Todd's new S2000

[Toddxxx]

Had a bunch of guys ask me about my exhaust too, mainly regarding what it sounds like.
Did a flyby video so now for you all to refer back to too

Exhaust consists of
-stock headers
-invidia 70mm stainless test pipe
-BYP 70mm titanium single exhaust

[jv-st]

Such a nice throaty roar

[eskimo_firefighter]

Great work on the PB Todd, your driving is smooooth.
Good overview from the track day too.

In my opinion Pb's are cool and all, but consistency is more important. You will only get faster from here on out as long as you keep at it!

I was also letting off at the kink early too in my first Wakefield day. Grew some balls and started letting off right after the kink, turn one is a lot wider than I thought it would be so overspeeding and apex it late into it ain't so bad haha (warning epic oversteer may occur).

Also I don't think S2000 'needs' a final drive or ECU at Wakefield. But if I were to choose between the two I think the ECU would yield the most gains.
Also I shifted in 4th on the back straight and downshift 4-3-2.

[Toddxxx]

Such a nice throaty roar

Nothing beats the sound of titanium

Great work on the PB Todd, your driving is smooooth.
Good overview from the track day too.

In my opinion Pb's are cool and all, but consistency is more important. You will only get faster from here on out as long as you keep at it!

I was also letting off at the kink early too in my first Wakefield day. Grew some balls and started letting off right after the kink, turn one is a lot wider than I thought it would be so overspeeding and apex it late into it ain't so bad haha (warning epic oversteer may occur).

Also I don't think S2000 'needs' a final drive or ECU at Wakefield. But if I were to choose between the two I think the ECU would yield the most gains.
Also I shifted in 4th on the back straight and downshift 4-3-2.

Thanks a lot man
Definitely agree there. I'm much more happier about my constant 1.11 times and knowing that the car/myself can sit at those times.

I'm so used to the OEM pads and was braking way too early there. Need to grow some balls :P
I think the limited grip of the 16s also isn't helping as even at these speeds I'm still pulling all the way out to the ripple strip. The 245s and an alignment should help me pull through there easier.

FD and ecu/tune aren't necessities but the car just feels so slow down the straight and I know I could easily pull back 1-2 seconds with a bit more usable power. Both are expensive options and not keen to jump right into them yet.

[plAythiNG]

hey man, you dont know slow when every car passes u on the main straight LOL

[steve d]

It always annoyed me on the back straight not knowing wether to shift into 4th or not, i just let it touch the limiter lol

[Toddxxx]

hey man, you dont know slow when every car passes u on the main straight LOL

Hahahaha okay so I'm not that slow down the straight but I'd still like to be faster! A lot of time to be made there

It always annoyed me on the back straight not knowing wether to shift into 4th or not, i just let it touch the limiter lol

Yeah that's what I used to do but I felt I was having to back off too early so I started shifting into 4th. Still not sure if this is beneficial or not

[eskimo_firefighter]

I felt it was necessary to shift into 4th down the back straight or else I'd be bashing the limiter for seconds, that's just me anyways.

[Toddxxx]

I felt it was necessary to shift into 4th down the back straight or else I'd be bashing the limiter for seconds, that's just me anyways.

True.
But in regards to times etc trying to figure out if continuing then letting off in 3rd is better/same/worse then shifting into 4th and almost immediately shifting down to second etc
Lots of testing to do in the future

[Toddxxx]

JDM rear bar acquired. Thanks to alex for organising the buy.



Needs a respray but it was always going away into storage with my voltex front bar until i buy a hardtop and then ill be doing a full respray of the car.
Here are the goodies about to be packed away and taken of to storage




Again no more car parts for a while now :P

[plAythiNG]

No probs.

[Toddxxx]

Hit up Alex for japanese import parts

[Toddxxx]

Project Mu HC+ pads review

A bit late but I've been busy with work and an overseas holiday since the track day last month so I've only just got around to doing this now.

As you know I recently upgraded from completely oem brakes to hc+ pads and new blank rotors. This was the first track day testing them out and boy what a difference they made.

The oem ap1 pads were good but when taken to the track and put through a bit of abuse they showed some weaknesses.

Initial bite
The hc+ however have a good initial bite at all temperatures and as they get hotter the initial bite just seems to get better as well! It is far more predictable than the oem pad I find as well.

Feel
Brake and pedal feel is nice and linear. A big improvement is felt here over stock pads. With the stock pads I'd find that I was always having to brake differently as there wasn't that consistent feel there as the track day went on.

Fade
Sometimes at the end of a session id experience brake fade with the oem pads and lose that confidence needed to push that little harder. All of this has been expelled with the hc+. Not once throughout the day did I experience fade with the new pads so very happy with that!

Dust
These pads produce quite a bit of dust (all pads in this street/track bracket tend too). Apparently it's not much worse than oem ap2 pads though so it can't be too bad? Simple to clean off with water/rag or whatever so no biggy.

Moving over to street/normal driving conditions.

On the street the dust produced isn't that bad. After cleaning I tend to find a light covering on my rims after a few days. Again a quick wipe fixes this.
Squealing is a big issue with track pads in street conditions when it doesn't get up to temperature. I've found when driving normally and a nice compound layer is laid down on the rotor that squealing is kept to a very minimum with the hc+. (Note: I'm not using the shims)
Initial bite, feel and braking power is still the same if not slightly better than oem on the street. The hc+ works from 0-800 degrees so this is what you'd come to expect.

In high powered or more hardcore track cars I can see the hc+ struggling but for the popular street car/occasional track day crossover this pad is perfect in my opinion.

[Toddxxx]

Just booked my second track day of the year at wakefield on the 1st April. This will be my first track day using the 17 inch wheels so with all that added grip I'm expecting to smash my PB and finally get into the 1.10s, maybe even lower. Obviously using a square set up will bring about a few of its own problems but we will address them after the track day.

In the mean time the car has not moved in almost a month and has been collecting cobwebs so I pulled it out for a wash the other day.



I have been doing a lot of thinking about what to do with the car lately and what my end goals are and ultimately I came to the conclusion that all I want from the car is fast racing and good times. With this in mind I started to take a few parts off the car to sell that I deemed unnecessary and not helpful to this end goal. Anything 'flashy' that I had stock replacements for were gone. By the end of my afternoon I had removed a fair few items

8x pairs of Mugen bolts
2x bride seat belt protectors
1x Mugen gear knob
1x Mugen steering wheel
1x Sookietech bonnet struts
1x Mugen carbon coil pack cover
1x set of AP2 tail lights

Most of the items taken off were replaced with their stock items like the Mugen bolts on the cooling plate and valve cover. The Mugen gearknob was also replaced with the stock item and surprisingly I actually like the feel of the stock knob a lot better. The AP2 lights i never got around to installing. While the AP2 lights look great i weighed up the pros and cons and for the money of the lights i couldnt justify keeping them.

The wheel was a different story. I was always going to replace the Mugen wheel with another aftermarket wheel but I was having a hard time deciding which one. In the end I decided I loved the size, design and feel of the Mugen wheel so I ordered the same wheel.

Momo Monte Carlo 350mm leather



For those who don't know momo actually make the Mugen and spoon wheels based on their Monte Carlo design. I opted for leather this time as it'll last longer and fits in well with the leather interior of the s2000. Best part is it cost me zero dollars too as the money made from selling the Mugen wheel paid for the new wheel

Swapped over onto my works bell quick release



I'm still trying to sell a couple items the money made from the sales will be put towards buying some nice new race car parts.

While all this was going on I bought a set of scales and have been going a bit crazy weighing everything so once I finish that I'll be making a table of weights and figuring out just how much weight I've actually taken out of the car so far.

[eskimo_firefighter]

Liking the direction that the car is going Todd. Although the AP2 tails are such a nice upgrade, I contemplated getting a set myself but nahhhh, haha.

I also disliked the Mugen gear knob, the ball was too big and didn't provide enough grip or feel. Good luck with getting into the 1:10's or lower.

What kind of issues do you foresee with your non staggered wheel setup?