stewpitt

Hello fellow s2k owners. I'm wondering if the racing/HPDE community here could help me with my driving skills and habits on the track.

For background information, in Oct. 2018 I attended my first track event in a Miata that I traded a sportbike for. Fell in love with the rush/adrenaline that I got from the minute I drove onto the track. After a few events I felt that the Miata would require too much investment to make into a weekend/track car that I would enjoy. Thru fortunate circumstances back in my college days, I was able to get an s2000 and remembered how much I enjoyed the car. As it goes for most if not all Miata owners, I got the s2k envy. Sold the Miata, got myself into an ap1 and haven't looked back! I have not attended a formal HPDE event nor received any formal instruction.

Here is the video showing my best efforts at my local track. This was the 3rd time I had run the s2000 on that track. Possibly more important, this was the second time ever running with competitive tires.

Any criticisms, tips, feedback, bashing, protips, guides, lessons learned, pointers, helping ideas would be greatly appreciated.

A rundown of the setup of the car: staggered NT01 225f 255r, DIY alignment: ~2 degrees of camber all around, Buddy club race spec suspension 10k front 8k rear 8 clicks from soft fronts, softest setting rears, stock sways, fipk, test pipe + tanabe exhaust.

massiah86

Looking at the video you're smooth and measured with your steering, and generally running very safe with what seems to be decent vision. I wonder if you're staring at the apex too much and not looking at your exit, as there are a couple of places where you could have used more of the track to carry speed. Throttle application seems to be decent, though this track doesn't have many areas where modulation is necessary. You're rowing the gears a bit, which the S needs, but there might be some excessive use of downshifts under braking rather than just holding a gear. Sucks to be out of VTEC but sometimes its actually more beneficial to hold the gear in terms of laptime. Also, most newer people are far better at applying brakes without a downshift rather than a heel-toe. Try exploring that and see what you pickup, effective braking is probably one of the hardest skills to master.

The biggest thing is the very thing that I praised above, you're running very safe and not really pushing the boundaries. Use curbing, push the car to the exit boundaries. Don't just go hyper-aggressive now, but build up to pushing the car a little harder on entry and getting it to rotate for you, since the car itself is pretty bias understeer. With a staggered setup it's always going to be fairly grip limited up front so you really need to put the car on it's nose on entry, then get it to rotate slightly through the corner.

Hope that helps.

stewpitt

Ah yes... I do focus on the apex of the corners instead of finding it, noting it, and going back to scanning ahead. Could you explain what you mean by 'rowing' the gears? I am considering switching to a square setup once I have the funds but that will most likely be towards the end of the season if at all.

Edit: Thank you for the response and input!

massiah86

Rowing the gears - meaning to say you're always going up or down a gear. IE: every time you brake you drop a gear, every time you're close to rev-limit you upshift. Sometimes holding the gear can be more beneficial, since going through the gears takes time both for the upshift and the downshift, but in different ways. Hopefully that makes sense.

I would also say that more camber might be of help on the staggered setup. Surely with the a square one -2 is not going to be enough IMO.

stewpitt

I am starting to learn to trail brake and get the car to rotate under braking. It's very nerve-wrecking! As for the rowing, the ap1 really seems to struggle to torque out of corners and I notice the slower exit speeds. I will definitely have to work on being more aggressive in the braking zones. I am hoping to dial in some more camber for my next visit to the track. Once again, thank you for the input!

s2000Junky

I agree, in general. But analyzing the vid, I think his shifting was pretty spot on for the course speed and location. No time lost downshifting under braking but time gained being in the powerband out of corner exit and all upshifts through the course were needed to continue to accelerate. As for the rest, the driving is very smooth and generally picked good lines through the course. Next for OP/just start finding places to push harder and use more track. Running above 9-10ths is where it gets interesting and where you will discover how the car truly behaves at the limit. Until you are comfortable running there, don't change anything on the car set up. Switching to a non stag will open up a whole new can of worms you may not enjoy or be prepared for.

roel03

I am usually a minority with this opinion, but I believe you should step up tire level as you master each. I think you're over-tired for your experience level as I did not see you reaching the limits of adhesion at all. I'd recommend using a 300tw-200tw-then 100tw tire before going to a full slick.

stewpitt

I will say, the Nitto NT01's I am learning on are old race takeoffs and have since replaced the front tires with 225 re71r's. They are past their prime by several years and have been heat cycled quite a bit. Despite the staggered setup I do experience oversteer at the limit. Possibly due to not enough camber in the rear + the worn tires? I forgot to mention I have a strut tower with x brace and front U brace for the subframe.

Edit: This was also my second day on tires that actually grip. I did start out on 300tw tires and moved up because I felt I was reaching the limit of the tires. Whether that is true or not is up for debate.

Edit: Thank you both for the input!

Chibo

A RE71R is a stickier tire than an NT01 and the NT01 has probably seen a lot of heat cycles further degrading the grip.

Limit is a nebulous term, if you aren't driving over the 'limit' at some points then you aren't averaging on the 'limit'. There is a difference between touching peak grip and being able to quickly get on top of the grip plateau and stay there consistently.
Car setup will depend on your driving style and what you want will change as you get quicker. I like something that is easy to rotate at lower speeds and pushes a little bit at fast speed so I can get the car to start rotating with lift throttle (if I need more than I am getting), someone with a different driving style might think it pushes way too much.

BoboTheMonkey

This^^ You have a lot more in terms of grip than you are using. If you watch people who are very fast, you will see them make a lot of countersteer corrections in corners. This is obviously to a point. Correction to center is about where you are looking for, not a lot of extreme back and forth. I found it most helpful to go out with people who have similar cars who are faster. Then you can see how aggresive you can be. Also, you get that feeling in the seat of your pants when the rear tires are spinning just the right amount to propel you forward, but at the absolute limit of grip.