We have spoken about this subject many times in the past 2 years but I think the point I brought up probably a year ago is valid.

I FULLY believe owners create the breaking loose of the rear tires by simply cranking the wheel to much. The S2000 allows us to do it and I think the more novice drivers and *new* S2000 owners my have a tendency to pull the wheel to hard. If you recall, the S2000 has once of the shortest wheel turn to locks of any car made (imagine the type v).

My Experience. when I bought my first S2000 in Sept 99, I found my rear sliding out often. since my first few months I have never had my rear slide out. I have now AutoX'ed and tracked my S2000 many times and even in performance circles I can control the rear (except those few times on the track it gets out from you for a second (controlled), but these are fun and my fault).

It's been clear that the tendency to slip gets higher with tire age but again its a function of people tugging on the wheel to hard.

My advise, follow race track rules, every corner you go into should be smooth. Follow the best apex you can on the narrow street and turn your wheel in a smooth position with both hands.

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Correct me if I'm wrong. But is everyone complaining about the tail sliding out? From what I know it is a feature that somepeople look for. Porsches... boxsters? used to do that but have since been corrected.

 

as we learned today at the advanced driver training (and as many of you already know), too much of a combination of steering and power will cause the rear to slide out...
our car is probably more unforegiving than others because it is good at not sliding out earlier (it is generally a stable car). this means that when it eventually does loosen up, it can let go without warning.
i have seen a couple of recent articles about this charateristic of our car, and personally have experienced it.

 

I wonder if more grip in the form of wider tires would reduce the chances of the tail swinging out.

 

Y2ks2k, I fully agree we can force the tail out and I think that is a good thing. I disagree that it is strictly a driving technique issue.

It seems to me there are steady-state turning situations (at the limit in Auto-X) where vehicle weight sort of "flops" over at an unexpected time, late in the turn. I would say it was like having a loose anti-roll bar (when the slack gets taken up and then it hits) but it is too far into the turn for that.

I've noticed this in my own S2K as well as in others and I think I can see it when I'm watching at recent Auto-X's. I've had a Nationals-level driver try my car and he agreed it was undesirable and likely curable with better shocks. BTW, I run with stock tires in a street tire class.

I've been looping more since I'm pushing harder under the guidance of our local hotshoes and I have to say there is not a lot of warning when the car is about to move from a mild oversteer (fun but slow) into the circle-of-death.

 

In my 5th session at Watkins Glen, two weeks ago, I found out what trailing throttle snap oversteer was all about.

Another car spun out about a quarter of a mile ahead of me, I missed the yellow flag prior to entering the right-hand corner and when I saw it, made the rookie mistake of letting off the gas. I was just about at the apex when I made this error and the rear end started to snap to the left.

I was very lucky! I decelerated in a corner, started to lose the rear, applied a little gas smoothly, and pulled the car through. And I had no idea what I was doing! The car felt like it was about to spin and very likely would have if I had let it go for another microsecond.

What I learned:

Keep the rear tire patch firmly planted when in a turn. The car is well balanced and very well behaved most of the time but do not allow the weight to get on the front tires in high-G turns!