Help. I am thinking about modifying my suspension on my s2k. I read in some mag last year that alot of after-market tuners were against lowering this car because it changed the handling for the worst. Is this really a problem? I am new to my s2k. I am wanting to drive in autox, time trial, and and high speed track days. I am not worried about staying in stock class. I am most interested in maximum handling. I will probably end up in street prep. class anyway. What supension set-ups do you guys/gals, recomend/use? Not just springs, shocks and ride hight, but also what strut bars, sway bars and etc. do you recomend?

THANKS
TIM :confused

 

I'm sure there was a point in time that everyone felt the same way! But after me and the bro lowered the S2K...we're pretty happy! We only dropped it...like an inch. We took it out around the neighbourhood, nothing hardcore. The ride is also a little stiffer, and we plan to get an alignment done b4 we bring the car out this spring. Hopefully this summer, we will have the opportunity to tear it up on the track!! Here's the link... Tein RA install

Also, do a search on the "Spoon or DiGrappa x-brace". Supposedly it makes a world of a difference. That would probably be next on my susp. list.

 

Tim - welcome to the group. make sure to check out the central texas forum for our get togethers. we can show you what we've done to our cars in various forms.

but my best recommendation is to drive the car BONE STOCK for a while. use up all you can and then tune up the suspension from there for autox or for DE events. just get items that will work w/your driving style, and will correct issues you might have with the car. spend the money on track days and track tires. that's the best advice I can give. also, keep in mind, some of these mods might push you into a prepared class, not so much a street prepared class. just watch carefully with the rules.

 

Thanks guys.
Tim

 

Drive the car bone stock for a while is very good advice. As it is, the car requires fast reflexes to correct for overexuberence. Changing the suspension requires you to be even faster. Of course your driving skills could be better than most, so this may not matter to you.

Lowering recommendation is less than an inch. This is mainly due to the fact that the geometry of the suspension causes the camber and toe to change more drastically from an equal vertical motion when the car is lower compared to stock height.

Here is what I have: Increase front camber by approx. 0.1 degrees and rear by 0.25. Depending on your driving style, you might want to toe in the front wheels and toe out the rear wheels a little bit for autocrossing. For track I use a 0 toe in the front with a slight toe in at the rear.

bassem

 

Have any of you had problems with bearings or CV joints after you lowered your car? I went through four front axles on my old car (1997 Talon TSI AWD), and i don't want to do it again with my S2000.

 

if you lower it just make sure you get the alignment redone

 

This is one case where lowering the car actually does make the handling worse. The stock suspension on the s2000 has quite a lot of bumpsteer, when you lower the car you're making it worse.

I have nothing against lowering the car, if I wasn't running stock class I would do it. I highly recommend coil-overs (for fine tuning ride height and balance) and the King Motorsports front bumpsteer correction kit. The rear kit is supposidly in the works.

 

Front sway bar. The Comptech adjustable front sway bar together with x-brace resulted in much improved / more neutral handling for my S2K.

 

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...threadid=117973

this is what you need to read about.

I have tweaked on my set up for the lasst 60 days and because of this thread I finally got it right. I was already 1/2 way to getting the coil overs dialed in and then found this.

This is the single greatest mod that I have made to the car.

current set up on suspension/chassis.
comptech stb
diagrappa X brace
JIC Magic coil overs with 1" of pre-load all the way around and the lowest the dampener body will go in to the lower mount in the rear and 25" from the ground to the top of the fender well in the front.
Wheels: I am running on ASA FR1's 17X8F 235/40ZR/17 A032R
17X9R 255/40ZR/17 A032R

oversteer/understeer is now under control with tire pressure and dampener adjustments, all made with in seconds at the 'track'.

I run in SCCA SM2 and have increased my times dramatically in the last few weeks.

MUZ 30mm solid front sway bar is the next up grade and I am done with suspension.

run stock if that is what you want. But if you make it up here for a NTXS000 club event, I'll let you take my car for a spin.

www.s2000.org