Hello,

Just purchased a 2002 AP1 Sebring Silver S2000, with 43,000 miles. All stock except K&N intake and radio head unit.
Love it so far!
I do believe, I will try to get another 100-150hp under the hood and some handling mods, hard top, wrap it gloss red with black stripes. It's not going to be a daily driver, just to play with on the street and occasionally take it to Barbers or Road ATL. Long term, I want to install a super charger to obtain the extra hp boost and re-gear to 4.44 gears. Can anyone recommend a good shop that can rebuild a rear diff in the Birmingham, Atlanta,Chattanooga area? Also does anyone know what the wheels are pictured on the red s2000 I included?
?

 

Contact s2kpuddydad on this forum about building a differential. Or his email is puddymodracing@gmail.com. He has a few different stages depending on how much power you will be making. He built me a stage 2 with 4.57r gears. IMO he is the only guy that should be building your differential...

 

The S2000 really doesn't need a final gear reduction to perform better overall in my experience. Especially if your planning on boosting the car, it will make the powerband less favorable to use in most conditions. A stock out of the box Ap1/f20 is a little sluggish before vtec I agree, so yeah a 4.44 will help snap the car into life, but that investment enhancement will start to diminish quickly and become more a hindrance the further along you get in your modifications, especially if you tend to want do well on a big road courses. Spend that $1000 from the 4.44, to getting the car a tune/lowering vtec instead. No replacing engine output. Gears are really a band aid.

 

^^^

Just keep the stock gears and supercharge it AFTER you have learned how to handle the car with it's NA power.

 

The ap1 can really benefit from the 4.44 gear set both n/a or lightly boosted. Should have come with the 4.44 from the factory imo. He said only 150hp more so that would be 350whp give or take. But you would really need to get a few laps around the tracks to decide if the gear change would help or hurt you... also when building a diff you would have the option to upgrade the lsd to really help keep the rear tires planted around the track

 

LSD starts becoming beneficial when your running very stiff suspension and enough grip to get inside wheel lift. Most guys running more standard/aggressive street/track set ups with 12-14k springs and EP tires never experience the value. Which is really what this comes down to. Your going to spend more money potentially on building a diff, then you would actually getting some real net improvement in engine performance from a HFC or TP and tuning, or putting towards boosting. If your boosting the car you need to invest in an EMS anyway, get it now and experience the benefits of lowering vtec/w tune to substantially improve mid range power. With a stock car, building a diff is about #20 on the list if ever.

 

Agree↑

 

Fix the nut behind the wheel....After that, boost.

 

First mod; good tires.

 

lol that's cold