I've been going through old car magazines and I came across the August 2001 issue of Sport Compact Car with the Comptech and Neuspeed S2000s. In talking about the Comptech S200 equipped with "Comptech height-adjustable springs" they write:

"On the street and during slalom testing, it suffered from the same problems we've experienced in every lowered S2000 we've driven. Our best guess is that an overly aggressive rear toe curve makes these cars difficult to drive at the limit when they're lower than stock (hence the slower than stock slalom speeds. Even with huge wheels and tires at all four corners, the added grip is lost during hard cornering. Bottom line? Don't lower your S2000 unless you're prepared to deal with this ill-handling character."

They go on to say: "During testing, our car wasn't impossible to drive, it simply lost grip at the rear during hard transitions or during quick turn-in sooner than it should have. On the street that translates into danger if you blast through an on ramp too hard."

In talking about the Neuspeed S2000 equipped with Neuspeed Sport lowering springs and Koni adjustable shocks, senior editor Josh Jacquot says, "As with all lowered S2000s that we've driven, they've been extraordinarily tail happy. Lots of snap-back, oversteer response, making it less driver friendly and/or stable than a stock car."

Anyone here agree or disagree with these statements? Any experiences?

I've been thinking about installing some springs in a few months to erase some wheel-gap and hopefully improve the handling of my S, but it appears as if lowering the S could make driving it unpredictable and dangerous.

Any thoughts?

 

They also test drove the Spoon S2000. It did really good number I thought on the skid pad. It was like 1.2g's I think that pretty damn good.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by E36Ap1
They also test drove the Spoon S2000.

 

Take a drive to Norfolk Saturday. We will be lowering 2 cars with kg/mm race springs.



Might not answer your questions but could give you an idea.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by E36Ap1
They also test drove the Spoon S2000.

 

No it doesn't as long as you know what you're doing.

 

I do believe the S2000 can become tail happy. But it always about the driver and knowing how to control the car. Most of time people say it has a twitch when oversteer kick but if you can sense the onset of oversteer you can make the adjustment accordingly. (It took me a while to control that tail happy characteristic when push beyond limit but I compensated) So basically if you know how to drive and handle oversteer with a lowered suspension it should handle better. I just believe Honda couldn't push it limits as in making it lower just for the sake of driving it around town. The 04 is a very good point on how Honda has heeded to the civilized street driving over the handling on the track.

 

It depends upon the springs, bars, stance, tires, and alignment. Most cars can be harder to handle when just dropped and not realigned, while a sorted out setup with a moderate drop an be better than stock.

This car is very sensitive to alignment and corner weight so any drop will change characteristics. If a change in ride height is done and you drive the car aggressively, plan to sort out the changes. Fine tuning of corner height, alignment, tire pressure will likely be needed, and even damper and bar rates can need changes to get the optimum from the car.

 

Does adding a little wheel weight dramaticly affect handling?