Getting into racing.
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Joined: Jun 2015
Posts: 25
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Getting into racing.
S2ki,
I am starting the process of turning my 05 S2000 into a dedicated autocross/track car. I am going to start this year with Auto cross to get as much experience as I can behind the wheel and slowly add the mod's so I don't get a false sense of confidence. I HOPE the next year I can put it on an actual track (VIR), but thats gonna cost half a S2000 ha...Anyhow, I plan on sharing my process to get any helpful information from people who have made any of the mistakes I am considering making!
What I have done so far...
No photos yet, but i'll get some up.
I am starting the process of turning my 05 S2000 into a dedicated autocross/track car. I am going to start this year with Auto cross to get as much experience as I can behind the wheel and slowly add the mod's so I don't get a false sense of confidence. I HOPE the next year I can put it on an actual track (VIR), but thats gonna cost half a S2000 ha...Anyhow, I plan on sharing my process to get any helpful information from people who have made any of the mistakes I am considering making!
What I have done so far...
- Changed all fluids. Oil, Trans, Diff, Radiator
- Valve Adjustments and Spark Plugs
- ACT clutch and all associated assembly
- Removed Soft top and assembly, then replaced with hardtop
- Mishimoto Radiator (oem one cracked)
- New Air Filter
- Stainless Steel Lines
- Car already had headers, exhaust, CAI intake and AEM EMS
- Tires (Indy 500), good summer tires but not the best so I learn the cars limits
- AutoCross and lots of driving experience
- Front Sway Bar (Eibach)
- From what I have read starting with a FSB is fine
- AutoCross and lots of driving experience
- Roll bar (Hard Dog)
- Any input on this is GREATLY appreciate because I have no idea about the factory seat belt option and if I need a diagonal bar...
- AutoCross and lots of driving experience
- Brakes
- Rotor, cross drilled and slotted
- Pads
- Suspension (Considering Fortune 500 because they are local)
- Not to open a can of worms, but from what I have read the new Ohlin updates have not been confirmed better than last generation
- KW (no reason not to)
- Purchase VIR membership or find a group...
- Seat...
- Rims
- Aero????
No photos yet, but i'll get some up.
Joined: Sep 2012
Posts: 162
Likes: 18
From: Huntsville
As I'm sure you'll hear lots of here, seat time is the most valuable thing you can get. When I started my local SCCA chapter had a course called "The Learning Curve", I think that's what it was called. You get paired with a more senior auto-crosser and you spend the whole weekend learning the basics of autocross and driving tips from someone who has been doing it for years. I did autocross for 2-3 years before I moved onto track driving doing ~10-15 autocross events per year. As you say yourself, get as much driving experience as you can to get a good, thorough, understanding of how your car behaves. If you really want to get on track you can see if there are any groups in your area that do introductory track sessions to let drivers ease into the track experience and learn track etiquette.
As far as part upgrades, I'd say you should try to keep the car as stock and as consistent until you learn your cars behavior. You don't want to just be getting the hang of your cars limits and go and change the suspension set up dramatically. Learn how your car behaves stock and slowly add parts to address issues and limitations you encounter as you get a better understanding of how your car works.
But there are some upgrades you can do to make your car safer and more reliable. I'd recommend a baffled oil pan for when you plan on going on the track, last thing you'd want is to blow you motor from oil starvation. For brakes, I'd say start with only braided stainless lines and keep the stock rotors. They're cheap, I used Autozone rotors with the lifetime warranty so I never paid for swapping cracked rotors, and there are plenty of pad compounds available for the stock brake kit which you can experiment with as you learn more about your driving/braking. Start with entry level brake pads, Hawks could be a good start but I'm sure someone else can recommend something better, and work up to more aggressive compounds. Getting some better tires isn't a bad idea and after some time you can upgrade to wider tires and better compounds to see how it affects your car. You can also invest in a aggressive alignment to begin learning how the addition of camber and whatnot affects the car. For a while I had a friend who worked at Firestone and they would hook me up with a custom alignments for my S and with Firestone's lifetime alignment deal you can save some serious cash, look into it. I have a Hard dog roll bar in my car with the double diagonal. If you plan on keeping your stock seat belt option then you'll need the additional bulk head bar and seat belt attachments on the bar to mount the stock seat belt hardware. Or if you need to lower yourself in the car and plan to get an aftermarket seat then you might as well invest in a proper harness and HANS for additional safety. It all depends on how far the rabbit hole you want to go with the racing but make sure not to cheap out on safety items.
Again, start with what you have so you can learn how your car behaves before you start throwing money into your car and never fully understanding the limits of the car and your driving. Upgrade one component at a time to see how it affects your car and adapt it to your driving style. Don't change too many variables at once so you don't learn what affects what and spend more time learning your car. Finally, keep up with the maintenance and make sure you keep your car safe and reliable.
Hope this info helps and I'm sure you'll get plenty of it from the knowledgeable folks here.
As far as part upgrades, I'd say you should try to keep the car as stock and as consistent until you learn your cars behavior. You don't want to just be getting the hang of your cars limits and go and change the suspension set up dramatically. Learn how your car behaves stock and slowly add parts to address issues and limitations you encounter as you get a better understanding of how your car works.
But there are some upgrades you can do to make your car safer and more reliable. I'd recommend a baffled oil pan for when you plan on going on the track, last thing you'd want is to blow you motor from oil starvation. For brakes, I'd say start with only braided stainless lines and keep the stock rotors. They're cheap, I used Autozone rotors with the lifetime warranty so I never paid for swapping cracked rotors, and there are plenty of pad compounds available for the stock brake kit which you can experiment with as you learn more about your driving/braking. Start with entry level brake pads, Hawks could be a good start but I'm sure someone else can recommend something better, and work up to more aggressive compounds. Getting some better tires isn't a bad idea and after some time you can upgrade to wider tires and better compounds to see how it affects your car. You can also invest in a aggressive alignment to begin learning how the addition of camber and whatnot affects the car. For a while I had a friend who worked at Firestone and they would hook me up with a custom alignments for my S and with Firestone's lifetime alignment deal you can save some serious cash, look into it. I have a Hard dog roll bar in my car with the double diagonal. If you plan on keeping your stock seat belt option then you'll need the additional bulk head bar and seat belt attachments on the bar to mount the stock seat belt hardware. Or if you need to lower yourself in the car and plan to get an aftermarket seat then you might as well invest in a proper harness and HANS for additional safety. It all depends on how far the rabbit hole you want to go with the racing but make sure not to cheap out on safety items.
Again, start with what you have so you can learn how your car behaves before you start throwing money into your car and never fully understanding the limits of the car and your driving. Upgrade one component at a time to see how it affects your car and adapt it to your driving style. Don't change too many variables at once so you don't learn what affects what and spend more time learning your car. Finally, keep up with the maintenance and make sure you keep your car safe and reliable.
Hope this info helps and I'm sure you'll get plenty of it from the knowledgeable folks here.
Joined: Mar 2017
Posts: 672
Likes: 82
From: Waterford, MI - America's High Five
Yeah I second what FZ said.
You will figure out pretty quickly as you progress what you really want to modify to suite your driving style. AutoX is a good introduction into racing, but it's significantly different than a road course. I'd personally suggest going and doing a year of AutoX and mix in a HPDE1 session somewhere in there. You will get way more seat time and have way more fun on the road course IMO.
You will figure out pretty quickly as you progress what you really want to modify to suite your driving style. AutoX is a good introduction into racing, but it's significantly different than a road course. I'd personally suggest going and doing a year of AutoX and mix in a HPDE1 session somewhere in there. You will get way more seat time and have way more fun on the road course IMO.
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 420
Likes: 50
From: 'burbs of Chicago
Yeah I second what FZ said.
You will figure out pretty quickly as you progress what you really want to modify to suite your driving style. AutoX is a good introduction into racing, but it's significantly different than a road course. I'd personally suggest going and doing a year of AutoX and mix in a HPDE1 session somewhere in there. You will get way more seat time and have way more fun on the road course IMO.
You will figure out pretty quickly as you progress what you really want to modify to suite your driving style. AutoX is a good introduction into racing, but it's significantly different than a road course. I'd personally suggest going and doing a year of AutoX and mix in a HPDE1 session somewhere in there. You will get way more seat time and have way more fun on the road course IMO.
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 6,189
Likes: 275
From: Wilton, NY, formerly New Milford, CT
Rabbit, autocross is fine, it’s inexpensive, but it is not racing. If you want racing, you need to get a competition license. And you can only get by working up through say NASA, or SCCA or going to a professional school and getting a provisional license. So say you start with NASA-Mid Atlantic, you need to start with HPDE-1 and work your way up. Autocross experience won’t let you jump into a competition license. So get out on track ASAP.
You may want to reconsider racing the S. It is not the best platform to race if you want to be competitive. Take a look at my signature. If you can be happy with results like that, stick with the S. Otherwise look into better platforms.
google “Skip Barber going faster” for a race school video. Old, but hopefully still out there and worth watching.
You will get lots of help, so don’t be shy about asking questions.
and a track day costs about $450, so perhaps not as expensive as you imagined.
You may want to reconsider racing the S. It is not the best platform to race if you want to be competitive. Take a look at my signature. If you can be happy with results like that, stick with the S. Otherwise look into better platforms.
google “Skip Barber going faster” for a race school video. Old, but hopefully still out there and worth watching.
You will get lots of help, so don’t be shy about asking questions.
and a track day costs about $450, so perhaps not as expensive as you imagined.
Registered User
Joined: Oct 2018
Posts: 38
Likes: 7
From: Charlotte NC
For autocross you really don't need anything for reliability. But here are a few thoughts:
A bucket seat will help you feel what the car is doing a little more.
Do not get drilled rotors (slotted is fine but not really worth more than blanks)
Hawk HP+ is a good auto x pad but I'd go with something more aggressive if you're tracking
I have the EVS roll bar which comes with all of the bells and whistles for less than the hard/rsg with add ons.
The front sway bar may help but I'd say wait until you notice and want to change the cars handling before you buy it.
RS4s are a good tire for track and autocross and will last a while
Once I started going to the track I completely lost interest in autocross. $50 for 4 minutes of driving (+ working) actually seems a little expensive compared to $300-$400 for a weekend with almost 3 hours of driving but you will go through a lot more consumables.
If you start tracking I'd add an oil baffle (probably the ballade bolt in) and oil temp/preasure gauge then you can decide if you need an oil cooler.
Or for almost the same price as these mods you could get a miata for the track until you get comfortable. I co bought a $1200 miata with my friend when my diff blew, its much cheaper to run and and a great platform to learn on. Plenty of parts (and sometimes free spec miata take off tires), I don't care at all about to beating on it, plus I seem to get faster in the S every time I drive it.
A bucket seat will help you feel what the car is doing a little more.
Do not get drilled rotors (slotted is fine but not really worth more than blanks)
Hawk HP+ is a good auto x pad but I'd go with something more aggressive if you're tracking
I have the EVS roll bar which comes with all of the bells and whistles for less than the hard/rsg with add ons.
The front sway bar may help but I'd say wait until you notice and want to change the cars handling before you buy it.
RS4s are a good tire for track and autocross and will last a while
Once I started going to the track I completely lost interest in autocross. $50 for 4 minutes of driving (+ working) actually seems a little expensive compared to $300-$400 for a weekend with almost 3 hours of driving but you will go through a lot more consumables.
If you start tracking I'd add an oil baffle (probably the ballade bolt in) and oil temp/preasure gauge then you can decide if you need an oil cooler.
Or for almost the same price as these mods you could get a miata for the track until you get comfortable. I co bought a $1200 miata with my friend when my diff blew, its much cheaper to run and and a great platform to learn on. Plenty of parts (and sometimes free spec miata take off tires), I don't care at all about to beating on it, plus I seem to get faster in the S every time I drive it.
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Joined: Jun 2015
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Reconsider?
Rabbit, autocross is fine, it’s inexpensive, but it is not racing. If you want racing, you need to get a competition license. And you can only get by working up through say NASA, or SCCA or going to a professional school and getting a provisional license. So say you start with NASA-Mid Atlantic, you need to start with HPDE-1 and work your way up. Autocross experience won’t let you jump into a competition license. So get out on track ASAP.
You may want to reconsider racing the S. It is not the best platform to race if you want to be competitive. Take a look at my signature. If you can be happy with results like that, stick with the S. Otherwise look into better platforms.
You may want to reconsider racing the S. It is not the best platform to race if you want to be competitive. Take a look at my signature. If you can be happy with results like that, stick with the S. Otherwise look into better platforms.
I am more interested in circuit racing than anything else so sounds like the right route.
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 75
Likes: 8
Brakes: Remove cross drilled/slotted rotors from your list, stock/OE replacement rotors are fine and less prone to cracking. Make sure you flush the DOT 3 fluid out and replace it with some decent DOT 4. For autocross, stock pads will work but you should upgrade to track pads before going to VIR.
Suspension: Add an alignment to your list after you've completed an autocross season with the new tires. The Eibach sway bar will not be the best option for autocross but should work well for road course if that is your end goal.
Roll Bar: I would hold off on the hard dog roll bar unless you are required to have it.
Instead of focusing on mods, focus on driving until you get at least a full season of autocross under your belt. You will have a much better sense of which mods you want/need when you have a baseline for driving on track and a better understanding of how the car behaves at the limit. Before I started tracking, I did what you did and had a laundry list of mods I thought I needed. There are plenty of people tracking mostly stock S2000's and putting down fast times. Try to get some ride alongs in S2000's (or similar cars) owned by experienced drivers if you can.
Good luck.
Suspension: Add an alignment to your list after you've completed an autocross season with the new tires. The Eibach sway bar will not be the best option for autocross but should work well for road course if that is your end goal.
Roll Bar: I would hold off on the hard dog roll bar unless you are required to have it.
Instead of focusing on mods, focus on driving until you get at least a full season of autocross under your belt. You will have a much better sense of which mods you want/need when you have a baseline for driving on track and a better understanding of how the car behaves at the limit. Before I started tracking, I did what you did and had a laundry list of mods I thought I needed. There are plenty of people tracking mostly stock S2000's and putting down fast times. Try to get some ride alongs in S2000's (or similar cars) owned by experienced drivers if you can.
Good luck.
Joined: Jul 2014
Posts: 13,832
Likes: 1,550
From: Chesterfield VA
Spend the money on professional instruction. And more than just a morning class! Self taught or learning techniques from a buddy (or an internet site) are sure ways to learn inefficient techniques. Practicing inefficient techniques just reinforces bad habits.
-- Chuck
-- Chuck