Black Sheep

I was wondering how many of you had changed your suspension and under what street conditions did you feel the stock suspension was a limiting factor.

My car is a 2000 model I found the S2000 can handle smooth long curves great but sharper bends it seems a little weak at doing, this maybe because the suspension was not "optimised" by Honda at the time.

I find that the I cannot go bends around 90 degrees or so without dropping below 40MPH. I've done this in larger family sized cars and for some reason they feel safer. The S tends to lift and goes a little light at the back as if it's about to snap back round suddenly, though it's not done that yet.

Time for new suspension or can the stock suspension handle more than that?

jeggy

how are your tires in said situations?

cdelena

Many MY00 owners changed to a larger front sway bar and use 225/245 tires to change the balance of the car, reducing the oversteer tendency.

blackout

That oversteer should definitely help in the sharper turns if you can harness it lol

TestaRossa

ignore me if i get u wring here, since there's a "lift", you may want to consider a LSD.

mikegarrison

I have never thought the stock suspension was a limiting factor in street situations. In fact, I ran it stock on track for three years before finally changing a few things to optimize for the track.

It sounds as though you probably have never done any autoX or track driving schools. I encourage you to do so.

R3DS2K

tires... get some some gripper tires

i think the stock suspension pretty sick the way they are but hard to say cuz ap1 and ap2 had somewhat different set up.. rims/tires and suspension

twohoos

Stock suspension is perfect on the street, and very (very, very) good on the track with street tires.

On the track with R-compounds, the suspension travels beyond its designed range and needs some help. Bring $$ though: you won't do better than stock for under $2.5K.

Black Sheep

thanks or all the feedback guys. OK to answer some of the questions:

jeggy - All tires are Bridgestone S02s, 3 were new and the other wasn't worn out.

cdelena - I was looking at some Cuscos actually but I couldn't decide if it was that or the suspension giving out, hence this post. Any recommends on the bars?

blackout - Yeah I know, we actually have Drift schools over here now, I was hoping to sign up later on in the year.

TestaRossa - Lift like the rear is lighter and about to swing round.

mikegarrison - That was something I wanted to do too, just to find the limits in saftey without killing myself and others, I know doing track time improves your skills no end. I was in a S one time with a guy that does a lot of track days, he was also running Bilsteins all round. Anyway it started to rain and he was whipping it round this road surrounded by trees. We soon caught up a car, a Porshe Carrera, the Porsche tried losing the S on this road buy couldn't, it was forced to turn off at the next exit. Looking at the speedo we were going round the curves around 70-80 mph. I know the shocks he had must have helped but I think it had a lot to do with the drivng so I was very impressed at how sharp the guy was.

R3DS2K - I wanted some Semi slicks from Dunlop but with the British summer only lasting 5 minutes I had to opt for the Bridgestones as a all-round tire.

twohoos - Thanks for the advice, think I'll up the bars and see what happens then

mikegarrison

In other words, you'll ignore his advice. It's your car, but twohoos is one of the very best and most experienced S2000 drivers.

Here's what you are doing if you stiffen up the anti-roll bars: you are decreasing the available grip. Yes, sometimes you want to do that, in order to fine-tune the balance of the car. But most of the time you are actually decreasing the ability of the car in order to match the ability of the driver. Doesn't it make more sense to increase the ability of the driver to match the ability of the car?

And track classes are fun. I don't know why people resist taking them, unless it's just an ego thing.