IMO, if it starts to feel slow, you're not taking enough turns. A bone stock S2000 is fast enough through the turns to make most people wet their pants. Modified properly it's downright terrifying.

If you're looking for a drag racer you bought the wrong car.
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Yeah lemme take that right turn into my neighborhood faster lol. Stock in a straight line gets boring. I like to stomp on the go pedal and feel a rush of power. Guess u don't.
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I'm with you on this one. Here in Cali it's all about turns but back in Florida...that's a diff story

 

I keep my spirited driving for organized motorsports. I daily drive the SUV.

 

IMO, if it starts to feel slow, you're not taking enough turns. A bone stock S2000 is fast enough through the turns to make most people wet their pants. Modified properly it's downright terrifying.

If you're looking for a drag racer you bought the wrong car.
[/quote]


Yeah lemme take that right turn into my neighborhood faster lol. Stock in a straight line gets boring. I like to stomp on the go pedal and feel a rush of power. Guess u don't.
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Oh, I certainly do... it's just if that was my primary objective, I'd be driving a Corvette, not a Japanese 4 cylinder car with a driveline made to handle 150 ft-lb torque.

Taking that turn in your neighborhood a little faster is about a safe as unleashing 550HP on public roads so you can reach the speed limit in 3.2 seconds instead of 3.6 seconds - right before you break a multi thousand dollar driveline component.

 

So is there a reason why second gear can't be replaced with someting stronger? Instead of replacing the whole gearset? We should pool some money together and have someone cryo treat 2nd gear when rebuilding. See if it has any impact at all.

 

Cryo will help but it only extends the life of the gear for a short period of time. I've heat treated many oem gearsets and they do not last long enough to make it worth it.

 

I had looked up shot peening as well and determined that it wouldn't really do much either. The shafts have play in them as well and don't hold up. It's not just the gear itself.

 

The long and the short of it is that 2nd gear is too far away from bearing support. Once you pass 350 RWHP, boom. Not a question of if, but when. Laivins Racecars figured this out years ago and prototyped their solution that swaps out a G-Froce 5 speed to the S2K. Same shift feel/throws as stock due to lots of research by Laivins.

AP1s/9K redline will want to run either a 5.13:1 or 4.88:1 cog in the back. AP2s honoring the same piston foot-per-second speeds will favor the 4.88s or 4.56s.

Naturally, those ratios are available for the Ford Cobra / T-bird IRS diff that is also available from either Laivins or Full Blown. Laivins is a perfectionist, and insisted on raising the bottom edge of the 8.8 up to factory level for proper ground clearance, which necessitates forming a small mod to the fuel tank's floor for clearance. You'll also want a drain fitting on the cover to simplify diff oil changes (which can significantly extend the life of carbon-disk differential clutches).

Figure $9K-$10K to replace everything south of the flywheel, and kiss most sane worries about your driveline goodbye. I don't drag race on 10" slicks, but for autocross, track days and street driving, it's sweet to not cringe everytime the boost hits. And Ford-based parts are so much more serviceable and inexpensive.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1069039...0_DiffAndTrans

 

^ really is an awful feeling when you hit 2nd gear, instead of enjoying I am waiting..............waiting for the BOOM

 

This seriously makes me not want to boost my S now... I think I rather have a slow car that I can bang gears and drive hard than waiting for 2nd gear to go out or destroy the diff.

 

Keep in mind, all of this is relative. I figure I've plowed 10K south of the flywheel and probably 8-10 in front of it, and another chunk at all 4 corners fitting 285/295 width rubber managed by Motons... but my design goal was a master S2000 that had the performance envelope of a Z06 but with a smaller "footprint" than Z06, better fit/finish, drop-top open air thrills, superior ergonomics, better fuel economy, and near-stock reliability (as long as you overbuild / understress - build for 600 RWHP, only run it at 470, etc.)

It's a great platform stock, but enhancing any one component beyond OEM requires that you improve all related functions... which makes it a truly phenomenal ride for under $50K if you start with a clean used one. Way more fun / better performance envelope than a used Cayman S (esp. the pre-2007 versions that puke their intermediate shaft = $15K rebuild). But $50K is still a fair amount of coin (that you'd be hard pressed to get back 60% of to the right buyer if you chose to sell).

Helps to remember that the guys building Ultimate Street Car and the like plow far more into Pro Touring cars that still weigh 600+ lbs more than a sorted SSM S2000... and that weight wears bearings, tires, brake pads, etc. on the track / street.

All that said, if I had it to do all over again, I'd do a nice AP2 with a 300 RWHP kit (Greddy turbo or S/C) plus all the things the STR guys do suspension & LSD clutch-wise and call it a day. Easily 90% of the usable performance envelope of the red car in my link, for far less money. Spend the rest on driver training (Evolution school), gas and rubber. My $0.02, YMMV, have fun...