I am thinking about purchasing a car that I can use for racing that I can develop gradually. I don't know too much about the s2000 but think that this would be a good car for me. I am starting to autoX and think that the S2000 would be a good candidate for the AS class with a few modifications like sway bar and R compounds. I'm a novice to the sport of racing but I think that the S2000 performance level would be fine for me, I've raced a few go karts and also a skip barber race school graduate, and think the S2000 would be a good way to develop skills. I was wondering what I could do with the S2000 after autoX if there is any road racing envolved with the S2000 something envovled with SCCA, NASA, or other organizations. Also I was wondering if you can order S2000 with standards that I wouldn't need like Air conditioning or CD player because I wouldn't use it as a daly driver. Also where is a good place to look for used S2000 online, I haven't had much luck with ebay or autotrader. But also I would think I would rather get the 04 + model because of the "upgrades" to the car.

Please give me your advice if this is the right car for someone to start autoX's and gradually go to road racing and where I can find one.
Thank You

 

SCCA A Stock class S2000's are not really a beginner's car. But it is an AWESOME way to learn car control and spin recovery.

In all seriousness, I'd look at an S2000 as a second car for autocross or track. If you start with something a little more tame, you can focus on the general basics... this is more of an issue with autocross than tracking. Autocross has its own learning curve of finding the course.

Also, S2000's don't really have options. They only come one way. Later models are more tame than the '00 - '01 cars. The jury is still out about whether the '04+ cars have an autocross advantage. They get wider wheels, but shorter gearing in 2nd gear (which can be a drawback.)

Andy H.

 

I just autox my 2004 as a Novice a couple of weeks ago and placed 2nd in class. The car is great for solo events. Where are you from?

Edit: Advertising removed.

 

There are lots for sale on S2KI. Check the for sale forum.

Road racing and autocross are not exactly cross-compatible car wise. A good autox car doesn't make a good track car and vice versa and the modification requirements for racing wheel to wheel on the track (as well as the financial requirements) are incompatible. Not to say you can't do it just that you can't expect to do well at both.

Auto racing is about as expensive a hobby as you can find. I come from a yacht racing background and I can tell you for absolute certain that club racing a sailboat is cheap in comparison to racing a car. You need heaps of cash, like class action lawyer, plastic surgeon kind of cash. I'm not familiar with your financial situation but odds are you're working poor like the rest of us.

Open track is good fun and reasonably inexpensive. A bit more than autox but you get more seat time which tilts me in that direction. I'm not big on the AutoX format but that's a personal thing. I don't care for swamp buggy racing either but I'd try anything once.

You can do open track and autoX by having your car set up a bit more towards autox but then unstringing it for the track. You'll need different tires for each.

I really suggest you do autoX first. Get to know it and then go to an open track event or two and see how you like that. SpeedVentures runs some awesome events. If you like track better then you can ditch your autox aspirations and begin to prep the car for the track. when you've got the ability you can then do some racing like SCCA HC.

That seems like a decent novice progression. Make sense?

 

i suggst getting a miata and upgrade to some toyo ra-1s and eibach swaybars which should run you total of about 5 grand. take it and auto-x it and see how you like it, then go run an hpde or speedventures event and see how you like road racing, then decide which is better for you. If you like road racing more than auto-x, tek your miata and build it into a spec miata (specmiata.com for more info) spec miata is the cheapest and closest racing youll have if your racing with scca and nasa. If you decide you just want to auto-x then go buy an s2k and have fun. now if your filthy rich, go buy and s2k and try an auto-x and speedventures like cthree said and you can build up a very expensive car for road racing or make some minor modifications for auto-x.