Next to more seat time, this is the best thing you can give yourself.

Mike

 

Perhaps I'm just an old fart, but I always find these threads troubling. Being in a hurry to hurry is a prescription for another ruined S2000. Besides, unless you plant an LS1 (for instance) under the hood, this car is never going to be the king of the drag strip – that wasn't a design goal because it's largely antithetical to the design goal of the car: it's a twisty road carving beast (hence, it's fun 'round corners).

To achieve that goal, with the safety margins proper for use on public roads, one must not get carried away with power – it's good to have a range of inputs that can recover traction while giving the driver a chance to avoid an accident. Hell, the stock AP1 already dances a bit too far in favor of power over chassis. I'm quite happy not to have a twitchy throttle – my throttle is as predictable as an old friend. My car has great balance. It has that balance because of a very skilled engineering team. My car is an S2000 (a CR to boot), not a Civic.

Please forgive the conservative view of a guy in his 50s, but I can't help feeling a bit saddened when I discover that another S2000 is falling victim to some hurried tooling on its way to an early demise. The only thing worse than that is what can happen to the people involved. I hate writing a post that sounds like this. I sincerely believe this car should be thoroughly enjoyed (read: driven hard). I also think it should be respected. Unless you've spent your month with the car at a track/auto-x, you aren't exactly what I'd call intimately familiar with it.

I'm all for personal liberty – feel free to do what you want with what you own (if you're making payments on it, you don't own it). Still, remember what you purchased when you bought that S2000. It's not engineered like a Civic. It's an honest to goodness sports car – and it's damned entertaining, even if it isn't the champ of the drag strip. In fact, if it were faster, I think it would be less fun to drive. Feel free to think otherwise.

Whatever you do, keep good rubber between you and the road. That contact patch is critical.

I know this post is presumptuous and I do apologize, but the pattern is all too familiar. When the first post from a new owner is in the interest of adding cheap speed, well...

Congratulations on your purchase. Welcome to the community. It's an incredible machine. I hope you enjoy it for many years to come. By enjoy, I mean drive aggressively, but judiciously.

 

I would say the best mod to a car is tires tires and tires.

 

getting ready for race wars??

 

^incredible post. Well worded through and through.

 

I agree with you 100 percent , very well said ...because of how badly these cars are treated in some cases ...a good in just a few yrs will become almost impossible to find ..and when u do wait to see what it'll cost ya !! My guess is in about 5-7 yrs the S2000 will be thought of as a true classic, already is in my eyes . My S and I won't be parting anytime soon !!

 

Tires and track time.

 

tires for sure. i learned my lesson after a mountain run last year.. had my ap1 kick out way too far on a sharp turn and hit some sand. had all season tires on her and was an obvious mistake. learn how she handles, learn how your mods change the car. my first mod was tires/wheels. very big difference for my kind of driving

 

Nothing cheap is going to make your car faster. Make yourself a faster driver.

 

I can't be the only one that read this post and immediately discarded this AP1 as doomed. How long before the "wrecked my s2k" thread?

OP, read kpc06bb's post. Twice if you need to.