...and it's all just mental masturbation. I mean, what good does it serve you to know that your car is slightly heavier than your competitors? Will go buy a different car? Will this knowledge help guide your hands and feet when on course? Naw, it's just junk to steer you wrong. As I see it, I'm not getting a different S2000. I'm going to do the best I can to tune my car and drive it well.

There is simply no replacement for testing and collecting data and making informed decisions about changes. For example, a Mugenized S2000 with ECU, intake, header and exhaust was only .3 quicker in a quatermile against a completely stock car... and that's pure acceleration... for 14 seconds. That may represent an improvement of .15 on an auto-x course if that. Time spent working on the chassis is time WELL spent.

Who here has collected data about camber, tire pressure, spring rates, and swaybar settings on a skid pad? Right.

 

I did that last year at our local test and tune. It is where I found my big pickup with a swaybar change. For the S2000 there was .5s on a 40s course with a bar change. Previous skid pad testing found .2s around over a 20s skidpad in an E46 M3 with just some spacer changes. That stuff is fun, but costly and time consuming. Generally worth it, though.

 

Yep. You have 4 tires. The trick is to make the most of them. If I had a fantasy day, I'd get the car on a timed skid pad with a radius of about 150'. I'd adjust camber, tire pressures, and I'd go to town on the sway bar. After I settled on the spring/camber/tire pressure combo that was fastest, I'd do a timed 8 cone slalom (25 pace spacing) to adjust the shocks.

Too bad most of the tuning that's obtainable for us happens in the heat of battle and we have to waste entire events testing hypotheses.

 

Hey guys, I'm curious about spring rates. Say I'm running 17x8.5 wheels all 4 corners, r-compounds, gendron front sway, stock 04 rear sway. My shocks can take 800lb springs. What's a good spring rate to start with? Just a ballpark. I've seen so many rates posted, from nearly same front rear, to 400lb front rear difference. Again just looking for a base line to start. AP2 (2004) if it matters. Thanks!

 

The average successful setup seems to be 600-900 lb springs, with 50-200 lb higher in front. Definitely are believers in setups outside of that, but that's probably a good starting point. I'm running 800/700 f/r and it works, although I think im going to split them slightly more, but that's just my preference.

 

This.
I have been trying to convince my local group to organize something like this for a while. Would be nice if we could talk whoever is in charge of the practice course (Memphis region?) at Blytheville into something like this.

 

Has anyone considered writing a letter to request allowance for modification to splash pan and fender liner to mount some of the more popular intakes such as aem or Injen and secondly is it illegal to remove the covers on the faux air vents on the sides of the oem bumper

Sacha

 

I ran the AEM map with the VTEC lowered to 5300 for quite some time before finally tuning it myself. There was a noticeable amount to be gained from right around the cam switch all the way to 8500 in fuel and timing optimization. The biggest gain was right at the cam switch smoothing out the power curve so there wasn't such an abrupt ramp in it. This is with the K&N and a Supersprint dual catback as the only mods. With a real header and an HFC I feel pretty confident there is more to be had, especially lowering the cam switch even more. When I had an HFC on the car it definitely had more midrange than it does now, I just didn't like the sound it made(put a nasty buzz in the exhaust and my car is mostly a street car right now) so it came off. As Jon(imstimpy) mentioned, the map from Hondata ran quite rich, especially up top, so most of the power was gained by leaning it out, and bumping the timing a couple degrees. It definitely made a difference, the car really continues to pull all the way to 8500 now, where it used to feel like it hit a certain amount of punch then just leveled out.

I have the benefit of having a friend that owns a Dyno Dynamics dyno so I my costs related to use are slim to none as I help him run dyno days and what not, so I definitely "got my money's worth" as it were. That said, if I had a HFC and a header, I wouldn't mind paying $400 or so in dyno time to really maximize the tune.

 

Thanks, exactly the info I was looking for! Sounds like a fair place to start.

 

Has anyone tried a 800 front spring and a 650 rear? I'm currently 900f/700 rear and wanting to go alittle softer. Any input would be great.