Al8

To save you the trouble I encountered this season, here's a list of the best parts money can buy for your S2000 that are compliant with the SCCA rulebook.
-
First thing's first. Tires are very important to your success. That being said, I encourage you to start by saving for a set of forged, lightweight Work Meister M1R or S1R wheels or Work Seeker CX or FX wheels first. They make them in our OEM size and the beauty is that you can request the offset you want. You're allowed + or - 7 mm from OEM so do your homework and decide what will be best before ordering them.

AP1 ('99-'03)
Front:
16" x 6.5", +55 offset
Rear:
16" x 7.5", +65 offset

AP2 ('04-'09)
Front:
17" x 7.0", +55 offset
Rear:
17" x 8.5", +65 offset


Some say that Bf Goodrich makes a good autocross tire if you're trying to save money, but Bridgestone RE71Rs hands down every time. 245/40/17s all the way around or you may be able to fit 255/40/17s in the rear if you max out your negative camber with a wheel alignment(highly recommended). Max out the front wheels with negative camber also. Our OEM adjustable arms only allow so much so take all you can get. You'll still be far from what is optimal for the car.


Next, a sway bar to avoid wheel lift from those big fat tires you've just added. Just the front because you aren't allowed to change both in C street. You'll hear suggestions, but the only one worth going with is Karcepts .0188 wall adjustable front sway bar has spring rates with our class in mind. I highly recommend having it professionally installed.


Brake pads with good modulation. AX6 brake pads from Carbotech are great! Very efficient through a wide range of temperatures.


Finally, a lightweight catback exhaust. Megan Racing makes a titanium single exit exhaust that's fairly cheap and weights about 8 lbs. If you're like me and have always wanted a dual exhaust car and want to go the extra mile because this is your dream car so get off my back and stop judging me... woah. Sorry... you'll save up and go with the J's Racing 70RS dual titanium exhaust which is only a couple more pounds. This really changes the sound of your vehicle so to help find what fits you, google s2000 catback exhaust guide. You'll find a pretty detailed guide on the S2KI forums too though!

No need to touch your shocks because our single strut design is much more direct than even Koni's adjustable dual design. Koni's become useful in the next class up where you can change more of your suspension components. I even contacted Koni to see if they could custom build them to be able to replicate what's on there now and the adjustability would allow me to stiffen them from there and their response didn't seem promising to me so I'm still doing research on this last modification. If you have an suggestions please leave it in the comments!


This was in order of importance and was information I painstakingly gathered by purchasing the wrong parts, having the sidewall of my tire get eaten by the inside of my fender at an event(which made for some good pictures) and just talking to some really fast drivers from my local autocross club, Steel City Region SCCA. Shouts out to Alex Peil, DJ Alessendrini, Geoffrey Callahan(fastest S2K driver in C street) and my mechanic Douglas Haydin at Simply Hondas for putting up with my shenanigans. Also keep an eye out for Simply Hondas Racing which is a grassroots race team based out of my Doug's shop.



There are cheaper routes for all these parts, but I wanted to know what the best money could buy for our class would be. Ultimately autocross comes down to your inputs as a driver and not what you've done to your car. I studied the sport before starting and already knew that to be true, but needed to learn for myself. Hopefully this list helped you avoid any major mistakes. Good luck and stay safe out there!

spaded.racer

Thanks for the well written thorough post.

This should be in the Racing sub-forum though. Anyone reading; custom wheels, brake pads, and a loud single exhaust are most certainly not requirements for any class especially street class.

Al8

I thought modification because that was the specific topic of the thread. Just modifications within a rule set made up by the SCCA. I can move it if everyone would prefer it be under race.

I agree though. None of these parts are needed to autocross. They're just my suggestions from what I've picked up during my 2 years in the sport.

Dibsen

I’d say required to be competitive. The nd Miata is tough to compete with in CS. It’s lighter and has power where you need it

Jub

I agree and I think the ND is significantly faster. That being said, nobody serious has campaigned a S2000 in CS for a long time. There was an oddball this year where a S2000 took a win @ the Packwood Tour this year in CS. He also was 4th in PAX out of 266 entries. That out-PAX'd some very good multi time champs. Idk anything about that event, how it ran, and if order/weather had anything to do with anything. It does appear that the S2000 is probably less buried than we think it is, ofc depending on course and stuff. I think the ND will kill the S2k on tighter lots, it runs to a higher MPH in second, has lots of advantages. I don't think either national course this year would have significantly punished the S2k's weaknesses to the ND.

I'll say that I've been complaining about running my STR S2k and how PAX is a hoax for a few years. I drove a competitive car in a different class all year and my PAX improved some from the STR car but it didn't drastically move. After changing cars, the problem is mostly still that other drivers are better than me.

Packwood class results