Josh, what's your set up? I remember driving your car and it was very similar feeling to mine but that was on the TnT course not the higher speed course. Additionally, I moved my bar to full stiff after the test course so you drove it on one off full stiff. From watching your video, I'd say you need more push dialed into your set up so that it's more forgiving. It seemed like you had no problem dialing in a little more turn in on the long sweeper.

 

I was going to say something similar regarding your approach to setup Josh. I think transitions (i.e. slaloms) are the easy part of going fast around courses. Even with a soft bar the S2000 has a much faster response compared to most cars I have driven. When ever I let a non S2000 driver try my car they have two steer inputs per turn until they get used to it. The first one cuts them in too much and the second one is a correction to the first. I find this very entertaining.

For me the biggest challenge of the STR setup is achieving confidence when driving large high speed (>50 MPH) turns. Over steer was my biggest problem and that was typically throttle lift induced after first breaking loose due to speed or applied throttle input. The big/fast sweeper is where I find I lose the most time on the tour type courses. That has been my focus for the last year both in driving and setup. I think it's working very well at this point. My PAX point average has gone up (950s to 970s) over that time relative to several local national champions (Fred Zust XP and Doug Rowse DSP show up consistently) that I use as a bench mark.

I personally think all of you are using too much front bar if you have a Gendron or Ankeny set above 1,000 lbs/in. I know springs are involved with the roll, but that is just extreme and is probably causing an imbalance some where. Another approach may be to set the front bar at 1,000 lbs/in or less and then adjust the rest of the setup.

Rake is another thing that I don't hear anyone talk about. I have found lowering the back end to provide more stability in general, but especially when accelerating through and out of turns. I've also been adding more and more rebound to the rear which feels very much like having the big aluminum plate spoiler on the back from last year.

Just some thoughts based on listening to the conversation... I too tend to be a mid packer at the tour events.

 

Mid packer here as well. Be careful about adding rebound. It can make the slow turns very difficult as it makes it a pain to load up the front tires.

 

I have my rake set this way for this exact reason, and also run rear rebound very stiff.

 

I'm not having good luck on my new rims:

I am running the TR Motorsports 17x9 C3's and about lost a finger already between the spokes and brake caliper trying to get the a rim (front left) off the studs - I'm assuming the "sticking" is due to the hubcentric rim that doesn't exactly fit right. (and I got bright silver center caps to go with dark gray rims???)

Then the front right wheel about fell off at an NTAXS autocross event (this will will be relevant to my final experience listed below)

Then the wheel lock that came with them broke on me while putting the rims on before an event (National Street Tire Challenge)

AND

Today I snapped 3 wheel studs and cracked a rotor (all front right) at the same time at a time trials event. Had to have car towed- big thanks to Mark Wortham for helping me out with getting it towed, as well as giving me a ride home!!!

I made the mistake a few weeks ago of trusting the tuning shop that installed my tires/new wheels to have properly tightened my lug nuts the day before an autocross. I ended up driving a lap with the wheel barely hanging on, thinking the periodic clunk was the new front sway bar (seems to be happening with many others). I was wrong. When I realized what was going on, I put the wheel back on right and tightened everything up. It worked fine the rest of the day, but driving on it like that must have weakened the studs. The car/wheel was great for a few weeks, even enduring the National Street Tire challenge without any drama, but then today happened

So, a few questions:

1) Should the tuning shop replace my studs/lug nuts/rim/rotor for free because they didn't put the wheels on right? Or is that all on me because I didn't recheck them before taking the car out on course... (Keep in mind that this could have easily happened on the street. I don't check my lug nuts every time I get into the car, lol. and typically trust mechanics to return my car back to me safely put together )

2) I am paranoid now about my lug nuts/studs/wheels, etc now and want to go with an ARP stud and some kind of strong lug nut solution. Or is that over-reacting? I don't really like the look of extended studs and open nuts. Is there a stock length stud and closed nut solution for the s2000? It seems so. What should I be spending and where should I buy? Good experience with this idea? Bad?

Thx for any and all help!

Tom

 

You really should have checked the lug nuts before you ran the autocross. But you should try to get the shop to compensate you for any damage due to their negligence.

Seems like over reacting to me. No studs or nuts will be immune to the abuse you described -- the damage that occurred was certainly due to the nuts being loose. Just replace any studs that might have been run with loose lugnuts. I wouldn't use those wheel locks either. Just use the lugnuts provided by the Tire Rack or replace them with similar nuts if you think they may have been damaged.

 

Anyone besides me read the grassroots motorsports this month? On page 121 they did a tire test against all the str tires. Without a doubt the RS-3s won by over .4 second. They are doing a wet test for the next months mag. Anyone wanna start taking bets on the "wett" tire to have?

 

It is certainly not going to be the RS3. More than likely the best wet tire will be the Toyo R1R... but I'd rather have the Dunlop Star Specs due to them being a "Jack of all trades master of none..."

 

So thoughts from y'all - whomever owned my car before me was not kind to the clutch, so the car's in getting a new one right now.

I have a regional Prosolo this weekend (yes, Northwest Region rocks, we have our own Pros!) and I'm not sure how much "break in" I need prior to some crazy smoky burnouts. Thoughts, ideas?

 

Well I personally do not know about clutch break in, but I can't imagine anything other than just daily driving it. Hopefully someone else can offer a better suggestion on this.

On a different note I am looking to take care of a few things before August and among these are a valve adjustment, brakes, and a new battery.

What spec do ya'll tend to run for a valve adjustment? I have heard you can do it in a way to get some more mid-range.

On brakes I am most likely going to just get a new set of OEM rotors, I just can't think of a reason to really do anything different for that. Pads on the other hand are a different issue. For autocross the stock pads are ok, but I also do some light multi-lap time trials and think another option would be good.

The GTI I used to run had good success with just some HP+'s and I have heard great things about the carbotech compounds. Does anyone have a solution that they really seem to like on the S2K? If anything I would want to stabilize the car under higher speed breaking.

Battery wise I am looking at a Deka EXT14... does anyone daily drive one with good results or should I pick up a tender for winter use.