[QUOTE]Originally posted by jschmidt
[B]You guys talk about RWD like it is a pirahna just waiting in the reeds to bite you. Both your Grandpa and your Grandma probably have RWD. Their mom and dad did. C'mon.

 

Oh dear, this is always such a delicate subject with S2k owners. I posted here a while back with my test drive experiences of the S2k in rain and I was 75% flamed, but tellingly 25% agreed with.

If you perform a seacrh of this fine forum for 'Rain' or 'wet', just you see what the general opinion is. It looks to be around 60/40 with most angrily denying any wet weather snappiness.

The S2K has many forceful defenders on here who will not accept any criticism of this car, and who blame lack of RWD experience or poor driving ability for any wet weather traction problems.

I would suggest respectfully that the reverse is true, and that only folks with experience of RWD driving could properly diagnose and verbalise the S2k's behaviour.
I am no Steve Sutcliffe or Russel Bulgin (RIP), but neither am I a boy racer !
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...&threadid=61924

I found the car to be extremely snappy and prone to overcompensation when correcting the slide. This isn't a RWD thing, as I have probably 500k miles of RWD experience, including road & track performance training. IMO its that the S2k relies for its roadholding heavily on hot tyre grip, which is lost in the rain. Apart from the folks on here who agreed with me, also:
Autocar (Uk magazine) spanked its test S2k while moving out to overtake in the wet (as I almost did)
EVO magazine excluded the S2k from the final round of its 'drivers car of the year' comparison because of its wet weather behaviour
Honda itself made the 02 model less prone to oversteer by chassis tweaks as a response to coments concerning the wet weather stability of the rear.
Its fair to say that while not a problem, the s2k was made as a dry fun machine not an all weather road razor.

I did eventually drive the car safely back to base,but it is not a sporting experience. I think its fait to say that if you consider the s2k a dry-weather car you will have nothing but fun, as its a wonderful machine, but with lots of rainy days, I'd go for an E46 M3 (for RWD) a WRX (4wd) or an ITR (FWD) for more all-weather thrills.

I'd LOVE a S2k but the weathers just too crap in Britain for me to enjoy only 120 days per year of fun motoring.

And please some folks, learn that no car is perfect, and other opinions can be just as valid as your own.

This forum is a GREAT resource to stooks though !

 

purebob is about right. I too have several hundred thousand miles of RWD experience on cars and bikes.

I'd go one step further and say that wet performance lowers "the limit" to make the OEM rear tire characteristics (design choices) more apparent.

IMHO, Honda's choices with the S-02 redesign overemphasized lateral grip over linearity, progressivity and feedback. I think they did it to get a .9g magazine number in the same way that manufacturers muck with transmission ratios to improve 0-60 (at the expense of overall acceleration.) The driving experience can be improved in both wet and dry situations by replacing the rears (and the rears only if you like) with one of the other ultra performance tires that are available. And balanced tires lead to greater speed most often.

Here's an explanation of these terms:
lateral grip: a measure of adhesion during side-loading forces
linearity: maintaining the same turning effect throughout the turning radius.
progressivity: a smooth, gradual, and somewhat predictable diminishing of lateral adhesion.
feedback: messages from the tire and vehicle to the driver that limits are approaching.

I contend that overemphasis of any one of these characteristics isn't an advantage, it is a lack of balance. It is also good to remember that the OEMs were probably designed in 1997-98, some five years ago. It is also worth wondering why Bridgestone never chose to release the OEM design as it's Over the Counter design if they were better?

Lastly, the purpose of choosing RWD is to improve car control and balance, not eliminate the inexperienced.

Over my time here I have always found handling discussions some of the most entertaining, stimulating and frustrating that we've had.

 

i ran the dragon in the rain(yes us 129 ^_^) with oem s02's and top down and i had a blast!

 

I was with him along with several other s2000 owners. I have 285 width tires in back with 65% of the tread gone. Just watch out for standing water My setup feels a little squirly on water logged roads at speeds over about 65. Of course on the dragon getting above 50 is a challange