x23452453627736.6

 

what not to do?

don't crash it.

 

Dont until the engine is warm

 

Even after the coolant temp is showing 3 bars, wait about 5 more minutes to allow the oil to get up to operating temperatures as well.

THIS. Many people will do a redline pull in 2nd gear and then immediately shit into 6th. THIS IS BAD. Always always always upshift and downshift sequentially through all the gears.

 

Is clutching in, rowing sequentially through the gears up to 6th, and then clutching out the same as actually going through the gears for the synchros? Or just as bad?

 

nope. it's all good so long as you row through the gears. clutch in or out it doesn't matter.

 

Give it a few weeks to get used to driving it. I'm coming from a nissan sentra spec v and the s feels like a rocket ship compared to that lol. Take it easy in rain especially. If you know of a big empty lot somewhere see how far you can push it till it breaks loose, test out the brakes, etc

 

Start autocrossing.

Find an SCCA region near you and look for Solo2 events (ie autox):

http://scca.org/divisions.aspx

 

so pretty much don't go from 4 to 2 but 4 3 2? And on corners, gas it gently?

 

The most common mistake I read is people assuming they can plant their foot in the throttle, and ride out anything. The S2000 has a lot more power than the civic you came from, and serves up throttle oversteer on demand. This bites a lot of people in the ass.

The classic rookie mishap that I'm used to hearing about is a low speed crash while turning left at an intersection. I can't tell you how many new owners have crumpled up their cars in this manner. They take off from a stop, giving it heavy throttle as they turn. As speed increases, so does power output. About halfway through, they reach the limits of grip and talent. They suddenly find themselves rotating, facing the wrong direction, panic, and slide it hard into the curb. The usual result is a bent wheel, a broken suspension arm, maybe a few wrinkled body panels.

Then they come on here and complain at how unstable the car is. I mean, how could they possibly spin/crash at just 25mph? Then everyone goes back and forth about how "tail happy" the S2000 is. Then we find out they were probably on crappy tires, and perhaps the roads were a little wet.


My suggestion - find an empty parking lot on a wet day and play around for a few minutes. I'm not talking donuts - that's not a driving skill. You want to learn car control on a "wet skidpad". Drive around the parking lot, and give it some throttle while turning. You may be surprised at how little it can actually take to make the car rotate while turning. Try to teach yourself how to recover when it starts getting out of shape.