So I've had my 07' for about 3 months now and I'm a litte confused about the handling, but it might be due to the fact that this is my first RWD car.

So here's the scenario- a constant radius turn.

Please keep in mind this is not understeer becuase the car is nowhere near its handling limits.

If I go into the turn just cruising, maybe 20-30% of what the car is capable of, and I gently roll onto the throttle while in the turn to increase my speed while holding the steering angle constant, my s2000 will start to push wide and start going to the outside of the lane. In order to get it back to the initial line i have to turn the steering wheel more into the turn to bring it back in line. It just feels like the front is missin some bite.

In contrast, with my 98' Prelude Type SH, if I would come into that same turn cruising and wanted to get some more speed while i'm in the turn, I could give it more throttle while holding the same steering angle and the car would stay on the intended line.




So I'm just a little confused. Is this just how RWD cars react under partial throttle? I know obviously, if I stab the throttle I can break the back end loose and go into oversteer, but this is just a subtle difference I noticed from my Prelude.

Let me know if this makes no sense whatsover lol

 

Your post made no sense to me. Seems you may not know the actual limits of your car (or have crap tires)

If I can understand what you said than what is happening is you're cornering too hard and pushing. If you were accelerating harder you'd over-steer but since you're just rolling on the throttle and increasing speed I will assume under-steer is happening.

 

hmmm yeah i would have to agree, i think its because ur not used to a RWD car, since ur prelude was a FWD and it does feel different to most. i had a celica and a civic before i turned to the S and RWD cars are way better in handling. im not quite sure on ur question where u state that the car steers itself in another lane?

 

You might have to change your line a little and your driving style. I kind of know what you are talking about. I came for a AWD car where you can dive into a turn and you can correct after letting off the gas or just turn a little more.

With RWD cars you just have to come in slower but you can push out sooner. Remember key to driving fast is In like a lamb and out like a loin. If you still don't like the feeling then I would suggest you up your tire size. 225 front and 255 back gives you a little more front grip. You can also get a better alignment. More camber in the front will help a lot. Try -2 front and -3 back with 1/18 toe in the back. This set up will give you a more under steer feel that you are used to with your FWD cars. But remember that this setting is very aggressive and not tire friendly.

 

It is perfectly normal to get understeer under moderate acceleration while cornering. In a front-heavy fwd car, you aren't unloading the previously-overloaded fronts enough to make this phenomenon obvious, going from maybe 65/35 front/rear to 60/40. On a well-balanced rwd car, you're going from, say, 50/50 front/rear to 45/55. The reduced normal force (vertical load) at the front tires results in understeer. In the fwd car, you lost 7.7% normal force on the front tires, whereas in the rwd car you lost 10%, for the same "weight transfer".

Also, grip vs. normal force isn't linear, the more you load the tires, the less additional grip they give. The front tires on a front-heavy Prelude are in the flatter higher-load region of the grip/normal-force curve, so loss of normal force at the fronts under acceleration doesn't result in as much loss of front grip as in the well-balanced S2k.

And also, the S2k is a more responsive car, while the Prelude is set up to be less responsive and more forgiving.

It is normal and natural for handling balance to change under acceleration (generally more understeer) and deceleration (generally more oversteer), but this is deadened for most cars in the interests of keeping the uninitiated (at least 95% of the driving population) from getting skeered and crashing when the car changes its line under abrupt changes in throttle or brake.

 

^ The Prelude isn't that forgiving haha.

When I had mine my step-dad gave me shit for making him drive it once for me for a good while and he wouldn't stop about how tail happy it was for a FWD car

I pretty much called him a noob

 

I also currently own a 2001 Prelude.

The prelude begs to be driven fast and it has a neutral break away under throttle in a corner.

The S2000 breaks away uniform in a corner only if you are steady on the throttle. Try braking earlier, keeping steady throttle to the Apex and then accelerate out of the corner. It just takes some getting used to. This car does not like throttle mid corner. You think it's bad on your 2007? Try driving an AP1.

 

If you are serious about extracting all the performance of your S2000, I suggest picking up some reading material like "Going Faster", which is the Skip Barber driving manual. Some performance driving classes or even just participation in local racing events will give you a chance to learn how the car behaves.

The Prelude Type-SH is a unique case in terms of FWD because of the unique ATTS system. I wouldn't really cally that a typical front-driver. Go drive something like a Civic or Integra (without LSD) and you'll get the true experience.


Another thing to keep in mind is the S2000's moment-of-inertia is very good. The engine sits very low and very far back (near the center of gravity), meaning it is very quick to rotate and respond to driving inputs. They call it "front mid-engine" since the motor sits behind the front axle.

 

The AP2 is engineered to exhibit mild understeer under slight throttle. If you give it more gas smoothly it will come around as you dial in more oversteer.

Typically, this is how most rwd cars are set up as its considered the ideal set up, since you can easily modulate the oversteer.

 

Taking all the above into consideration, which I mostly agree with, you can absolutely enhance or degrade cornering by alignment and tire pressures, given a fixed tire (assumed to be OEM here). By the way, what pressures were you running?