Like Annie was saying, the stock tires or any street tires make for a very balanced car, but adding race tires changes the balance of the car and makes it prone to snap oversteer. I haven't driven one yet, but my teammate has, on both S02's and Kumho race tires. He said it was much more balanced and controllable on the street tires. It wasn't impossible to control, just more difficult.

And speaking to the difference between FWD and RWD on autocross courses, the fastest FWD car at the SoloII Naitonals was in G-Stock, the ITR. But it was over 5 seconds slower than the winning S2000. So, while FWD does make a car more stable and easier to drive, it is by no means an *advantage* on the autocross car.

No one is saying the S2000 has bad suspension... it obviously has great suspension to match the stock tires. But anytime you change to high-grip tires, you'll change the handling characteristics of the car. In my Corrado, I needed to have custom revalved shocks built and add a front swaybar to make the car compete. Even the guys in ITR's had custom valved shocks added to their cars.

Basically, in a competitive environment, you must maximize your car's handling. For doing lapping days, and spirited street driving on street tires, the S2000's suspension is just fine. But when trying to maximize the speed of the car, things get tricky.

-Jason Saini . Chicago, IL
-'01 Spa S2K . SCCA SoloII, A-Stock

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The original post was about a stock S2000 on the street. Let us not get too esoteric here talking about track set-ups and such.

For my money with great handling autos like the S2000 you have so much grip on the street that when you do lose one you lose it big time and fast.

It is a very well ballanced car in as much as you can lose either end (oversteer or understeer) depending on your driving habits. I don't see it as having any evil habits (on the street stock) other than being too quick reacting for some inexperienced drivers. That is a fault of the driver rather than a fault of the car.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Banannie:
[B]I guess you have to think of it in relative terms - the S2K is tailhappy for autocross, but other RWD cars with power (Boxster S, C5 vette, Ferarri Modena, etc) are inherently MUCH less tailhappy.

 

what a great thread!! No flames! fancy that.

so nice to see.

 

I auto-x'ed for the first time yesterday. I just attributed my back end sliding all over the place to tire wear on my stock tires. Maybe there is more to it than that.

Call if whatever you want, but for an occasional weekend warrior, sliding the back end around in a parking lot is a heck of a lot of fun. ( Yes I know its not good for my lap time, but hey I missed a gate on each of my three runs and ended up with DNF's anyway. )

-- Tom