This best piece in that story:
* Facelifted Honda S2000 out in March; price remains at

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by tomzimmer
[B]This best piece in that story:
* Facelifted Honda S2000 out in March; price remains at

 

Heli - what petrol are you running on? I heard SUL was not being sold in Ireland anymore....

 

"The standard front wishbone suspension and rear torsion bar set-up is retained, but messing around with the anti-roll bars, spring rates and damper settings has meant that the rear tyres are more firmly planted under hard cornering. "

I wonder if that means the present set up can be modified by a Honda dealer? And is it even necessary?

What's the view of you guys who've been on the track?

When I told my local SAAB dealer I was switching allegiance to Honda, he told me he'd been on a corporate day at Jonathan Palmer's place and spun an S2k at 80 mph. "The back end just went without warning," he said

Pete

 

The settings should be easy enough to find out with some time. You may well be able to get the changes done. Could be quite costly depending what's involved - could be alignment, could be springs, dampers, anti rollbars. Hard to guess for now. There is quite a bit of info on the main forums on alignment changes you can make and the handling effects - that simply requires somewhere that can do a full alignment. (Not just tracking - so a dealer most likely, or performance shop rather than a Thick Fit type place.)

I haven't been on the track quite yet (soon...) but I think the general experience has been for twitches, or the back out at slow speed.

I don't want to attack the SAAB dealer, but I imagine he was having a lot of fun, but the change from FWD Turbo to RWD NA is pretty big. If it was a corporate day at Bedford the review in Evo said that they positively push you to get to (and past) your limits.

I think it's just a case of wait and see a bit while we find out more about 2002MY's chassis changes.

And keep an eye on your tires in the meantime

-Brian.

 

I did the Jonathan Palmer day too and got the fastest time of the day in the S2000 so I was not hanging about and all I can say is that SAAB guy is talking crap.

The S2000 was so beautifully balanced that you could get mild oversteer at 90 odd and hold it. SAAB boy just needs to learn how to drive a RWD as did most people on that day.

Can't get too cocky though as I did 360 the Integra R which was great fun for me at 80 odd but not for the instructor. Poor guy was white as a sheet.

 

I dont think I will be spending/doing any of the possible damper, spring rate changes/adjustments if it is found to be different on the 2002 models.
For the effort and expense not to mention the possible f--k up you could come out with, its not worth it, lets say you get it all right, unless you drive the car to extremes all the time you wont notice.
As for the anti roll bar, have you seen the thing!! its massive any way, doing anything with that given that it is allready coping quite well with the job is purely secondary.
If you want to spend money in an effort to try and keep the car on the road safely, IMO you would be far better off improving your driving skills with a driving coarse.

 

I had the back snap out on me at the track (well that's my excuse).

Seriously, after I had my instruction I realised that what I had asked the car to do was just plain impossible and hence the reason for the spin.

I'm with Nigel, I think the benefits will be marginal compared to the expense. It'd probably be cheaper to change the car for a MY2002 (or a GT.... )

 

I think the journo's are trying to save face a bit. At the track days I've been to, where I've let the instructors drive, they've all said how well balanced the handling is, with good feedback, and excellent track characteristics. It's not as tail happy (relative to other RWD cars) as the journo's would have you believe (OK, once you've lost the back end, you've got to be a miracle worker to bring it back, but I reckon it's easier than they say to determine when you're close to the limit). And as for it being worse on the track than the road - crap. It lives for the track. If you give it a bumpy English lane, then it's sweaty palms and pampers time.

If you reckon that there's going to be a significant change, then I'd go for a test drive when the MY2002 comes out. If you notice the difference, then buy and fit the bits. It's going to be much cheaper than PX'ing your current car.

PS. It looks like they're going to do a group test of the S2k against an M Coupe, a Caterham 7, and an Exige next week, so that should make interesting reading.

 

Easy tiger, did you use the JP S2000's as they have done the following to them:

Taken out Roll Bar so the customers don't get snap oversteer,

Fitted them with racing Tyres

Upgraded the brake pads and fluid.

I was up against the JP S2000 driven by an instructor in the 'How fast day', and I'm sure these made him faster seriously though he said the removing of the Anti-roll bar only hampered in the hair-pins when you couldn't get it around as quick, but in the longer sweepers / chicanes he said it makes it much easier to control and gain higher speeds!

Followed his advice on the warm-up lap and spun, sticked to what I knew!! for my flying lap, baulked by some old gimper in a TVR Griffith!!!!