Todd's new S2000

[Toddxxx]

After testing out no rear sway bar and liking the results I decided to search for a mazda NC mx5 front sway bar. Bit of a weird thing to search for but definitely useful for the S2000 as shown my many autocrossers and track guys in the USA. See the NC front sway bar fits onto the rear of the S2000 with 2 minor modifications and being considerably smaller it helps keep the rear planted in tight turns.

The hope was that the NC bar would keep all the positive attributes the car had with no rear bar (no open diff, gradual rotation of the rear end) but help with the understeer bias and keeping the rear connected/rotating with the front end that I felt it lacked in some corners at smsp.

Lucky for me a local shop in Sydney had one bar in stock off a wreck so I picked that up for a steal and got to work fitting it to the S2000.

All up there was maybe 30mins of work to get the bar to fit so a very quick and easy DIY. Let's hope the results are there!













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[Austro]

That's pretty good, I always wonder who manages to think of utilising bits from completely different cars and gives it a go. What size is the stock front bar? High 20s? Seems surprising that the stock rear is so large.

[Toddxxx]

That's pretty good, I always wonder who manages to think of utilising bits from completely different cars and gives it a go. What size is the stock front bar? High 20s? Seems surprising that the stock rear is so large.

Yeah haha I'm not sure who or how they figured it out but I'm glad they did. Front is 28.2mm. All the year rates are in the below

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[Toddxxx]

Honda Nationals 2018

With this years Honda Nationals moving to two rounds across NSW and Vic it was time for round 1 at Wakefield Park NSW. With a new points system in place as well it meant some cars moved up/down classes. I moved from the low end of class 3 up to the high end whereas some other competitors got bumped up to Class 4. This meant a potential class 3 victory was looking good.

For the event I swapped back to my oem AP1 rear sway bar to A) have a familiar set up in the car where I knew I could put down a solid lap and B) have a baseline for the day to compare the other rear sway bar set ups to.
Along with the mx5 sway bar I had, a friend also brought his later model AP2 rear bar for me to test as well. This meant a lot of swapping out in between sessions but luckily it's a super easy job on the rear of my car now.

After signing in, unpacking/setting up and passing scrutineering it was time for session 1 which was a passenger session. I had my mum in the car for the first time ever and just used the session to get tyres up to temp and record the baseline setting. Did a couple of 1:10/11 laps but apparently this was too fast for my mum [emoji14]
On those laps the diff opened on the usual corners and the rear was very skirmishy and would kick out easily. The usual really.

For session 2 and the first timed session I put the AP2 rear bar on. This bar is 1mm smaller and has a thinner wall so the spring rate jumps down by 100lbs. It also means the front sway bar is stiffer than the rear. Car felt better balanced and the rear wouldn't kick out as quickly. Still the inner wheel would go light and the diff would open so it didn't fix that problem. I'd say it's a nice upgrade though to control the rear end of the car and keep a similar balance if you're running softer springs. In this session I was able to do a 1:07.3 which was a new PB by .7, good enough for first place in class and I was now quicker than my times on A050. Crazy right!?
Still I knew there was plenty in car.

For session 3 which was another passenger session I put in the mx5 sway bar and took my friend out who had come down to spectate the day and take some pictures. He was very impressed with the car and how well it handled. With the mx5 sway bar on, the car felt a lot better up across the hill and through the fish hook there was minimal spin through the fish hook. Did a couple 1:08 laps and got a feel of the mx5 bar.

Session 4 came around and this was the time to get serious. I went out with the sole purpose of pushing harder across the hill and through the fish hook where I've always had to baby the car before. The car felt great with mx5 bar and a I was able to corner faster across the hill without the rear sliding out and with no open diff on the fish hook I could accelerate out of the corner earlier. Still I made a couple mistakes on the best lap I did but was able to record a 1:06.9! This was crazy. I had finally hit a 1:06 and beat the goal I've had of the car since day 1 which was to beat a time set many years ago of 1:07.0. This lap also extended my lead in class 3.

I was going to swap out the mx5 bar and go out for session 5 with no rear bar but there was talk that my friend Marcus had gone faster than me by .01 in session 4. He was in another class but the competition between us is strong with him beating me at a previous track day for fastest lap by the same .01. I decided to stay on the mx5 bar and just try and fix the two little mistakes from the previous lap as my optimal was a 1.06.8.
I was able to get cleaner sections across the hill and fish hook but I was unable to put a proper full lap together. This session saw these cleaner sectors drop my optimum to a 1:06.5 so the lap is there I just need to put it together. Marcus ended up going slightly quicker that session anyway and extended his lead to .04 haha

That was the end of the day though and it was time to pack up. In the end I won class 3 by 1.1sec with second and third both doing 1:08.1 laps. I also picked up the fastest factory stock motor award. Along with the trophies I picked up a bunch of cool prizes, achieved a long term goal/new PB and had an awesome day with my friends.

Video of the 1:06.9 lap is below. You can see the two small mess ups where I hit the curb too much at T3 and locked up a little turning in at the fish hook.

And here are some photos my friend/myself took over the course of the day.















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[Toddxxx]

And here are the official photos from the event taken by dave Oliver.














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[Toddxxx]

With Honda Nationals being my 5th track day for the year and my 5th track day on the current engine oil I got another sample taken and sent off for analysis. Same oil as I always use (penrite hpr5 5w-40) so I figured it'd come back fine. It was the first time doing 5 track days on the same oil though.

In the end the results came back great like usual. Minimal wear, viscosity still fine and the engine still looks as healthy as ever.

With the class win at Honda Nationals I won some Motul 300v engine oil. Fancy stuff I know! Going to put that in and test that and see how it performs compared to the penrite. Be interesting to see temps/pressure comparrison.

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[iwearmoccos]

Definitely keen to see a real world comparison of the two oils.

[Toddxxx]

Definitely keen to see a real world comparison of the two oils.

So am I rhys. So far just driving around and at the drags the other night there's been no real difference in temps and pressure. Everything seems the same. Have to wait till the end of the month to get the first real track test done.

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[Toddxxx]

With my tune coming up soon I was keen to take the car to the drags and test the mph over the 1/4mile. This way I could get a baseline to compare back to after the tune and see if all those extra killer wasps are actually there.

I didn't really have a goal time and knew I wouldn't be quick as I wouldn't be launching off the line to save my diff from death. Still I though a 14.x would be doable.

First run I took off from idle and got a 15.5 @ 99.5mph.
Second run I revved up to 2000rpm as the light went green and took off a bit more aggressively and got a 14.9 @100.3mph.
Third run I did the same and got a 15.0 @ 99.9mph.
Added them up and got 99.9mph as an average so in a months time or so when the tube gets done I'll head back and do it again and see what I get then.

Here's a video of the 14.9 run. As you can see the 2000rpm launch was nothing really haha. My 60ft times were atrocious. Car is a nugget down low out of vtec but that top end comes in mid track and I can pull the civic back by the line.

https://youtu.be/gLXzIjwCqcY

The good thing about the drags is that you can also weigh your car beforehand. With 1/2 tank of fuel, no wing and the passenger seat in, the car weighed in at 1132kg. Take off the 15.8kg for the pass seat and I'm down at 1116kg in race trim. Have to look at losing those extra 16kg. Hmm

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[Toddxxx]

As any S2000 owner knows the cars TCT will eventually go bad and start ticking and as it gets worse the car sounds more and more like a tractor. A few companies sell upgraded TCT that permantly fix this problem. It seems that the issue is that the device gets worn over time and can't keep up the oil pressure required to keep the pin pressed firmly against the chain guide.

What all these kits have in common is a clean worm gear and an enlarged inlet oil hole. I found a couple posts on s2ki about this and most found that enlarging the inlet hole and cleaning the gear ixed the ticking issue.

After the muck around with the noise I had in the car and thinking it was the TCT going I now had spare TCT laying around so I decided to test this method with modifying the TCT. As you can see in the pic the inlet hole on the oem version (right) is tiny. I didn't have the TCT ticking noise to begin with so can't give an immediate analysis but I guess if the noise never occurs its a success!

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[Toddxxx]

If you follow this thread you'll remeber I had a carbon vented bonnet for a while. Well I removed that and went back to the oem bonnet and tried to sell the old one for a few months and had no luck. Decided I'd repurpose the bonnet and started cutting it up making various carbon bits for the car. I've made a couple things so far.

Centre console delete. A few companies make this piece and it carries a price tag. Funnily enough if I had sold the bonnet and used the money to buy one of these I'd probably end up having to spend more money so I actually came out ahead making my own. Wasn't that hard to do, just lots of measuring and getting it the right shape/fitment.





Rear tyre spats. Covering the tyres is better for overall aero efficiency and lowering drag levels. Made these up using my wasp composite front spats as a template then modifying a little. I may make the fronts out of the bonnet as well and sell the wasp ones at a later date.





Rear numberplate garnish. Used to have a metal plate that alex made up with a joke texta numberplate. Made a carbon version and got Jeremy at prowraps to print up proper sticker. Looks 10x better!





Fire extinguisher bracket. Few people had complained about my fire extinguisher location across the passenger footwell (my girlfriend mainly :P) so I moved it to the side of the tunnel where the cargo net usually is. Its better here but I think I'll remake the bracket out of alloy as the carbon is a bit flimsy I've found.



That's it for now but I've still got half a bonnet left so I still have a few other things in mind

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[Toddxxx]

At Honda Nationals a few weeks back I finally took possession of my new voltex type 7.5 wing. Thanks to rhys for holding it at his place and bringing it up. Much appreciated!

With some spare time and the old wing destined for a new home at the end of this month I figured It was finally time to install it and get everything sorted.

Here is a side by side shot of the two wings and you can see the difference in airfoil size! The new type 7.5 wing is 1700mm wide and features a 378mm airfoil which is huge compared to the old type 1.



My original wing purchase didn't come with the under boot reinforcement plates but like fate another friend (thanks Kyle) messaged only a couple days after I bought the wing asking if I had any use for his left over ones. I took them and my set up was now complete.



On they went with rivets and the mount holes were used as the template for where to drill. This made everything super easy with no measuring or guesswork required. After this it was just bolting everything up and putting the boot lid back on the car.

With the mounting position set it was just a matter of choosing from the many stand settings offerered by this particular wing. In the end I chose the furthest back setting and the lowest upright setting. This turned out to be pretty much perfect as the wing sits maybe a mm or 2 higher the the mugen roof and about 3in past the bumper. If I needed to keep the wing within the body lines all I have to do Is move it forward 2 or 3 stand holes and it'll be fine.







And here a couple full car shots to show off the wing. Super happy with how it looks on the car! Have a couple smsp track days at the end of this month so I'll use them as an opportunity to test the two wings back to back and see how the car reacts in terms of drag and corner speeds etc.







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[Toddxxx]

In the same afternoon as the wing install I also got around to installing my adjustable sway bar endlinks. Unlike the wing however, this was a much longer, more involved install.



I got these end links off a s2ki user in the states and they arrived super quick. The quality is very high and they were very well priced. Adjustable endlinks benefit the car as youre able to adjust them to fit the sway bar properly and eliminate any preload. Alternatively you can install them in a way that sets the preload in a specific manner to help at certain tracks.
I was going with the zero preload method so install was fairly straight forward.

The car had to be on the ground, level and the suspension loaded for the endlinks to be installed properly. I removed the passenger seat and got my friend to sit in the driver seat to act as the 80kg driver ballast.



For the rear it was super easy to reach the endlinks so the old ones were removed, the new adjustable ones were adjusted to the same length and put in their place. Then it's just adjusting the endlinks to slide in the mounting holes with the balljoints a straight as possible. Tighten everything up and you're done.



The front was a pita with the bumper having to be removed then there not being much room to maneuver the spanner but same procedure as the rear. In the end I found that the rears were pretty close to oem with the driver rear having to be one turn longer. The fronts however had to be adjusted a decent amount longer. Hopefully now this equates to a nice car to drive at the track and better left and right turning capabilities.



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[Toddxxx]

What the car looked like with the new wing.


Got the endplates wrapped in red for something different. May go back to silver colour matched like I had with my old wing?


And an idea I've been toying with in my head. Porsche gt3-esque?

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[Toddxxx]

Another little carbon addition curtesy of the bonnet. Gave those ugly looking bolt heads a coat of paint as well.





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