I'd like to humbly ask for each and every S2000 enthusiast's attention in this matter.

The story is, I misjudged a right turn and the rear jacking point on the passenger side hit the protruding curb and my rear wheel on the same side took the brunt of the hit thereafter.

Thinking I had just ripped off my side strakes and done some major rear wheel damage, I was not looking forward to stepping out of the car to assess the damage caused by my slacker-style driving.

Fortunately, those lovely OEM side strakes I have stayed put and no damage was done to the rims. However, the rear passenger side wheel looked to be tweaked, as if the impact moved the wheel back closer to the rear bumper (in the horizontal direction). I compared the gaps with the driver side rear wheel spacing in relation to the rear bumper.

I went to get it checked out by a reliable and professional alignment dude here in Seattle. Here's what he said:

-Visually, nothing looks like it got bent/busted (if anything, perhaps the knuckle?)
-Got the alignment back to stock specs and also got the gaps evened out (rims/rear bumper)
-Adjusted the cross-member a bit to perhaps "finesse" it in order to see if it'll get the "damaged" rear suspension back on equal footing with the passenger side rear

What we both did notice was that the passenger side rear (impacted side) visually looks as though it has more "offset" than the driver side rear. Also, my passenger side rear sits maybe a 1/4 of an inch lower than the driver side rear when measuring from top of tire to the bottom of the rear fender section. But then, I have adjustable coils and I'm pretty sure it was that way pre-curb action to compensate for the driver's weight.

What I need from you guys is whether you notice that the passenger side rear tires/rims tuck in more than the driver side rear, stock and aftermarket rims. Does not matter.

I went to the Honda dealership to compare to a stock S2000 and on that one, I also noticed that the rear passenger side wheel sits more tucked in (~1/4 inch) than the rear driver side wheel.

I realize that from the factory not every S2000 will be the same. That's what the adjustments are for. Nevertheless, it'd be interesting to see if there's a pattern of the suspension "reach" being different from one side to the other across a small sampling of cars.

Many thanks,

 

They will vary a lot and eye-balling different cars will just convince you of a lack of consistency. I found when stock my car was higher on one side than the other (5/8 inch) and looked to see many other cars were as well (may be damage from late removal of spring spacers), and also noticed variances in camber are very visible. Some older car also sag over time, dropping a full inch in height but maybe not evenly. A quarter inch is no big deal.

 

As with you, my car has the same 1/4" differential from left to right. The right is lower. My car has never been in an accident and it was delievered with NO spring spacers.
I do seem to recall that this topic came up a long time ago and it was stated that this is the way it is with this car. Not to worry unless it exhibits some other oddity.

 

Maybe it's done so when you have weight in the driver's seat, it will be even??????

that's how race cars get aligned anyway.

 

I'm not talking about the ride height of the car, I'm talking about the "offset" and how the rim/tire tucks in more on the passenger side than the driver side.

But perhaps it's because since the passenger side rear sits lower, it tucks in more? But the difference is pretty significant in my eyes, but perhaps I'm seeing things...

 

I have never noticed any difference in how the track lines up with the body and on my car it appears to be even. But if you are eyeballing the top of the tire, Yes the combination of camber and ride height can make it look different.