Considering buying an AP2 s2000. Would most likely be daily driven, and then slowly turn more and more into a racecar 1st AS autox and track days. Maybe in the future add coilovers and wide R-comps for BSP or continued fast track days.

My question is how reliable have you racers found the s2000 putting up with the stress of racing / track days. Seems to me that the engines have proven very reliable. How does the rest of the drivetrain hold up to aggressive autox launches with 275 width Hoosiers?

I have heard of AP1 cars having front A-arms start to separate from the mounting points, I understand this has been addressed on AP2 cars?

What about rear hubs, there have been reported failures with very large rear tires and r-comps. Has Honda addressed this, is there an aftermarket solution? I have been thinking, is it possible that these failures are due to running non oem offset wheels than r-comps.

Any other issues I should be aware of. Maybe I am looking too hard into these issues, obviously there have been some s2000's driven very hard without these failures (maxrev comes to mind). And I don't think I would ever participate in wheel to wheel racing or any endurance stuff (24 hrs of Thunderhill...)

Should I stay away from the s2000 for these reasons, or have the problems been few and far between? Thanks, any input would be appreciated.



Apex17

 

Our 00 with 109,000 miles has been autocrossed since day 1 and the only issue was an upper A arm being replaced. The bushing was ripped and they don't make a press in replacement for the 00 MY. Otherwise dead reliable. *knock on wood*

 

Cars that have broken hubs have been on slicks and raced A LOT. Honda hasn't done anything because they didn't make the car to have 12" wide slicks.

Cars that have separated upper control arm mounts have been AutoX'd on R-comps A LOT

The AP2's have a reinforcement strap welded across the upper control arm mounts.

 

CosmosMpower, wow 109k miles. That is great. Was autox in AS on R-comp from day one?

 

posting to see if any more info on track/auto-x failure tendencies

 

Only problems Ive had- Rear bearing went (that is very common in tracked cars- easy to fix) and my EPS box crapped out. (just a fluke)

 

Maxrev has had failures like others. Things break the more you use them.

 

The a-arm mount separation is pretty easy to fix. Honda put out a bulletin indicating that the mounts should have a bead weld run around the mount. There are pics in this forum of the fix. It is stock legal since there is a Honda bulletin covering it.

The lower front a-arm bushings tend to go over time on heavily autoxed cars. I believe there was at least one Nats level driver who was changing his each season.

The LSD will suffer after many clutch drop launches where there is wheel hop (common when on r-comps). But a local guy here had about 5 yrs worth of autox launches before his LSD died.

 

[QUOTE=negcamber,Jan 27 2008, 10:33 AM] The a-arm mount separation is pretty easy to fix.

 

It was in A-stock briefly I believe but mostly on R comps and Tein RS coilovers for the first half of it's life and then on sticky street tires back to stock 02 suspension from 70K onwards. It probably gets close to 150 runs each summer between myself and the gf co-driving it.