MOT passed, alignment tweaked then straight on the trailer and Golspie bound! The sprint is a two day event but the MX5 guys also have a test day on the friday which i jumped on to get some practice in and figure out gears and braking points etc. On the actual competition days there's barely any time for this.

Arriving at Golspie the weather was great and the track looked good also...





This of course lasted for about 5mins but allowed some damp practice before the track then dried again. I got plenty runs in and got dialled in with the S2K pretty quickly, luckily the gearing means shift points are almost identical to my MX5, just with a bit more speed being carried! The two days of sprinting are run on slightly different track layouts, 3 shorter laps on Saturday and two longer on Sunday this was one of my last runs doing both on the test day with the tyres nicely warmed up:


Onto Saturday race day and it was again very wet, I was competing in class A8 with 3 other cars, one other S2000 a Boxster and an MR2... all running on Yokohama A052 tyres, with me still running the Nankang AR1's, which are notoriously bad in the wet, I knew I'd be at a disadvantage so was hoping it would dry out later as forecast.



The first and only practice run was fully wet and I was some 6 seconds slower than the other 3 (although the timing may have run on for me), by the next run it was drying quickly but still patchy in places, my time put me 3rd in class and just 0.08 off the other S2000. It was still very much a wet time though at 112.43 secs, my best in the MX5 is a 109.67 so I was hoping to get into the 106's...

For the next run after lunch it was fully dry and sunny, time to go for it! I made sure to give the (rear) tyres a good warming before the start, then had a nice clean run...


The time was a 107.02 - close to my target and most importantly put me first in class by 0.9seconds to Ronnie in the other S2000. One run to go and I felt like I could maybe still improve a little but the track clouded over and with the cooler temperature most runners were going slower, that was also the case for myself Ronnie and Neil in the Boxster, although Douglas in the MR2 impressively improved his time to jump ahead of the Boxster despite being well down on power. So that was it for day one and a very successful debut for the S2000! Unfortunately it was also the end of the weekend for it... I was using the S2000 to get between my accommodation and the track and on the drive home I felt a familiar feeling when braking...



I didn't have spare discs with me and checking in with Ronnie neither did he... instead he offered me to double drive his S2000 which I gratefully accepted! (He has previously driven my MX5 when his clutch failed on the S2000 so I was glad the favour was returned).

Ronnie's S2000 is a "well used" facelift...


Similar spec in some ways but without the remap and running staggered A052 tyres as mentioned. Sunday was completely dry and sunny so the runs would just be getting used to the "new" S2000, the first practice run was a slightly uncomfy one (I'm a short arse compared to Ronnie) but at the very first corner I was very impressed with the grip from the A052's. My run was almost 3 seconds off Ronnie's time so I would have to try a little harder on the next one!

With a bit of extra padding behind my back I was more comfortable to push harder, almost going straight on at the first corner with cold squirmy braking then trying to quickly learn the extra grip vs slower steering due to the lower ratio rack. Despite a slightly scrappy run it was fast at 81.96... 0.75secs faster than Ronnies practice run - I apologised as I let him back into his car! Ronnie improved marginally on his next run but only by 0.05 secs. After lunch we would get another two runs but again the track clouded over and got slower, so that was it, another 1st in class in another S2000!

I celebrated with a well earned dram that evening...



After a bit of reflection I've realised how good my S2000 is in all areas now - it is faster than Ronnie's on the straights and much sharper, plus the balance suits my driving being more on the oversteer side, it just needs a set of A052's and it will be very fast in all conditions. It is also most importantly great fun with it now being as placeable as my MX5 but just that little edgier and faster.


Scenic photos heading for Golspie on the Sunday morning (with loads of handbrake action to slow down!)





There's one final scottish sprint this year and with the S2000 ready to go it would be rude not to go for one day (once I've put a new set of discs on!)...

 

@WallaceS2K have you considered this race series hoping to launch next year?

https://www.racinghondas.uk/s2000r/
​​

 

Knockhill this weekend, need to set the alarm and visit.

 

I have considered it but it would be a bit of step up in cash and time away from just doing sprints/hillclimbs in Scotland so not something I can manage at the moment, I do fancy it though! I'm hoping to see the racinghondas at knockhill this weekend, disappointingly the S2000R isn't entered though.

 

Once a new set of front discs were fitted (another blueprint pair) I put a one day entry in for the final Scottish sprint of the year at Kames, it's a two day event, Saturday running the track clockwise then anti-clockwise on Sunday. Initially I'd entered for Saturday until a yellow weather warning appeared and I changed to Sunday!

The weather was awful on the Saturday but looked like the morning would be dry on Sunday, the first practice run was however still on a damp track - being my first time there in the S2K and on the AR1's I took it very easy! The next run was almost fully dry but I was still trying to learn what gears I needed to be in, it was however time to start looking at how I compared to others in my class; the other S2000 and MR2 from Golspie were both present again and as this round runs a different class structure there was also a very fast Clio 182 in with us plus a Citroen C2. Surprisingly I was only 0.3 off the S2000 but 3 seconds away from the MR2 and 5 off the Clio, next run I knew what gears to use though! I improved by almost 4 seconds on the next run as the track had fully dried but the others also improved, I was now ahead of the S2000 (by 0.07 seconds!), 0.5 behind the MR2 and 3 off the clio. The next run was likely to be the last dry one though...



With gears figured out and more confidence I cut almost another 2 seconds off my time (still 0.7 seconds slower than I've been in my MX5 though!) leap frogging the MR2 by 0.5 second and getting to within 1.7 of the Clio. Miraculously though I got one more dry run but the rest of the class didn't as the rain started just as I got back in from my run....


I improved again by over half a second down to an 84.30 thankfully 0.03 seconds faster than I've went in the MX5! Good enough for second in class and just over 1 second behind the Clio in first, I'm happy with that as I know the AR1 tyres give less grip than the A052's all the others are running. A successful first couple of sprints in the S2000 and hopefully more of the same next year.



As a season finale I decided to head back to knockhill a few days after this sprint and to see if I could tick off my final to do item on my whiteboard - a 58second lap of knockhill. The weather was looking good for it but unfortunately the driver wasn't and I think the tyres have gone past their best as I was struggling for grip despite me hoping the alignment tweaks would help.

I managed to get back under the 60second barrier but the best I managed was a 59.70:


Even worse was I seemed to be determined to blow the gearbox or engine as I kept mis-shifting with two bad "money shifts" (one at the end of the video above), the link ecu datalog shows a max of 10,250rpm being hit! Luckily nothing blew up but the car did start to lose a bit of power towards the end of the trackday despite feeling like it was running fine, it was also on the minimum mark for the oil right at the end though so I don't know if that was the cause or whether I've knocked the valve clearance out. Fingers crossed there's a simple and inexpensive reason!

With crap weather on the doorstep that's the S2000 now tucked away and a new list compiled for the 2026 season upgrades, as usual there will no doubt be some black friday purchases to come! I'll hopefully do a few more sprints next year and I really want to enter the SLS at knockhill instead of hammering around on trackdays there, the aim will be to get the car as competitive as possible for that, I would be running in class E which means a 210bhp/ton target (including driver), I think it's currently around 200bhp/ton so a little more weight reduction and a small power increase will be possible....

 

Well done get yourself a KFC

 

Nice work! Great progression, apart from the money shifts, ouch! Worth getting the rocker cover off (at least) and checking valve spring retainers as well as the clearances.

 

Cheers. Yeah the car is progressing well, just a shame my driving went backwards!

Yes definitely going to pull the cover and inspect all the valvetrain. I'm glad I did upgrade the retainers to the facelift spec - even if I did appear to jinx myself by mentioning money shifting when I was doing that! Fingers crossed all is ok but equally if the clearance has changed on one cylinder that would maybe explain the slight power drop.

 

2026 is here and my season upgrades are in progress, I've registered for Super Lap Scotland at Knockhill so the prep will be focused on that. For those that aren't aware of what that is it's basically Knockhill's own Timeattack championship, as mentioned above the classes are based on power to weight ratio so it makes for good even competition within each class.

With an aim of 210bhp/ton including driver and based on my estimate of the car being around 1160kg last year, it means I can effectively either remove 70kg, gain 15bhp or do a combination of both, that sort of gain should help lap times of course.

To start I've gone with the free option of removing weight, to comply with the regulations I am limited on what can be removed but there were a few things I knew I could pull out of the interior:



The AC condenser was a pain to get out (and the box back in) and I didn't want to remove the heating as steamy windows when competing aren't good! Free gains but only 6 kg removed with that lot plus the hardtop roof liner removed.

With the free gains done it was back to black Friday purchases, first up a new Tegiwa exhaust manifold:



This will hopefully give both a small power increase and weight saving, being a copy of the Toda torqui kun it may be more torque biased, it looks decent quality anyway with tidy welds and a nice smooth ports on the main flange. I have however added more weight by heat wrapping it;



Removing the OEM manifold and heat shields gives a saving of 3kg.



With the bonnet insulation also removed I'm at least up to a 10kg saving overall compared with last year, all the little bits slowly add up!

I then pulled off the cam cover to give everything an inspection after my over-revving antics last time out, all looks ok and the valve clearances were rechecked with only a couple needing adjusted so it seems the facelift retainers may have saved me.

With the cam cover off I also decided to do the baffle mod to see if it would reduce my oil consumption, I'm not convinced it will do much but whilst it was off I thought it was worth a try. It is a messy job drilling off the spot welds but definitely a better option than trying to clean up any swarf without removing it.



New drain holes as per the "RainH8R" detail;



With that done and a dyno plus weighing session booked for next month I thought it was just a case of putting the cover back on and changing the fluids, then finding out how much closer to the bhp/ton goal I am. Until I spotted the timing chain guide...



Uh oh! I'm assuming this damage was mainly done before I bought the car as it did have a bad TCT rattle when I got it and this was the first thing I fixed, obviously I've never then checked the guides so may have dodged an expensive bullet finding this now as it looks very close to the chain being on the metal of the guide. The other side does look ok but obviously I'll be changing both;



So it's to be continued and back to waiting for parts from Japan...