My frist DE ever was in my old car (94 3000GT VR4) and after much research, I made sure I had installed: SS brake lines, full flush with cheap fluid first, then flush again and refilled with ATE super blue, fresh OEM front pads, and I was running on Nitto NT555 275/40 on all four RP-01's in 17X9. Needless to say, I had minimal brake fade (it was a 3700lb. car), and thanx to the tires and AWD, very little oversteer.

You can tell the re-ocuring theme here is BRAKES. No need for a BBK, just make sure they are serviced and ready to take a beating.

The S2000 is a very PURE sports car. You really have to drive it to get close to its handling potential - something you walk up to with attention and patience. Some other sports cars you just kind of hang on and let it do its thing. Your S2000 embodies Honda's philosophy to sports cars much like the NSX - when you "get it right" in a corner, there are very few cars that can match it.

 

Size?

205f/225r = oversteer

 

One thing I've always remembered for HPDEs, is slow, smooth "shink shink" shifting. You should feel one *click* coming out of the gear, and into neutral, and another *click* going into the next gear. Two seperate clicks. One *clunk* instead of two *clicks* means you're shifting too quick.

"In a spin, both feet in!" (as in clutch full depressed, and break fully depressed, once you go past 90*) Though even if your car is slightly inclined to oversteer because of tire sizes, you probably won't be cornering fast enough to have to worry about spinning.

Also sounds like you'll be running without an instructor. Good general rules are:
-Use the entire track
-Apex late
-Brake hard. No wussy braking!

Heel-toeing is better, but if you aren't practiced with it, it's probably better to just slowly and surely let up the clutch right after you finish braking, as others have said.

Good advise for a newbie in this thread! You could use a lot of advice on here as a checklist of what to change/check/fill/flush etc before you track your car!

 

well the car is over-steering a bit . guess i'll have to make do with the size and be careful cause the event is tmr morning.

i think i will need new tires when i get back , what size will be good for a stock car ?

and in terms of brake fluid flushing , how do u guys flush when i remember to change the fluids u can't go past the minimum level of the MC , and if u top it up while bleeding won't that mix the different brake fluids together? *confused*

 

Tire make/model is far more important than outright size. And the best-performing street tires (B'stone RE01R) are going to be 205/55-16 F / 225/50-16 R. This is not a huge problem. And if you go to DOT competition tires, on the best tires you'll be limited to 225F/245R on 16" wheels. Again, not a huge deal.

If you want a bigger difference in width front/rear, there are options for that as well. I've got 205/50-16 F / 245/45-16 R Hankook Z212 RS2's on mine for street duty. But I use Kumho Victoracers in 225/50-16 F, 245/45-16 R at the track.

As for brake bleeding, don't worry too much about mixing the fluids. Just pump the MC reservoir 'til it's getting close to empty (past the "min" mark, but not til totally empty!), then fill it with the fresh fluid. Do the rears first so by the time you do the fronts you're pretty well assured you're getting close to 100% fresh fluid in the front calipers.

 

man today was exhilirating; will post my experience in 2 days together with pictures and hopefully a video

i notice something bad about my own driving is that i ride the brake too much dont know when to stomp on it and afraid i brake too late and fly off the corner into the tyres, any good way to eliminate this bad habit?

and another friend was driving a 2L vtec civic but he caught up to me all the time , the clutch buzz is really making me feel worried about downshifting till the rpm shoots up to 6-7k( i did heel and toe) but the screaming engine is just erm , i dont want to break it. i felt like a retainer will go bad of a valve might drop into the cylinder. ( again i know this is a bad habit in circuit racing )

Zdan: wou'dnt that damage the seal on the MC?

 

If you can afford it, I'd do Skip Barber Racing school or something along those lines. I've been to a couple, and they do a great job of drilling proper habits into you.

 

Next time, brake harder. After a few times when you brake harder and find out you are done too soon, you will have the confidence to brake a little later.

 

kinda sketchy here with details...
You are saying that your brakes were mushy... AND that you believe you rode them too much?
1. Did you entirely flush the brake fluids and go with Motul? (I know that it was suggested that you bypass the fade experience because you may have already done that...)
2. Do you feel that your braking points (where on the track you start to apply brakes, is okay... or was it too late which caused you to press the brakes too hard...) For your first events, you "should" be braking early and gently then applying more pressure and not STOMPing on them as some do in straight-line late-braking.)
3. So what was your brake fluid, pad, and tire setup?

Remember to drive the car as it is setup... Drive what you have. What I mean by that is if you have crappy brakes and crappy tires, then adjust to make it around the track using them. Figure out what you'd like to improve for the next event both mechanically and mentally and go from there - this is the whole fun of tracking the car. Brakes work with tires and suspension. Figure where you'd like to start making improvements.

Side note: The best way to flush your brakes is with a team. Get at least one other person... two more would be better. One to watch the master cylinder, another on the wheel corner that is being bled, and one in the car working the brake pedal. With three, you can avoid depleting the MC fluid and the headache that comes with it.

Good to read that you had a blast.

 

thanks for the help SPLNDID

man it was so tiring yesterday that i can't remember anything .

Lets see what I have done wrong , though the HST people were friendly but on track they meant business and kept tailgating me like mad * i just ignored them and let them pass*

on my driving technique , lines were not a problem but noticed several things below

session 1: Just driving around the track without hitting vtec much and shifting at 6k rpm. Brake very early but realise that i bleed off too much speed before turn-in. Instructor then drove my car and showed me how I should brake late and step hard on the brakes. I didn't drive aggresive at all as i tried to just get familiar with the track.

session 2: drove without instructor but this time i got a little brave and shifted at 8k each time. I tried to use the instructor's braking technique but realised i used it too late and couldn't get my legs off the brake and back to the throttle before turn in. End up with too much speed in the middle of the corner and i tried to tap the brakes or i will hit another participant rear ( i spun at a low speed 2nd-gear corner doing that =( ).

session 3: learned my lessons well but already felt that the brakes are not taking the temperature of my previous run and it's a little softer * not that bad but a little softer* , try to brake earlier this time with almost the same pressure as previous session but more speed . end up i can't get the speed down in time using heel and toe and did a controlled oversteer through each turns * i love the s2k for this , it really tells me when it want to slides the tail , no understeer problems though*

session 4: well tires wore off evenly * all season tired =(* , and brakes are still a little soft but doesn't require me to put my pedal to the metal to stop it. engaging a lot of abs to make through the turns though as tires grip went down significantly , was bouncing around on each turn as i forgot to bleed off some tire pressure ( checked at the end of session the heated tires were at 40psi , eeekk )

on 4th session i still do not have the turn-in speed as some of the guys out there and i figured my timing to do braking and let off and get back on the throttle is way off compared to them , cause on corner exits i'm able to follow them though.


session 5: really felt that i abuse the S too much with 8.5k shifts and downshifting for two 2nd-gear turn that it rev's till like 6-7k after heel and toe. I'm really worried my engine/tranny/diff can't sustain this abuse =( . so in the middle of the session i cooled down my driving as i am not sure if i destroyed anything *psychological i think* . and this was the last session of the day


well in conclusion really a fun thing to do and makes me want to go back again with better fluid , brakes , and tires since i think i was on some all-season hankooks , valvoline dot 4 fluid and stock pads. I just changed my engine oil twice , once before and once after the track. am i overdoing it?

what kind of routine maintainence do u guys do to keep everything in check? like valve adjustment or anything like that? cause i only changed all the fluids * hopefully that will be good for her* . to try to save the tranny i always try to rev-match or do a heel and toe in the track. do share your tips on how u make things better

i hope to upload some video and get some comments from you guys later. it's a huge video that im figuring out how to upload =\