Yeah but can you drive well enough to match that time? Modifying your car beyond your driving abilities is fun (I'm very guilty here), but if you're seeking max performance on a budget it makes far more sense to dump that budget into seat time until you need faster vehicle.

If you don't have a budget then modify away

 

Pretty much what everyone else said.

S2k with minimal mods running a 1:40 on street tires - RE71R (a slightly younger Jackie Ding).
Aside from the CR aero bits and the standard bolt-on mods (intake, header, test pipe), there isn't much else to his car in that state that really adds to the performance.

He's slightly under-tired at 245 square, and running 17x8 rims - leaving a lot of extra room in the fender wells for wider wheels and tires.

 

It sounds like you arent considering any rule books in your plan. Im interested in how your mod-dollar per lap time compares to a TTC prepped car. TTC is gone but this community spent a decade figuring out how to go fast for cheap within that rule set. There I go again sounding like NASA is the end all be all of S2000 racing.
Anything grip related is more driver skill dependent than mod related at the grassroots level.
My advice is just tinker and have fun. Dont plan on setting the S2000 tuning world on fire. Many of the people on this forum are very successful and discovering your unique thought that will contribute to this knowledge base is welcome, encouraged, but also quite ambitious.

 

I would also suggest figuring out what the intermediate to end goal is as well. If you build a car and you aren't competitive in any class, you may find yourself frustrated. Unfortunately the S2000 is getting old and isn't quite the top dog it once was. I plan on buying an ND Miata soon as the S2000 isn't "the car to have" in STR anymore. I like the STR class though, due to being able to do bolt ons and any suspension work. You can make a great autocross car and put on some bigger brakes and run it at the track. This kind of sounds like the direction you may be interested in, so might be worth checking that class out. You can still definitely be locally competitive in one of these as well.

 

as mentioned above, make sure you know where you'd like to end up before planning to pour money into mods.
building a car thats not competitive, when you want to be competitive can be an exercise in frustration. also sometimes some rules seem totally illogical, better to know these before you get there.

if autox is your goal, you have CS, STR, BSP, FP, SSM, XSA
there's also SCCA TT where STR aligns almost perfectly with the Tuner 4 class, with the only other allowance being 10inch wide wheels and 265 over 255 wide tires.

Cross series/rulesets (nasa, gta, scca, etc) are almost never going to work out, at least with scca STR and Tuner 4 you can have a dual use car thats fun and competitive at the local level.

 

I haven't seen any indication/confirmation yet that the OP is building for any official racing, but rather lapping days - bring what you brung and have fun.

 

The lack of trolling this guy is incredible. Even for this largely constructive group. After reading the disconnected from reality 1st post from a first time poster who dismissed factual information from a veteran i was expecting this.

 

moists2k hasn't been back yet. Maybe they're out winning DE.

 

And he was never seen again. I was looking forward to learning what the most effective aero configuration and what max possible grip were going to be for the S2K.

 

obviously it's 455/25r20 on an 18.5" wide rim with a GTC-8000 wing with an 8000mm width - and this is only if your car is N/A. If you're turbo - just multiply everything by 2x to be on the conservative side.