Hi all,
I am new to this board and hopefully will be getting a used S2000 soon. Though power is nice, I much rather improve upon the S2000's great handling, and braking (the S2000 has more than enough power to get me in trouble as it is). I will be using the car alot on the street, but i also plan on participating in local autocross events, and track days. I don't see the need for a full racing coilover suspension, and much rather have the simplicity of a good spring/adjustable shock combination. Great balance is a must (if not neutral balance then a setup that leans more toward oversteer than understeer), as is sharp turn-in, and ease of "at-the-limit" driving. I would appreciate it if some of you could point me in the right direction, and possibly show examples of some setups that have worked well in the past. I have read several articles that don't recommend lowering the S2000 as it becomes "snapy", and very "tail-happy" (LINK...LINK). How true is this, and can it be corrected?
All out grip is also of importance, however I do realize that simply stuffing the widest meats possible under flared/rolled fenders doesn't always yield the best results in terms of balance, and "at-the-limit" behavior. What are some good combinations of tire sizes, and what kind of wheel widths and offsets are optimal for those sizes?
I also was wondering what brake kits were best engineered to work specifically with the S2000's brake system/master cylinder?

Thank you for bearing with my noobness, and informative replies would be much appreciated,


-Matt

EDIT:Oh...and, yes I have used the search function.

 

From experience, KG/MM Race springs with Konis work very well if you don't want to get coilovers. The S2000 generally is not tail-happy or snapy. A lot of people simply push their cars too hard without being familiar with the cars' limits. The S2000 behaves very well when driven properly, but bites hard if the driver doesn't know what he's doing. However, some of the springs on the market do tend to make the car handle worse. People usually don't realize it though as they only drive on the street and they got the springs for looks. A lowered car gives the sometimes false perception of a better handling car.

The OEM tires are pretty decent, but are a little on the heavy side. For auto-x, lightweight 16" rims with lightweight tires are the way to go.

As for brakes, pads are all that you need for autocrossing. The Spoon calipers are nice too, as they are very light, and give excellent high-speed pedal feel and feedback.

 

It seems you are asking for "talk" about what to do to this car for a given purpose and not really anything truely technical, so I'm moving this to "S2000 Talk".

 

I recommend an X-brace. Helps get the front wheels planted better. That is all I have now I am sure others will chime in on suspension stuff for you. As far as brakes and stuff you don't really need to waste your money. The brakes are one of the best OEM brakes out there. Just get racing pads if you need to. Also for sick handling order an extra set of OEM rims and put some racing tires on there that grip like crazy and if you want more handling, have a alignment shop that knows how to adjust your suspension to get more handling cause our suspensions come fully adjustable w/camber, toe out, etc. Maybe someone can chime in on what setups they run. I am no expert just stuff I heard.

 

Thanks, for the responces...i guess what i would be looking for then is to add as much tire width (with proper offset) as possible without sacrificing the car's balance. I'm having a hard time finding examples of people who used such a wheel and tire combos (i have looked at tirerack's setups although they typically don't go as wide as what is possible). For example, for 17x8 (front) and 17x9 (back), they recommend 205/50/17s (front) and 225/45/17s (back)...and i'm pretty sure the S2000's fenders can accomodate much more tire than that. Question is, how much more and with what offset?

Thanks again for the help,
Matt

 

Here's a dumb S2000 Noob question:

Which year S2000 have a plastic window?

 

'00 and '01

 

I just want to point out that the term power is often miscommunicated. Do you mean torque or horsepower. What you feel from the car is the torque. Horsepower is just a mathematical formula derived from the torque.

So when you hear the S2000 does not have a lot of power, its more like it does not have much torque. But it has more HP. You can take advantage of gearing to multiply the torque in every gear if you can rev higher and have a flat or rising torque curve on the top end. This is where the S2000 have the advantage by having the higher redline. This is because you can stretch out each gear longer against the other car with more torque especially the torque that drops severely at higher revs and having a lower redline. Thats why the HP rating is important because it compensates for the higher revs given by the formula HP = Torque * RPM / 5252.

Just to give you a scenario. If a car can only rev up to 5500RPM at redline, then from the formula it is IMPOSSIBLE to have more HP than Torque on any circumstance within the dyno plot.

As far as the snappiness of the rear end easily breaking loose there are many solutions to that. Basically you can cure it by adding more grip to the rears and less to the front. Basically you are trying to get the car to understeer. But some people especially professional drivers hates understeer since they like to push limits and they are masters in correcting and controlling the car at its limits. The snappy rear end has been addressed by Honda on the 04 where they made some adjustments to the car.

Here are things you can do:

Springs:
Softer spring in the rears, Harder on the Fronts.
Having coilovers will quickly help you fine tune the cars balance.

Swaybars:
Stiffen the front swaybars, reduce the rear swaybars.

Camber and caster adjustments:
Put less camber in front and add more to the rear if necessary.

Body Reinforcements:

Well im just guessing but if you stiffen the front it may add more grip or less so it depends on what characteristics it may give the car. One thing is for sure the car will be more consistent due to lack of body roll.

Tires:

You can use less traction on the front either using a size smaller on the fronts or widening the rears.
Using different compound or type of tires from the front and rears can cure the situation as well, but you need to experiment on that or I would rather stay away from this.

Good luck and hope you get the car soon.