I think I'm ready to start doing some autox mods. I'm not going for a specific class yet, I don't have the skills or the budget. I'm just doing it for fun, but want to get better. What would help make the rear end more planted and controlled some Koni shocks or an Adjustable sway bar.

My car is a MY00 and I have stock wheels with S02's on them. Which have plenty of rubber since I only use them for autox now. Rears only have about 3k on them. I have a comptech CAI which i know is illegal for stock classes, but it sounds good. Otherwise the car is pretty much stock.

Also can you still buy the saner adjustable front sway bar. Seems like the most affordable one.

Oh and I read PedalFasters thread and also this one which is leaning towards shocks.

 

John -

I would trust PedalFaster's recommendation over the recommendations made on the other thread. Nobody on that board is as fast as Steve or Ron or Annie in an S2000.

If you are serious about auto-x then ditch the intake, get some V710s and a big front bar. Get new shocks if they are worn out.

Run in stock class.

 

Aren't the stock classes the hardest. Well most competitive because you'd be running against the Pro's like Ron and Annie. I'm not hardcore enough to trailer R-compounds around. I'm just looking to make the car easier to handle.

And yeah Ron is awesome. At the Evo school he drove my car one handed while pointing out what cones to look at and was still faster then my best for the day.

 

I suppose it depends on what you want to do. If you only run WWSCC you can run w/me and John in Improved A. It's a fun class.

If you run a modded S2000 in SCCA then you'll be in BSP. Prepare to get your ass kicked royally. The S2000 isn't a really optimal BSP car.

I modded my car for the look I wanted and then chose the auto-x class it happened to fit in. I didn't mod it specifically to auto-x.

I still need to do something with my car so I can get on the gas earlier. I have a Saner bar but haven't installed it yet. I'm hoping to just change to softer rear springs next season instead of installing a big front bar. Hopefully that'll help matters in the oversteer department.

Jared (Gearhead) is quick and has gone another way re: controlling oversteer. He simply removed his rear bar. Weighs less and his coilovers are stiff enough so that he's not suffering from excess body roll. He's done well in Open Street so far.

If the softer rear spring thing doesn't work out for me I'll probably do what he has done.

 

I wonder what the differences in sway bars are over the years are. I thought the 00-01 had stiffer bars. Maybe if 02/03 or 04+ have softer rear sway bars I could get one of the those for the rear.

Hey if you want to sale the saner bar
I can't handle that drift king action.

I'm not worried about SCCA or classing, I only go to Everett events so I wouldn't be going for points anyway. TO is pretty much open to anything right? I guess I could do ST1 if I dump the intake.

 

I finally got in a little auto-x time this past weekend, and now I know what you guys are talking about. As opposed to the track, where I find the stock suspension to be pretty well balanced but tending towards understeer, it was an oversteer drift-fest out on the auto-x course up in Everett. Fun, but not especially fast. Some of that was my technique, I'm sure. Part of it was probably also my tires.

 

Glad you made it out there, Mike. We had a good time yesterday too.

I completely screwed up my last run so I decided to do it all as sideways as possible.

 

OT: That pretty much sums it up for me. Something was weird about that course, that S section had me bringing the rear around a bit too much. It's a bit hard to steer the car with the rear at 5K in 2nd (or maybe I just suck). But for the last run I just left it in 1st (bounced off the limiter before a couple corners) and managed to take 2 seconds off my time. 42.9 seemed okay in SA with RE750s.

 

Mike, hows the rear anti-bumpsteer kit? Do you think the car was more stable over the dips (near the drain) in the middle section of the course?

 

Remember, I ran in on Saturday. We did the course clockwise. Is that the same or different from what was done on Sunday?

But the drain bump was a non-event. That bumpsteer kit really does work. Don't think it's legal in stock class auto-x, though.