To current owners of the 04, and to those who have been able to compare the 04 with previous models, how do you think the 04 handles?

Do you think it handles differently than previous models? If so, how?

 

the car handles like it is on rails....and to what I have noticed there is basically no body roll at all....I have driven an 01' and an 03' S2000 and the 04's seem stiffer (and no this is not a biased opinion i almost bought an 03)

let me know if you have any further questions

 

Handles fine, but I haven't really pushed it. I did manage to kick the rear out this weekend by accident when I accelerated hard out of a turn. Luckily I kept the gas on and just countered and it straightened out beautifully. My friend who was in front of me saw it happened and said it looked just how you see it in the movies. :-D

 

From-factory-stock, three characteristics are obvious.

1) Severe understeer. Haven't had a chance to play with alignment yet, though. The manual says there's 0.3deg negative camber in the front, I plan on trying negative 1.0.

2) More stable at putting the power to the ground. It feels like you can get on the gas earlier and harder without the rear coming around.

3) More rear-end movement. You can feel the rear shifting around more. I'm not yet sure if this will be a problem or not. It could possibly make the car settle in more slowly and therefore be less nimble in transitions, I don't know.

Hopefully #1 can be minimized or eliminated while still retaining #2, and #3 isn't an issue. We'll see.

(Backgroupd - extensive experience driving '00 that has acquired aftermarket coilovers, tires and wheels; sporadic driving of stock '03; and recent purchase of brand-new '04.)

 

I think you will be much happier after the new front end alignment. Push will be controllable and turn in will be much crisper. I would go at least -1.0.

ron

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Elistan
From-factory-stock, three characteristics are obvious.

1)

 

The different feeling in the rear is most likely due to the smaller rear sway bar in the '04. I remember reading somewhere that that was one of the things they had done to "soften" the ride up on the new '04, to make it feel less like you were driving a race car on the road every day. I haven't driven an 04 yet, so I personally do not know, but the skidpad is supposed to be about the same.

 

Handles great but you can get the rear end to come around if you take a 90 degree turn too fast AND stomp the gas.....what fun though....LOL

 

Coming from a Boxster, I would say it is not quite as stable handling, but good all the same. I have driven both an 03 and 04 S2000 and you can notice there is more tyre on the road with the new tyres/alloys. I think the suspension is a slightly softer than before, but maybe I am imagining it.

Overall it feels like I expecting, great handling nearly all the time, until you do something daft like change gear mid turn or give it too much gas around the corner and it reminds you that it can bite you in the arse.

Coco.

 

Having owned several two seater roadsters (this is #4), I give a huge thumbs up to the MY04 S2000. As an earlier poster said, "it handles like its on rails". BTW, my factory alignment was fine, they don't mess all of them up at the factory. As for over/understeer, I find the S to be well balanced. You can kick out the rear on hard cornering, but its easy to bring back to true. Personally, I prefer to drive "on the edge", so I kick the rear pretty frequently.