Good Afternoon everyone,
I've come to the conclussion that I will stay N/A with my AP2 for the first couple of years so I can get the hang of it all and enjoy the raw beauty of it. I've been browing around on the forums and online shops for different parts and have a general idea of what I want for performance, and I just want some opinions about the products I'm looking at.

• Tomei Expreme TI Catback
• K & N Air Filter
• TODA Exhaust Manifold
• Tomei Expreme TI Straight Pipe
• BC Racing BR Coilovers
• Eibach Anti-Roll Kit Front & Rear
• Megan Racing Race-Spec Struct Tower Bars
  This is all I have so far, any recommendation of changes, different modifications, or anything at all will be very much welcomed. Thanks

 

Do you have this AP2? Or is this a future car?

And what do you want it to do better than it already does?

Or is this just an opinion on mods thread?

Just trying to offer feedback that's actually constructive.

 

This is for an AP2 i plan on buying later this year. I want get a gameplan down for when I do pull the trigger on the purchase. I want all of the modifications to better the car itself. I would also love to her opinions on the mods I have picked out and/or other mods i should look at.

 

Are you proposing a track car or is this your only car? From your earlier post regarding car radios I'm guessing daily driver.

Opinions are like butts -- we all have one. None of these "mods" do much for a street car. Nor do they make the car better. Intake and exhaust noises give the impression of more power but are mainly just louder -- I have both and they're fun but not neck snapping acceleration! Aftermarket suspensions? Even the Mighty Car Mod lads demonstrated years ago than an aliment and Extreme performance summer tires did more for the car than suspension mods.

Also note there is the AP2V2 car starting in 2006 in the US. Tunable ECU (DBW) with switchable enhancements like Stability Assist and Traction Control. These can have lowered VTEC engagements with measurable and feel-able mid range power increases.

Recommend buying an unmodified 2008, 2007, 2006 car (in that priority order), get an alignment and a set of over-kill Bridgestone RE-71RE tires, and drive it for 6 months before considering any changes. If you haven't wrecked it in that time consider your "mods" vs your cash vs any real improvements. Do them one at a time to determine what -- probably if -- they improve anything.

-- Chuck

 

I’m getting this car as a weekend driver/tracking car, i have a FBO FK7 civic that I daily. I’ll definitely look out of the 06’+ models and keep that note in mind. I also do appreciate the other advice you had to offer. Are there any mods obviously in your opinion which are highly beneficial for this platform?

 

Keeping my butt analogy in mind there are no highly beneficial performance mods to this platform other than tires and lowing VTEC to 3600rpm. Other mods seem to offer slight incremental changes. In any form of competition there's usually a guy or two with unlimited funds (and time) who will always win. Sometimes getting into the top half is an achievement and is usually fun.

Drive this car like your Civic and you may find it swapping ends in the middle of a round-about or in the wet until you get the feel. Second generation cars are much better in this respect and 2006+ even better due to Stability Assist -- which you can switch off for more excitement.

These cars are deserving of a semi-retirement classic car status. Engines were hand assembled and seldom rebuildabe so I keep mine off the track.

-- Chuck

 

I wouldn't blindly throw mods at it.

None of what you listed will inherently make the car "better".

The S2000 is pretty good in stock form. Drive it first and figure out what (if anything) you actually want to be different.

A mod will almost always improve one thing at the cost of ruining another thing.

So you want to know what you're willing to give up for gaining something else.

Example...
If you buy a cold air intake, you get the succ and honk sound that the intake makes...as well as *maybe* some power.

BUT you'll have to deal with water ingress issues as well as cutting of fender liners.

But maybe when you drive the car stock, you decide that the stock intake makes enough noise and power without any of the downsides of the aftermarket part.

^Just an example.

Think of the S2000 as being "FBO" from the factory. The stock parts are really really well designed.

A boring response?? yes. But a logical one.

In response to your orignal question...

That exhaust is going to be ear bleedingly loud, so buy ear plugs. It won't make much power. No exhaust really does on these cars.

The header will widen out the power band, and sound and look really nice. But may introduce more heat into the engine bay...which will then subdue the powerband

I wouldn't buy those BC coilovers though. That much I can tell you. There are plenty of excellent choices out there, depending on how much you want to lower the car, etc. Look at Ohlins DFV or Fortune Auto since you said you wanted to track the car.

Swaybars are a waste of money until you know specifically what problem you're trying to solve. The car has giant stock swaybars...so...you're not going to be wishing for more stability. You use swaybars to fine tune an overall setup. You don't generally "just need them". So...skip the sway bars for now.

Also skip the K&N filter. The stock Honda filter is *massive*, bruv. And it provides the right filtration and IIRC has a velocity stack built in.

 

If you're concerned about performance, I recommend bringing the car to the track stock for a bit first before putting mods on. Less likely to set up the car wrongly especially once you get adjustable suspension and you can have a better sense of whether the mod you put in later on actually improves the car or not. The suspension on this car is already good.

Otherwise, as of my opinion for the mods based off my personal experience:

The Tomei is going to be very loud

The OEM exhaust manifold is already very good and I would stick with that, but the Toda part is also good quality

Get a tune to extract the most hp out of your setup. It ain't gonna be like gaining power with a modern turbocharged Euro car/Mitsubishi 4G63T/4B11T car, but it's still worthwhile. You'll mostly see gains on the midrange especially when lowering the VTEC engagement point that you can do with a test pipe installed. An 06+ S2000 costs less to tune (Hondata Flashpro) vs an 04-05 which needs something like a Hondata KPro.

+1 on skipping the sway bars for now, and also +1 on skipping the K&N filter. Same reasons as what B Serious said

+1 also on skipping the BC Coilovers too. Just generally poor performing coilovers. I'd recommend at least the Ohlins DFV. It won't perform as well as these $5k+ 2+ way MCS/JRZ/Ohlins TTX coilovers, but it rides well on the street and can perform pretty well on track.

I'd also think the strut tower bar is unnecessary, unless you really want it for the looks.

Read up on the Racing & Competition subforum. There's tons of good info there. Plenty of good threads about what stuff you should do to begin tracking your car.