I have followed your street encounters for a while now, although I rarely have anything to contribute due to several factors:-

1) I live in the UK and hence our street encounters are very different to yours.
2) I know very little about these cars you run against. I do go and read about them though as you write about your encounters.

I would just like to bring to your attention that threads, and posts are very circular, almost a catch-22 situation. As members you actively encourage others to post their stories, no mater how far fetch some may appear, (again I am not really in a position to make any calls here) and then you actively divide up into two groups of people.

The first group tend to side with all triumphs and actively convince themselves that the S2000 is the business. The other group appear to just belittle the original story and set out to prove it could not have happened...

I have a few questions just personal curiosity?

1) Do you not get bored, lining up against any other given car and seeing how hard you can both just accelerate till one has a clear lead over the other?

2) Would your time not be better spent finding those very quiet back country roads and seeing how hard you can push yourself through a demarnding series of S bends, or better still channeling all that enthusiam via track days?

3) Is the American market geared towards the mark of a great car being is ability to run the 1/4 mile.


In the UK we use an equally pointless measure of a car, it's ability to run 0-62mph. This is both pointless and annoying as the true qualities of a sports car run much deeper.

I don't know if it is of any interest but UK roads consist of mostly single lane windy roads, you rarely drive more than a few hundred metres without a nice twist or turn, this results in a true test of ability when you choose to run with another car. The best times to find other playful sorts are early summer morning on the weekend, the roads are empty, and you just get the fellow enthusiasts. By running other people this way you get away from this my car is quicker than yours and learn to maximise your cars true potential. I have run much faster/slower cars and both won and lost because it all about ability and not just technical data which carries very little weight in real life racing situations.

I guess in summary I'm not trying to attack anyone, I guess I would see if my posting helped prompt a little inward reflection is all.

I love my Monte Carlo Blue S2000.

Respect to everyone,

Nick.

 

It's funny - although I live here in the US, but I have the same feeling about these "street encounters" being, well, strange. I don't get it.

Most of us didn't buy the car to "beat someone at a light" - if that's why we bought it, I think it was a poor choice in a car. This isn't the point of the S2000 at all. Nor is it to go 0-60, or even 1/4 mile quickly.

The S2000 is a great road car for the twisties, and a blast to drive with the top down in VTEC.

I happen to live in Massachusetts, which if you don't know has truly horrid weather about 6 months of the year (I've still got snow on my lawn). But one thing we do have here in Massachusetts is lots of interesting twisty roads that are just a blast to drive (in the spring/summer that is!).


It occurs to me that maybe many of the "street encounters" are focused on straight light-to-light races because those people are from areas of the country that have uninteresting roads.

Just a thought.

(It also occurs to me that this thread will set off a firestorm of nasty replies - better put on your firesuits!)

 

I like the mountain roads, twisties and corners just as much as the next person...But if someone wants to race on those kind of roads then it becomes 90% driver and less car. Plus the risk and dangers of racing under those kind of condition increase.
A straight line `1/4 mile is more car than driver. Usually you can see from one end to the other...so supposedly less dangerous.
In the US drag racings is much more popular than Rally racing....I happen to like both....but when someone wants to run...what do you say? " Yea I'll race you in the curve? Where I cant hit full boost...so you can run full throttle N/A and dust me?:

 

I should move to the UK. Florida has many hundreds of miles of straight roads. The curves I know of I have to take at 20mph for fear of running over a kid on a tricycle or an old person walking a dog. The only places out in the country for me are in the everglades, which are flat as a table, so the roads all go straight. For some of us, the only way to enjoy the car is to make it go fast in a straight line. Not many track days or autox's in my area either. I think most people would agree that this isn't a drag car and it's true measure should be it's handling.

As for the SE Forum arguements, yeah, it's pretty childish sometimes. Some people BS, and some can't accept that their car could ever lose to a particular competitor. I look at it as entertainment, tho it gets banal at times. It's kind of funny to see people get so worked up about something so trivial as who beat whom.

 

Interesting arguement (if you can call it that). I've lived in europe for a bit, and to compare the roads there to the roads over here is an apples and oranges sort of thing. For most Americans, the primary mode of transportation is the automobile. We have very long, strait highways because we use our cars to travel great distances, whereas Europe has many winding roads and only the occasional highway or autobahn because most prefer to use the high speed trains to travel long distances. It's not that we don't enjoy hitting the curves for a nice morning thrashing, it's that on average we are predisposed to taking the strait roads in order to get from one place to another in the shortest time possible. I think the lack of abunant twisty roads somewhat skews the priority of our automotive performance requirements. We are used to going strait so when we consider an automobile, the first and foremost measure of performance is it's strait line ability... I will say one thing though. There will always be those Americans that do not fit the typical American stereotype. Some of us do truely consider automotive performance to be more than pointing the car and pressing the accelerator. This site seems to have a lot of these atypical types, because we all know the S2000 is not the typical American car. The buyers of these cars know that there is more to life than drag racing, and my hat's off to them. I only wish I'd made a more conscious decision before buying my current American rattle trap....

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by cravnpup
[B]I only wish I'd made a more conscious decision before buying my current American rattle trap....

 

Actually, It doesn't rattle at all... as long as I don't hit any bumps that is... I hear the coupes aren't nearly as bad. I even have subframe connectors that stiffen up the frame considerably, but it's still horrible... Oh well, I guess Ford can only do so much with a chassis that was developed in 1979...

 

'2) Would your time not be better spent finding those very quiet back country roads and seeing how hard you can push yourself through a demarnding series of S bends, or better still channeling all that enthusiam via track days"

THATS THE BEST PART. ya, i think its fun to just accelerate until theres a winner by the time it feels necessary to shut the race down, but nothing compares to finding a nice twisty backroad and just unleash what the S should really be used for. i love the sound of the engine up in the power band, and watching the scenery fly by at the blink of an eye. its great to just be free on a deserted back road flowing threw the corners, listening to the engine get up to redline while flying down the straights....god i love this car.

 

I shouldn't matter where or how, just enjoy what we have every chance we get.

 

Nick,
that is what i think the S2000 is made for, twisties and track days. I do read the street encounters but with a neutral approach to them, until i have proof that one has won against another. BTW, you lucky mate, MONTE CARLO BLUE!