You explained your reasoning very well, and as I said before, it is most certainly logical. I can't know your motives, but (again, as I said before) my guess is that you're trying to help others out by letting them know that abusing their cars will tear them up. Unless I'm wrong about that, your motives are admirable.

To the guys saying that you (or anyone else) doesn't know "what the S2000 was designed for" ...
I'm the one who first used the expression in this thread, and you guys are reading too much into it.
The car has a wide range of capabilities, and WE ALL have a tendency to think it was designed to be used the way we use our's. I bought the car to modify and have fun with, and it's certainly designed to be fun, so it's easy to fall into thinking that's what the car is all about. Honda has called the S2000 a "race car for the street," and to me that certainly sounds more like a toy than practical transportation. However, the car is also extremely docile when driven conservatively, and that's no accident either. I like to let the engine rev freely and use the cars capabilities when I can, but the car doesn't care whether I drive it that way, or shift at 4,500 RPM constantly. It's designed to do either duty, or anything inbetween. It's also designed to look cool, so is it a misunderstanding of the cars intent to buy one because it looks cool? The car can fill a host of roles well, and people who say it's NOT designed for this or that are the ones who aren't thinking clearly. It was designed to be sold to people who would use it in all sorts of ways, and it was designed to serve them all well, to the extent that the designers could anticipate the things people might do with the car. That's not always true with nich market cars, and it's one of the things that makes the S2000 so enjoyable. It's capable of many things.

This whole discussion has reminded me of something I'd completely forgotten. When I got my car and started hanging out on a couple of the automotive forums I was shocked at the way people bickered. People involved in racing and autocrossing seemed to think that anyone showing their car had no interest in performance, and drag racers seemed to think that anything other than drag racing was for people who didn't have the skills to do it well. For the first time I met and got to know people who had bought high performance cars for reasons other than their performance. It was all very confusing, because I've always been around people who enjoied all sorts of vehicles and motorsports and I'd never seen the like. I was just getting hooked up with CCR during the same period, and CCR had both autocross cars and show cars, all of which were fun to drive and satisfyingly quick, but nobody had a fun street car that could do it all. I didn't really care about showing the car, but everyone thought it would be great for the business, so I decided to make a few compromises in what I had planned for the car. I knew it would never be a competative show car, but I was willing to spend a little more on the car to make it show well, as long as it did not compromise the other ways I wanted to use the car (autocross, street, track days, in that order). Now the car is usually the quickest street tired car at the autocrosses I compete in, it runs low 13's in the quarter even with my crummy drag racing skills, and it's won it's class in some of the biggest shows in the country. I've actually done more different things with this car, and had greater success, than with any other car I've ever owned, and it's because the little car was designed to do so many things well.

The car is a collection of compromises that does many things well. Driving it hard won't necessarily do it any harm, but driving or maintaining it badly won't do it any good. It doesn't matter what you do with the car; It's how you do it that matters.

I would NEVER let my car hit the cold limiter, and I consider doing so idiotic, even if it does no harm. There is no need to ever rev a cold engine because the tires are still cold and don't deliver enough grip to put power to the ground anyway. It makes more sense to shift early and keep the oil pressure down to more reasonable levels. The limiter is there for people who are too dumb to know better, but smart drivers keep the revs down and drive easy until everything warms up. Anyone who does not warm their own car up before driving it hard would NEVER be allowed to drive my car, even if they drove it like an old man.

Warming things up before driving hard is more important than things like rev matching when it comes to component life.

 

If you say "ice cold oil" wouldn't that mean that the oil was freezing (ie: turning into a solid)?

The oils we use in the S2000 flow extremely well when cold, so it's not like "the old days" when we ran straight 30 to 50 weight dyno oil in high performance engines. You can get away with a lot more now, but what is gained?

Treat the car with a little respect and give it a little loving care and it'll pay you back in kind.

Back in the early 70's we lived on Tawas Point. If you look it up on Google Earth you'll see how the point sticks out into lake Huron, and in the winter the wind off the lake as frigid to say the least. We were quite literally out on the point itself, so there was nothing to block the wind, and our little house had nothing more than a carport, which was open on three sides, all three of which faced the lake, so the cars had absolutely no protection from wind and blowing snow. One morning I went out and dug all the snow off the Camaro and got inside to start it, only to find that the engine would only grunt (without any sign of turning over). I got out and opened the hood to be greeted by solid block of snow, that the wind had apparently packed tightly into all the underhood cavities. It must have blown right through the radiator, and was packed so tight that it was almost like ice. I cleaned as much of it out as I could, so the engine could turn over, then tried to start the car again, but still, all it would do is grunt, without turning over at all. Now I'm not talking about a click like you get when the battery is low; The engine would make a sound like it was grunting. Our neighbor brought over a known good battery and we tried jumping the car, but the thing still just grunted at us, so he suggested that we try a 24 volt battery, but I decided that if the engine wasn't turning over it probably needed to be warmed up before we started it. It was still freezing outside, but the wind had stopped and the temperature was higher, and after the car sat for a couple hours it started right up. I never tought to look at the oil, but I'll bet it wasn't frozen solid. I have no idea why the engine was siezed, but it almost had to be related to the wind and and chill factor.

What do we lose by taking it easy on our cars until they warm up thoroughly?
What do we risk if we do not?

 

god GTI sucks... i personally bought my s2000 to be driven hard... its a convertable sports car... drive the hell out of it and take your medicine if something breaks and suck it up

 

and another thing, why is ice tea NEVER cold at resturants?

 

Come on guys. Even if you think someone's opinion sucks, that doesn't mean that they suck. I'll bet if we were having this conversation in a parking lot at an S2k meet you guys would all be a lot nicer to each other.

 

your right. they could swallow.


i kid, i kid.

forgive me its been a LONG day at work and im half crazy. just want to get in the s and go home!

 

Mmmmmm. A&W Root Beer in a frozen mug.

 

lets go. name the spot.

 

I suck, yet you agree with me?