I have to ask this here as this is the part of the site that is frequented mostly by my American brothers.

Having browsed the highly amusing "Street Encounters" threads and watching a few vids in the gallery, what is the fixation with dumping the clutch at 6.5k and getting the perfect launch? Why the need to do the quater mile in less than 14 seconds? Why thrash some heap of junk at the lights?

Please humour me and educate me.

I have always believed that an accomplished sports car will be greater than the sum of its parts and provide the driver with a well rounded and capable package - this the S2000 does well out of the crate, especially for what you pay!

The way I see it is the S2000 is about focused engineering. It's about taking the elements of handling, acceleration, braking and dynamics. Linking turns, hitting the apex, taking the car to the edge so she sings back to you.

I'm interested how you can compare a Trans Am with the S2000 when the two cars are poles apart - this is a "for instance".

I've found that hitting a linked set of roundabouts or a particularly twisty road provides me with far more pleasure. It also really embarrasses some far more expensive machinery that may be faster in a straight line but is left wanting when it's balls to the wall.

Your opinions please.

J

 

Asterix, all I can say is some people get it and some don't.

 

American roads....mostly. Big open highways, and stoplight to stoplight intersections. We also have some incredible curvy mountainous backroads, but for the most part those are out of the way of most persons everyday drive. My guess is a lot of it has to do with the American muscle car/drag racing explosion of the 60's too, that just kind of gets pasted down through the generations.

I understand what you are saying though, I've never quite understood why people primarily interested in stoplight to stoplight performance wouldn't choose more appropriate platforms to begin with (F-bodys and Mustangs for instance). Not that a car like an S2000 can't be coaxed into performing relatively well in that situation, but you'll never catch me springing the clutch for a 7K launch. It just seems abusive and makes me cringe when I hear other people doing it, if I had of been that concerned with my quarter mile time I'd have bought another car, but to each their own. Not to say I don't enjoy drag racing though, I just have altogether different beasts than the S2000 in mind when I think of that though.

 

I think you gave your opinion on it, and that's all one can do.


My opinion disagrees. I like running my car in the 1/4 mile, and while people b*tch about how this car isn't made for the 1/4 mile, they don't realize that this car happens to be rather quick in a straight line. And this power and speed contribute to it's handling, making it a good competitor in the handling department. If this car wasn't as fast as it is, it would be a miata.

This car is a handling beast, and an incredibly designed roadster. The fact that it can still bang out a 13.7 is a testament to it's overall performance abilities.

There is NOTHING wrong with wanting to run the 1/4 mile in this car, or do some stop light street light races.

I bought this car because it's incredibly fun to drive, looks awesome, and is a great all around roadster. The fact that I can bang out a 1/4 mile in the 13's stock is simply the icing on the cake.

 

Oddly, I was going to type nearly the same thing in my post. "It's no dragster but it puts up respectable numbers in that arena as by-product of being an excellent little sportscar."

 

As you said, it's an opinion based comment. I'm glad mine is respected as is yours.

I feel that running from lights or a quater mile is only exploiting 15% of it's true performance, and boy, if there was ever a car that begged to be exploited, this is it!

Btw - Power & speed do not relate to handling. Last time I looked a top fuel funny car was a bit rubbish round the twisties. It's all about balance, hence why the Miata, or MX5 as I prefer, won best roadster in many a respected journal for quite a few years. Don't be a snob.

Anyway, as you said, it's all personal reflection.

 

i also hate drag racing... i don't really see much fun in it.... however i do drag race once in a while... i've taken it to a drag strip just for shits and giggles to see what i could run....

however.. you hear all those stories of highway runs and stop light runs because... we in the US have somewhat a shortage of racetracks or open race tracks where we are allowed to run our cars.... and where there are racetracks, it takes forever to get to.....

there is also this import vs domestic thing here in the states....a lot of domestic people have absolutly no respect for import cars and they all swear on their lives that their cars are faster in the quarter mile.... so some of us import drivers run a quick quartermile against them to shut them up...

 

Different strokes for different folks i guess......as for me i live in the country

and i have a wonderful myriad of twisties and hills that i can exercise the S

anytime i feel like it......This IMHO was what this car was made for.

 

Some people don't get it. Over on the Elise board a guy was asking how to get they perfect "launch" I asked him if he ever tried turning the car and got flamed. "He can do what ever he wants with his car". I guess thats true, now I'm going to hop back in my Cessna and plow the corn field.

Steve

 

Occasionally, message boards yield true gems such as this.