Anyone drift in their s2000, yet? Just want to have some feed back if you have. I was thinking that since it is more of a 50/50 weight distributed car (spin-out happy) that you would have to drift it similar to a RX-7. Please share some of your experiences if you have drifted in the s2000. Is it hard to predict? twitchy? or just plain impossible to keep a good drift?

Thanks

 

Anyone who has raced the car competitively in an autocross or road race has drifted the car. 50/50 weight distribution does NOT make the car tail-happy - it makes a responsive car that can be easily made to change direction since the polar moment of inertia is low at the ends of the car (the center of gravity is very much in the middle of the car rather than towards one end).

I can't compare to an RX-7 having never driven one but the result should be similar since both enjoy low, well-centered CGs. I suspect that they may have other characteristics, too, since the turbo will kick in above some RPM (lower than the 6K RPM of the VTEC rush), potentially causing an inexperienced or less-than-expert driver to spin if the car is already at the limits of adhesion.

No, the car is not twitchy or unpredictable. You can obviously do dumb things to force a spin (especially if on R-comound tires that don't have the same measured width difference front to rear as stock - don't rely on size markings). I've had fun in autocrosses just maintaining a nice, very controllable drift through a turn. It may not have been the fastest way through the turn - I was doing it because I *could* and it was fun!

I would caution you about doing this on the street since little things like curbs, pedestrians and other cars/unmoveable objects can make it a very expensive exercise. The low torque can lead you into a false sense of security and then you hit VTEC...

 

My car with factory alignment had a tendency to understeer in higher gear, high speed corners. So until I changed the alignment to get a more neutral balance I wasn't able to get good high speed drifts consistently. With the new alignment I haven't seen any bad handling issues so far. In bumps watch for the to be expected stepping out. Some people claim bump steer issues but so far I have not experienced anything really unexpected.

 

On a track in low speed corners (2nd gear) it is very easy to get a four wheel drift going espec. if the S02s are worn. Lots of fun and very controllable but not particularly fast.