that I keep hearing from people (including some who's opinion I value and respect) that the difference is not much and almost insignificant. So, I'm wondering if there was some alignment issue with the two cars that I drove or something else was wrong? Or, is it possible to somehow mod the AP2 to get the AP1 steering feel? I have heard about CR steering rack swap but I did not hear anyone mention that they had to change any electronics (or at east an EPS reset) which I do not understand since I believe the stability control system uses steering angle as an input in its decision making and I would not want to mess with it.

Secondly, I had a tough time with the lowered redline. I kept hitting the rev limiter or get out of VTEC when down shifting - the super soft clutch did not help the matter either. I do not remember if I noticed this issue in my first AP2 drive but it was almost like someone had changed the final gear on the car and it's going through the gears much faster. I did notice that the car had a lot more torque than the AP2. I'm thinking that with a hondata reflash I could maybe live with this

I have been going over these pros/cons for days now and cannot make up my mind. So, please help me decide.



Thanks for reading!

 

so you wanna trade in your ap1 for an ap2? then mod the ap2 to make it handle like your old ap1?

I say use the money you would have to upgrade to the ap2 towards maintenence for your ap1

 

i didn't notice any difference between the ap1 steering and the ap2 steering - then again my ap2 didn't have vsc or traction control - lower red line only bite me once when i first started driving the car - there' a little more torque lower on the ap2 - you get used to it - there's a little more room in the ap2

but you might want to ask your questions in s2000 talk as there's a whole lot more people who had both cars and may give you more insight

 

My 03 is going to need more than just maintenance. Fixing all the issues will take a lot of time that I don't have. If there was some local place I could go to that was 1/2 as good as Ballistic, it would be a different thing.

I will try to drive a few more AP2s to see how the steering feels. This really is the #1 issue for me.

Anyone local willing to let me drive their 06+ S? I don't need to drive the car aggressively to tell the difference, a 1/4 mile drive up and down a street or in a parking lot would be enough.

Thanks!

PS: I did not want to post this outside of the NE forum as I can see this turn into an AP1 vs AP2 war Plus, I don't want advice from strangers.

 

[QUOTE=mas,Aug 30 2010, 05:24 PM]

 

i know i am strange

 

As you get older it's okay to drive an AP2. Just make sure you get a Suzuka one.

 

 

Kenta...this is for you.

 

Is it paid off? Count the $$ you'd have to pay to 'fix it' and then count the $$ you need to spend for a loan for the "new car" (or if you have the cash to buy it outright) and ALSO will probably have some repairs to do anyways.

Just hit 170K on my '00. I have no idea what you're talking about.

--kC