David M,

Regarding your comment to the effect "isn't LESS wheelspin more desirable?"

Not really in this sort of case. Being as the S2K needs to be higher up in the rev range in order to be in the sweet spot of the power band, it is VERY important to not allow the revs to fall too low during your launch. This can be accomplished in 2 ways, either by slipping the clutch or by allowing some wheelspin.

This is pretty much true of all low-torque but rev-happy vehicles. My previous cars (an Integra GSR, and a CRX si before that) both gave their best times with a high RPM launch and sufficient wheelspin so as to never let them drop below 3500 RPM, and hence not BOG. So the comments about raising the tire pressure to make wheelspin both easier, but more importantly more controllable, are spot on.

Of course, I have no experience really launching my S2K yet, since there's only 247 miles on the odo (my god, this is gonna be the LONGEST 600 miles of my life).

Must my $.02

Clark

 

Well guys, unfortunately for us (fortunately for him) David is not going to be around for the next 2 weeks as he is off to a Malaysian island for a well deserved holiday. who knows, however, what with the ubiquity of Internet cafes nowadays he may find he can still stay in touch in some of those far flung locations.

After reading your feedback Sev, as it is my last day before I give the Gtech back I thought I would go out tonight and try some more testing.

The weather is a little cooler tonight (maybe 15 celsius) and i got in a couple of runs in the 6.1 - 6.2 range for 0-100kmh before my dreaded 1-2 grind started making its presence felt. However, I thought about what you said and as my tyres are pretty bald and have been sliding a lot I dropped my tyre pressures from 39 to 32 and did some more testing.

Well with 1/2 a tank of fuel and just me in the car (I weigh 80kg) with a very squirelly takeoff on a better road surface, but no tyre squeal, I managed to pull 5.85 which probably equates to about 5.4 for 0-60mph.

I am now a happy camper

So I guess what this has proved is that there are significantly more variables than one would initially think - a bit more experience doesn't do any harm either! After the night of testing with David I also decided to go back to a straight clutch drop at 7.5k tonight, previously I was sidestepping the clutch at the same revs - this change also helped in reducing wheelspin.

Clark, I think your point about wheelspin is a good one. For me though I was getting so much wheelspin already that actuallly reducing it helped as it meant I was going somewhere rather than just spinning the wheels.

Anyway, if the weather holds up, I am off to the Street Drags again tomorrow night - I'll keep you guys posted.

 

5.85 - wow! that is impressive ... would have loved to seen that myself :-) 2kturkey, can you remember your other runs with the 32psi in the rear tyres? I'm wondering if the 5.85 was a 'fluke' (or a one of thing) or you managed some other sub 6 sec times?

Though, for 'car to car comparisons' I think 6.1 - 6.2 secs for 0-100km/h seem like the 'right' number here in Aust ... 6.1 - 6.2 we seem to do repeatadly and that's the time that is doable on a 'normal' road with your 'usual' tyre pressures. 5.80 is something which I dreamt of possible with a a lot 'ideal' circumstances ... looks like you managed to get real close :-)

ps. Did you do anymore 400m runs?

 

David, not with the Gtech but I did do the trip to Calder. It was a really off night - around 30 degrees and a 15 knot wind blowing down the track towards the cars.

I only got 3 runs in because there was a huge number of cars, 250-300. My 1st run I went over the sequencing lights and was not timed. 2nd run was 15.1 and 3rd (and final) 14.9 @ 150kmh. From what I was told by the other drivers all times were off a second or so from a good night - standard Commodore SSs and the like were pulling mid 16s - so I was well and truly ahead of them. In addition, I hit the rev limiter in 2nd and lost a bit of time before the upshift. It was a very exciting and disorienting experience, being up against 11 second rompa - rompa Commodores with huge motors and totally open exhausts, very hard to hear how your engine is running, espec. with a helmet on.

If you're interested, the drags are on again this Friday. A couple of club members will be going - you may want to participate!

 

2kturkey, are you talking about the 5.7l V8 SS Commodores? Allso, managing 150km/h as terminal speed is 10km/h or so down on a 'good' run so you're were definatelly a fair way of the peak performance attainable from S2000.

Friday night is no good as I'm going to the GP during the day and then I gotta get ready to fly out on Sunday ... as soon as I'm a bit more settled I'll come to ckeck out the events though.

ps. What about the 5.85 0-100km/h time you got ... managed any other times close to it?

 

Guess Dave's an 'ASS' man!!!

 

Slight correction to what i stated in the above posts - I was not running 38/36psi pressure in my tyres ... I though that's what I had it on but today I found out I was running 33/31 psi (front/back).

Clark - 'less wheelspin' is more desirable if you can do so without losing revs. In theory if you could launch the car from 8k and not slip the wheels or bog down - you'd have one incredibly fast 0-100km/h time (ie. you'd be doing 70km/h alsmost instantly - that would make the 0-100km/h time about 3 secs quicker :-). Concidering that 7.5k was about as much revs as we could give the car withough losing time staying still while 'burning rubber' - more grip would have helped us a bit.

Sime - I have always been an 'ass' man :-) How's the car going ... run in yet? If so, how is it?

 

Hey Dave!

Well I have completed about 880 miles, so I am not far from the 1000 miles that is the 'safety point' for full and continuous VTEC!! I have hit VTEC many times since 600 miles, but have been trying to take it easy. I keep it under 7500-7900rpm, but have about 10 times gone to 9000. Just couldn't help it! Most of the time though, I am driving the car out of VTEC.

I am thinking of getting the Field SFC VTEC controller ($250 USD) so that I can change the shift point of VTEC to be 500-600rpm lower.

I hate these S02's in the cold. They are SOOOOO slippery and unpredictable. You just don't know when the car is going to break loose which is dangerous with the short wheelbase.

Otherwise, I love the car! I still haven't taken the roof off yet! Waiting for a warmer day! My new stereo is great too. I also got the extended Honda front lip spoiler for my car and I really like it.

I know it's outraegeous, but I am highly considering the rear wing that S2000Spoon has on his car. I'm going to get some 17" or 18" wheels too......likely the Volk TE-37 six spokes in antracite grey.

Maybe one day I'll also install the Comptech supercharger kit too! Don't want to spend too much though. Still, all these mods including the supercharger would price the S2000 well under that of a new Corvette coupe - and perform better than it with the S2000 being a convertible. Food for thought I guess!

Cheers,

 

hehe - S02's in the cold ... that for me means about 15 degrees Celcius :-) On my MR2 the S02s performed perfetly well all year round and in all conditions - allways plenty of grip and lots of progesiveness. Though, that means temperatures between 15 and 45 degrees Celcius. I've never driven on them in extremly cold temperatures. Also, I've had my car for about 2 months and had the roof up for maybe 1 hour total :-)

 

Prick!