mfindigital

So I joined s2k about three weeks ago. I have always loved the platform, especially the 9k revving ap1 (not trying to start anything, just something I felt was really cool, my first car was a 12a rotary rx7, anyone who ever owner an sa or fa rx7 knows that intoxicating feeling of revving to 8500rpm then hearing the bzzzzzz that tells you to shift)mostly because it harkens back to found memories of my first car, a 1979 rx7.

I joined because I finally felt ready to purchase an s2k, I have owned several cars here and there, I turned 29 this year and don't have any kids, but me and my girlfriend are closing in on the marriage/kids time, we have both started talking about starting a family, so I figured I better buy the two seater before that happens. I am in the process of selling my mazdaspeed 3, and thought I would do some research on this platform, get ideas for my future mod plans, and price out cars. Sounded great on the surface, but I ended up purchasing a 2000 AP1 less than 36 hours after joining the forums. As stated in other threads, I sold my sr20det s13 last year and really missed the thrill of rwd and old school style sport cars, no electronic ninnies, being one with the machine and all that corny stuff.

My s2000 was purchased with a built engine, brian crower all around, but had just been through a small part out. The previous owner, Roscoe, had sold all of his aftermarket stuff, like his wheels, bolt ons, lips, etc. The parts that mattered that were sold were the headlights, taillights, and front and rear bumpers.

I was sort of looking for an s2000 that had a fresh engine but needed some work, I enjoy working and cars and didn't mind saving the money I did due to the missing parts and some small problem areas. So 36 hours after joining, I purchased, then I headed straight to the so. cal marketplace and began purchasing all the parts I need (including stock cams, the car has vtec killers on it, custom made by crower, but not for me).

This forum has been great, people are extremely helpful here, members are very trust worthy in the marketplace, and there is tons of great info here. So far I have purchased headlights, rear bumper, front bumper and a stock shift knob. All that's left to buy before my car gets on the road are the taillights and stock cams, both of which are hopefully waiting for me in san diego with two different members.
I haven't even started the car yet and this has been one of the most exciting car related 3 week stretches in my life. I went from curiosity and browsing to ownership literally over night, and have taken a naked car to nearly complete in 3 weeks. Ill post before and afters by friday, there is really no point to this thread other than just expressing my excitement for the car and praising this forum. I am really looking forward to joining you guys out on some weekend canyon runs and my NASA track days.

I joined NASA in 2005 and really got into road racing maybe a year later after seeing a honda commercial that featured an s2k sitting in the pits with full flames shooting out of the exhaust, revving it's engine hard with a huge wing, preparing to disappear into then night on that racing track. Three weeks ago the dreams I had after seeing that commercial began to become a reality, and I couldn't be more excited.



P.S, I am pretty verbose, I am one of probably 10 people in the world who still blogs (an nba blog site), so these incoherent, overly long rambling threads will happen far more often than I wish they would, but I am pretty terrible at masking my love of cars. Thanks!

-mike.

Reckon

Nice post. Glad you got an S. Get her how you like it and then have fun with her.

mfindigital

Final parts aquired. Cams were purchased last thursday, and headlights will be purchased after I drop my car off at Ballade tomorrow for the cam install. All worked out great, the tail lights are 4 miles from Ballade, it's amazing how helpful this place has been, and how amazing the synergy of the build has occurred. I installed the front bumper last night, I am having some fitment issues, it appears the passenger side quarter panel was either not installed correctly, of something is wharped underneath there. The hood sits about a quarter of an inch lower on the passenger side and there is about a half inch gap between the hood and bumper, but my frame inspection revealed no frame damage or repairs, so hopefully it's nothing major. It will drive me crazy if my gaps are this far off, I like my cars to look clean, it'll be bad enough driving around with a silver bumper on a burgundy car for a few weeks as is.

Again, thank you s2ki.com, I'll be sticking around obviously, but phase one will be officially completed tomorrow.

mfindigital

Dropped the car off at Ballade on Tuesday, things couldn't have went any differently than planned.
I'm not going to throw anyone under the bus, but to say I was mislead about my car is a pretty big understatement. I expected issues, even though I was promised there were none by the seller, when I was able to purchase an s2000 with a built engine that "has never been run" for $5,500.00 (the owner offered less, I gave him full price just for being a cool person who I thought was being straight forward). There were several issues, including condition of the motor/trans, the top, paint, vehicle history, etc. Everything I was told about the car was basically incorrect.
Again, not pointing fingers, but the engine builder, a big time member around here, either mislead the previous owner, seems to have mislead me in a pm, and got one over on someone, in my personal opinion. Alex told me the engine was assembled horribly, the bottom end is soaked in issues, none of the least that it won't run, not even with a standalone, something I was promised by the engine builder and previous car owner.

But, I spent 5.5k on a car, cheap for any car, insanely cheap for an s2k with 0 mile built engine.

So the excitement associated with getting one of the great deals in auto history disappeared, but the reality of owning it is a reality. I was on the brink of cancelling my money order and dropping the car back off at the previous owners house. These were egregious misleadings and ommissions in my opinion. I feel like I was defrauded. Thankfully, Alex and I worked out a deal. My engine parts are still worth substantial amounts of money, Alex knows this, even if he doesn't want to totally admit it (just kidding bud), so we worked out an ideal swap. My real hope with purchasing was to walk away with a pretty clean s2k that made basically stock power with reliability, consistancey, and most importantly, legality. I have "shady smog" spots, but I would rather just have a nice, normal car that I could drive without fear of impounding or ref tickets.

So a trade was proposed. Alex will take my expensive, hidden gem of an engine that needs to be disassembled (just to run) and do what he pleased with it (I could care less) and in return, I will get a low mileage, totally stock, compression and quality tested AP1 engine. We spent maybe 2 hours in total working out the details, he has thrown in an extra incentive or two, and I will be throwing in labor costs. I could probably have someone take it out for me, then swap it for the stock motor. I could probably take the engine out, have my mechanic friend fix it, and sell it for more than enough to purchase a motor and some power adders. But that's not what I am looking to do. Cars are not, and never should be seen as, financial investments, unless that's your business. If it was, I could probably part this thing out and almost double my investment.

But what I wanted is what I am getting. A stock, reliable and legal s2000. And I am getting it for 60 or 70% of what I see others paying for the same year, mileage, so money wise, I am doing great. Im not sure who in this community would pass and perfectly running s2k with low mileage for $7,000.00. Makes it sort of tough to bitch about the scenario, even if I was lied to and mislead. It's unfortunate that people feel the need to act this way, especially in these day where the internet can destroy reps. I do think I should get money back considering the fact that literally everything I was told about the car was wrong (in spite of me literally begging to be told something was wrong with the car, and insisting I would still pay full price, even with a blown engine. But, that isn't going to happen, I don't have the time or energy to allocate to that, 10 years ago I would have, now I work 70 hours a week, 7 days a week. So I'll just pay a few dollars and drive home a clean, extremely low mileage s2000 in 3 weeks, only being 7 grand out of pocket. And I'll do so with a smile on my face.

niick

Man, sorry you got jipped but it seems to be working out well for you.

Keep up the long posts, I don't know about the others but I enjoy reading them

mfindigital

I appreciate it. I continually apologize for my verbosity, just a self conscience thing. I find it hard to believe people find my thoughts interesting and intriguing, but it seems to be the case sometimes, for some people.

I am a MASSIVE sports fan. My veins literally bleed dodger blue, I have become a fantasy football addict, but at the end of the day, when I become most honest, I am absolutely obsessed with basketball. I realized that I was spewing 5-10,000(!!!!!) words a week onto my facebook account regarding basketball. A couple of friends prodded me and finally convinced me to start my own NBA blog. I think it's the most beautiful sport on earth, it makes me feel the same way "soccer" makes 2 billion people around the world feel. I find the teamwork, grace, fluidity and competitive nature of basketball to be the perfect metaphor for living life correctly, what Bill Simmons (clearly a huge inspiration) calls "the secret" in his Book of Basketball. So when I started the NBA blog, I reacquainted with an old passion, writing.

So now I find myself writing 2000 words all over the place where 200 would maybe be considered overkill. But it's fun, I find writing the most efficient way to express thoughts. I never edit, so my grammar can be off, as well my spelling. But I truly enjoy expressing my excitement about the things that inspire me. And cars definitely do that, just as much as the NBA or any other thing I love.

And the S2000 is the embodiment of that excitement. I think it is the last great car, where you can tell the mechanics weren't just obsessed with ground breaking technology, lap times, looks, comfort, etc. But they became obsessed with making a fun car, it feels like an emotionally driven expression of relaxation from the insane level of detail and perfection required to compete in Formula one, gt350/500 etc. and building all those IRL engines. They got to take a break from that and just go f@#king crazy in the design room. That 20 million dollar traction control system we use in our racing cars, screw that, that doesn't sound fun at all. Torque from 2000 rpm? Why??? Who the HELL would ever wan't to mope the s2k around at those rpm levels, let's make this sunovabitch SCREAM for mercy. Hi-tech electronic suspension and brake systems sure are fast, but it's not fun knowing your car can drive better than you.

And hey assholes, if you can't handle this car, guess what, it will whip its tail out and slam you into a tree. This car ISN'T MEANT FOR YOU. This isn't a "DRIVERS" car, this is an obsessive compulsive, ADD ridden, spitball throwing, un-neutered thoroughbred that will kick you in the nuts if you aren't bold enough to grab hold of it's neck and triangle choke it into submission. You know how to make this car great? You make it your bitch. You don't need to do ANYTHING to make this car better, and it won't make you look better, drive better, f@#k better, turn better, brake better. It won't do ANY of that. You need to make IT do that. This car KNOWS it's better than you, and you need to prove to it that you have the ability to show the car what's what. That you can make all those engineers proud and become good enough to make the car happy by driving it the way it was designed, born, and executed to do. It won't help you get there, this car DEMANDS that you are good enough to get it there, or else go trade it in for an evo or sti. Those cars let you plug in a playstation controller, completely remove yourself from the equation, and then it makes your lazy ass look like a hero. The s2000 wants you to make IT look like a hero, it can care less how you look.

That's why I fell in love with this car after a 20 minutes test drive in 2007, when I took a 45degree on ramp at 80 mph and felt the exact way you feel the first time you KNOW you tore a girls pussy up, when you could say or do whatever you wanted after you hit that, because for that brief moment in time you owned that pussy, you showed it what it's capable of, how explosive it can be when when worked perfectly.

Long story short, I have no issue with how much of a pain in the ass this process has become. Maybe my baby feels like I am not ready for her yet. I didn't deserve her for 5 grand, no one does. I need to sweat a little more, work a little harder and shed some blood from my knuckles before this bitch will let me tear that pussy up. But, uuuuwwwwwwweeee, once I do, this bitch is mine and I'll own that pussy for life. While "fanboys" in their hella flush stances, plaid shirts and fake thick rimmed ray ban glasses are lining up around the block at their local scion dealer for a 200hp slap in the face to it's predecessor, the first "great" gift from our import gods, the celica gt-s, I'll be up there, in those mountains towering over your car lot with a big smile on my face and giant boner hanging out of my zipper ripping sideways through the second apex of an s-turn, middle finger to the law saying "that's what's up". You can go 300mph in that scion and you'll never, ever get the chance to feel the way I do every time I slide behind the steering wheel of my own, personal expression of automotive perfection, a 12 year old honduh s2000.

And that's why I'm still here, lol. It's worth it.

yihooni

At first i thought the posts were too long but i enjoyed reading it.
Post some pictures along the way too.

dv55xc

Dodger fan ehhh? Where r you from? And where did you pick up the car?!

niick

The metaphors are killing me hahaha!

My friends with Evos, Stis, 350z's dont understand my enthusiasm for the car. Sure their cars have more power on paper but is it really a driver experience? I get a lot of slack about how anal I keep my car at times but thats just me and I want to preserve it to enjoy for years to come

I hope your dirty gem comes out shining OP

mfindigital

Born is Pasadena, mostly raised in that area, lived there, glendale, la crescenta, burbank, hollywood, so. pas, arcadia, tujunga. Went to school in la canada, graduated and played baseball with fernando valenzuela jr. But ya, pretty big dodger fan, got the logo tatted on my calf, lol. I picked up the car in long beach from a member on here who is enlisted in the military. I wanted very badly to get pissed at him, but what kind of asshole would I be to completely lose my shit on a guy who is about to serve his fourth tour of duty in iraq, and who has a wife who is eight months pregnant. Third world conflicts can really put your first world problems in perspective. I feel mislead, but like I said, I am walking away with a cherry, low mileage s2k with the engine installed and inspected by Ballade Sports for 7 grand. Life can be much, much worse than that.

I stay near Pomona now, moved here for school and ended up staying longer than planned. I'll definitely be going to some local meets when the car is completed. Aside from the carbon fiber hood and trunk spoiler, my car will be pretty mild. It's always fun to see highly modified examples of what my car can become should I decide to do my normal thing and modify balls to the wall. My most recent project though, the Mazdaspeed 3, has been a pretty big pain in the ass. It's such a limited run vehicle that us early guys ended up being test dummies for alot of parts, finally finding which combinations work best is fun, but gets expensive and tedious after a while. If you look at my ownership history in my sig, you can see that's sort of been my thing, pushing boundaries on cars not frequently modified. I was probably one of the first 10 people in the country to do a turbo II swap into a first gen rx7, maybe the first to do it into the 1979 SA chassis. Same goes for the first gen Neon turbo kit, nowadays everyone just swaps in the srt4 2.4liter monster of an engine, back in 1999 when I turbo'd my first get twin cam, I was probably the only boosted neon with the famous "big mouth" body kit (that's when body kits were still cool kids, gotta trust me on that one). Same thing can be said for the srt-6, I was the first person to have a custom tune done on that car, the ecu on the chrysler version had a lot more tricks up it's sleeve than the mercedes versions did, ended up with a low 12 second car for basically free though, which was a nice perk.

My only commonly tuned car was the 240sx, which also happens to be my favorite of any car that I have owned. It's always easier to modify when thousands of guys have tried and failed before you, having a road map to modify, and knowing literally EXACTLY what ANY part combination will do to your car makes life easier, and really more fun, since you spend less time breaking and blowing stuff up. That's sort of what I am looking to do with the s2k. Business looks pretty bright this summer, it's pretty likely that the s2k will see a fairly drastic transformation by the end of the summer. I don't see myself going turbo anytime soon, but a supercharger kit seems like it would be pretty fun. But that's the kind of stuff I am looking forward to learning at drive's and meets. Dave's bad ass s2000 at Ballade gave me some definite visual ideas, I don't see myself doing overfenders any time soon, but god damnn this car looks sexy with stretched fenders.

The engine will be installed by next week. I'll post pics of the car ghetto rigged with the mismatched front bumper, that should be taken care of in two weeks, then suspension and wheels. Thanks for the comments and reads guys.