Have a 2008. Even with the suspension tweaks Honda made for this year I still get some unwelcomed snap oversteer particularly on decreasing radius curves. Probably need to attend a driving school.

The sound/vibration from the rear tires when they break is awful--almost like they're skipping. Not as smooth as my previous miata.

Just curious if a different tire can have an impact here to allow the rear to break more controllably/smoothly. Or different tire size?

any advice appreciated

rcman

 

Oversteer is probably a result of you getting off the gas mid corner as you realize the corner is tighter than you planned for.

 

It's your technique. You really have to be careful in a corner about reducing speed. This car has 50/50 weight distribution, so ideally you are better off maintaining your speed through a corner even if you drift a little. If you need to slow down, you should do it before you get into the turn. Sometimes it's even better to speed up a little to transfer so weight to the rear. If you positively must slow down, you have to be real careful about it.

The reason the tires are "skipping" probably the VSA (fancy term for traction control) is trying to recover and keep you on the road. You can turn VSA off (hold the vsa button in for 3 sec or so), but take it easy on the corners until you can go somewhere and play in a nice open lot with nothing or no one to hit.

 

also, make sure you tires are not inflated to much, anything over 40 psi is going to increase snap, not necessarily in a bad way.

 

Also keep in mind that you are now driving something more then a 100hp miata. More car requires much more skill/practice.


I recommend getting an alignment with a bit more toe in (.4 degrees total toe-in) and 255/40 tires for the rear. I have an MY08 and my car is much less tail happy with such mods. Now you really have to try to get the back end to whip out.

 

~2* camber at the rear as well.

But the critical thing is driver education!

 

Yep learn to drive, go to an AutoX sometime. Tires will only save you so much.

 

Thanks all for the advice. this is priceless info. perhaps life saving info.

My wife bought me a gift certificate for Skip Barber driving school for my birthday in 2007. I waited until I knew for sure what car I was getting. Probably a good idea because in the 6mos I've had the S2000 I've learned a lot about what I need to learn!!

The alignment settings are also something easy to have done just to see how it impacts it. When I had my Miata I got the "Lanny Alignment" while sitting in the driver's seat. That made a huge difference in how it performed so I could see that this could help.

Stitios2k, your're probably right! I didn't even think about the VSA jumping in there. that does explain things.

Again, thanks for the advice. I really love driving this car but have become a bit "corner shy" from a couple of frightening experiences.

Let's see what some education and alignment tweaks can do for me

rcman

 

Yep...that's exactly what I did!!!

 

Luckily it didn't come out too much when you let off! When I first got the car I spun her around on a cold day trying to drive it like a FWD car