Hey Marin, what I was saying is that the factory wheels don't weigh enough for your explination to be a factor, not the spacers themselfs. If they were 20 pound wheels it might. Wouldn't aftermarket deeper dish wheels with no spacers then have a similer chance of effect on the bearings? If the outside lip offsetted the center enough with a heavy 18" or 19"... what i'm saying is it's a null point for our application, its not a consideration, the benifit outweighs any possible side effects that the 1- spacers on factory wheels may or may not create over a long period of time. Thanks for your input though...

 

The weigth of the car is more important than the weight of the tires for bearing stress. Is 1" enough to make a difference, I dunno, certainly 6" would be a mistake.

 

Just got some Hoosiers RS04's for under $400. I'm very very happy.

anyway, I lowered my car with H&R springs, but I don't think it has improved performance in a big way compare to putting wider wheels and wider tires all around. I lowered it about little less than 1" all around, but at the track, you will not feel the difference. I felt the difference most on the highway than track.

I'm using the stock shocks, and they work with aftermarket springs, but only if you stick close to 1" or less.

get your some tires. just because you stiffen up the suspension, you're automatically going to improve your times. Your x-brace isn't going to be what's connecting you and your car to the ground.

 

right, in simple turms lower & wider is the direction you want to go, good springs such as Eibacks-1 drop and 1+ wheel spacers will get you there with the least cost and outperfom over stock. If you want to spend more$$ then get wider wheels/tires/coilovers. Front thicker sway bar would be a noticable improvement if you are still utilizing the stock shocks and cost about $300.

 

actually there is hub centric spacer on the market, installed a set before on a dude's car and they are cnc custom width and seat perfectly flush.

the main problem is not the hub centric issue if you are using decent quality spacer, it's the geometry. let's say you increase the length by one inch or six inches, you increase the load of the bearing just by increaseing the length itself.
f=l(to). Yes, there will be more wear on the bearing no doubt, but there's car seems to able to withstand it and some car don't.

actually there is a use in the spacer, some miata racers swear by those bastard, not because they are ghetto and cheap but it just simple because it worked in the chassis time after time. For me, of course i can order a set of custom et volks but if you can get 80% of the advantage with the added tracking, it's worth considering. at least for me.

 

1)no, x brace or generally speaking sub frame brace will help in cornering, it allow the damper to do their thing in short. you might not feel it, since the chassis is pretty good to begin with but with repeated timed event there's a positive gain with the "xbrace".

most people "feel" the x brace when they go over bumps, which is normal since not everyone is a track whore and time themselve silly with meter and e-gizmo.


it's worth to get if you have the cash but not a priority item if you ask me

on a side note, the x brace did save me a oil pan when i ran over a big chuck of rock in angeles crest.

2)yes, generallty speaking you are right. you can do that with tracking and even tire pressure to some extend if you know what you doing.

3)the name strut tower brace is just a generic name, it has little to do with the fact of what configeration of the damper is. of course there's some chassis will benefit with it than the other(miata, civic, and the economy sh-tbox list goes on) but the determining factor is not it's macpherson strut, or modified macpherson strut or double control arm with damper. for example you cant say it's useless on car x just because it doesn't have a proper "strut"(spliting hair i know)

 

my point was that on s2k, you don't need to go lower to improve handling.

If you want to improve track handling, springs are not the way to go. Stay stock, unless you're willing to corner weight, and adjust your alignment right with coilovers. Getting wider and stickier tires will help on handling and improve driving more than any springs or X brace or K brace or intake and manifold and exhaust would ever would.

unless you get springs for looks.

 

I agree wider stickier tires will give you the most road holding obove anything else. And sure looks is a consideration, its an atractive car out of the box but lets face it, it can use some flavor. Most of these easy mods stated before will give you both increase in performance and flavor for not much$$ so why not do it even if the performance upgrade aspect is arguably marginal.

 

sway bars IMO, slap a fatty rear on and watch it fish tail more than it already does , no but seriously thats the first thing to upgrade before you would get any frame cross bars, strut tower bars, tie bar etc.

 

Most of this has been said already, but here's my input.

1) If you're looking to go faster, improve the driver. It'll be the number one biggest improvement you can make. Sometimes I share a car at autocrosses, where I'm often 2 to 4 seconds faster than the other driver. And I'm not even all that fast - there are other drivers at our events that would be 2 or 4 seconds faster again, if they drove the car.

2) MY00 and MY01 S2000s can particularly be a handdful to drive, so even if you post fast times it's a chore and not very fun. A good, low-cost part to get is a stiffer front swaybar. In my experience, it not only improved my times, it also made the car more fun to drive.

3) Coilovers. However, suspension tuning, to me, is a black art that I have not mastered. So I stick with OEM 03 coilovers and a Whiteline swaybar - the car is fast and fun and worry free, just what I need. No shock tuning for me, thank you. You can mix-and-match OEM coilovers - I've been wondering what an AP2 with AP1 rear coilovers would handle like.

4) Tires, in my view, do not improve a car's handling, they just give it more grip. So an ill-handling car with race compounds will still be an ill-handling car, it'll just be a bit faster when it crashes. Unless it's the tires themselves causing the handling issue. A MY04 on stock RE050 tires handles significantly different if it instead has 225/255 Victoracers.