Hi Guys,

I've got some maintenance questions for you guys who track your S2000's. I'm an experienced track driver, and I drive an Elise on the track, but now my GF is going to be tracking her '04 S2000 in HPDE track days, and I was wondering whether this car has any particular issues to watch out for. I've prepped it as I would prep any other car (thorough inspection of brakes, fluids, belts, suspension, steering, etc, fresh brake fluid and oil), but are there any particularly fragile bits which deserve any extra attention? (For example, Elises have a propensity to break rear toe control arms, so they need to be reinforced and closely monitored between track days). This isn't an issue yet, but are these cars prone to any oil or fuel starvation problems in high sustained G turns?

Thanks!

 

What level of prep will the car have?

 

Car is stock, going for regular HPDE for beginner drivers, so I'm not too concerned. It's completely stock, running on summer tires, with no aero. I've got the general car maintenance covered, just wandering if the S2000 has any sensitive areas.

 

In stock form, all you'll need are just some good pads. As she starts to get faster, you'll need to get higher and higher temp brake pads, as the brakes are undersized for the level of grip that is available from tires available on the market now.

If you go non-staggered (square) with tires in the long run, the front brake pads will get a lot hotter; many people run staggered pads and brake ducts to help address this issue. Cracked brake rotors are pretty common due to extreme heat cycling. Again, this won't be an issue until she's faster.


In terms of maintenance, our diffs and trans have tiny fluid capacities, so as she gets faster, it would be recommend to frequently change the fluid.

The car tends to have oil starvation issues on banked right handers, but this only really applies when you're decently fast in a well prepped cars. This can be addressed with a baffled oil pan and/or accusump.

All in all, the car is just plain reliable.

 

They do tend to fuel starve with faster drivers (at least on an autocross course), may not be an issue with a beginner.

 

Replace brake lines prophylactically every few years. We had one member die with that as probable root cause failure and another just had the crimp fail on his 08 CR causing an off-track incident.

 

Thanks for the brake line tip. I inspected the lines, and they're dry, no bulges, and crimps look ok, but the car is now 7+ years old, so it's about time anyway. Rubber does age, and constant expansion/contraction cycles don't help.

It sounds like these are reliable cars, that's great. I was surprised how thin and tiny the rear brake rotors are (not even vented!), but I guess the fronts do most of the work in this car.

 

besides the cracking rotors and alot of fade that the stock (except for pads) braking system gave, no real issues tracking a stock S for the last 1.5 yrs. Maybe an oil catch tank together with an oil cooler might be a good idea.

 

An AP2 probably doesn't need an oil catch can for HPDE.

 

I am an instructor with NASA-NE and I just completed my first HPDE season with my 2006. Car is completely stock except for: brake ducts, XP10 front XP8 rear pads, Goodrich lines, ATE fluid, Dunlop Z1SS in stock size and a harddog bar. The car was perfect all year, great on gas at the track (compared to my STI), it seemed to enjoy the beating that i put on it. I used one set of front pads and front rotors, tires lasted me all season (the car is trailored and not driven on the street).