Todd's new S2000

[Toddxxx]

Quick little DIY last week

I've always used the stock seat belt on my zeta 3 and with no intentions of going to a harness I figured I should try and install the standard 3 point belt a little better to be safer.
I've always run the belt through the outer eyelet to the chassis but on the inner side I had to run it over the bolster as the buckle mount point on my rail doesnt allow for the best positioning.
I tried a seat belt extender previously but with my seat position the extender was just too long so I decided to fab up my own bracket to make a custom rail.
Basically got some right angle steel and milled out the holes required for the bolts then welded it onto the rail. Super easy and came up really great and now I can run the belt through both eyelets and hold myself in the seat in the event of a crash better! Yay for safety!

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[Toddxxx]

Bit of a dump update over the past couple months.

Its been snow season so track days have been a bit quiet and weekend snow trips have been high on the priority list. It's been an awesome season. Here's a couple pics from last weekend!





After I got my tune done I did a track day at smsp as a bit of a shakedown to find out if there were any issues etc. First one came up the day before where my car started throwing a CEL and it turned out my wideband had just died. Borrowed Daves from jdmyard and they sorted it out with haltech and got me a replacement.

The day was okay. First session out I was noticing that I was hitting limiter very early, looking up on the ecu I found the limiter was set at 8600 instead of the factory 9000. Changed that and went out again. Car felt good again. I could definitely feel it pulling out of the corners more and I was having to shift earlier than I usually would but overall the extra power wasnt really translating to quicker laps of faster sectors. I was also fighting chronic oversteer which was weird as the car is usually pretty dialed in. Figured it was the extra power out of the corner maybe and I'd just have to play with the throttle some more.

Still had the oversteer issue next session so I decided to check my tyres and the left rear looked like this...



Super weird as my other three are at 50% tread still and going fine so no idea why this one tyre has smashed through not only the outer edge but the tread in general as its down to the bottom indicator.

Quick trip to the tyre shop and I had the tyres rotated around and flipped to the non loaded side. Threw them on the front and understeer is preferable to oversteer and headed out in the afternoon. Fought understeer for the rest of the day and my corner speeds were down but I still got to a 1:46.5, 1 second off my PB. Just a bit disappointed all round as I was hoping the tune would show an immediate improvement but I guess I didn't make that much extra power and my tyres are letting me down.

Jono then took some nice photos of everyone at the end of the day.





Luckily for me I had ordered new RE71R a couple months earlier and they finally came in so I'll probably get these on the car soon and ditch the super worn tyre and keep the other three as spares.



As I mentioned it's snow season so. I actually cancelled on a few trackdays over July and August due to weather and other commitments. The week after that smsp day I was meant to participate in a free track day at wakey for garmin cameras but had to bail cause of work and the tyre issue.

Then last weekend I made the hard decision to bail on H nats at Winton (I love Winton!) due to the sucky weather forecast. I really didn't feel like going all that way and organising a trailer and paying for fuel and accom for it to rain all day. I'll have to make sure I get back down there ASAP!

That's about it. The car has sat unmoved for a couple months and now I go overseas for all of September so it won't get a run till I'm back. With the tyres past their optimum and no point chasing PBs at smsp and wakey I figured I might keep using the current set but head out to the new luddenham and marulan tracks and give them a go before the end of the year. We shall see what happens

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[nikos2k]

Very strange to have such accelerated wear on one tyre....If your alignment is spot on might be a tyre defect? Did you speak to the supplier? Who have you found to be the best place to source your RE71s?

[Afx31]

Keen to see how you go around Luddenham and what you think about the track as well. I havn't really heard much hype from it since its opened either..

[Toddxxx]

Very strange to have such accelerated wear on one tyre....If your alignment is spot on might be a tyre defect? Did you speak to the supplier? Who have you found to be the best place to source your RE71s?

Didn't speak to the supplier. Just put the new ones on and threw out the one crappy tyre. Best place to get them is through Bridgestone. Anywhere else is just thirdly party supply so you're just paying extra fees. I organised a group buy for a few friends through Bridgestone blacktown so try them!

Keen to see how you go around Luddenham and what you think about the track as well. I havn't really heard much hype from it since its opened either..

Berty did a day there and liked it. Hopefully get out there before the end of the month.

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[Berty]

Luddenham is good fun but i still feel like it's a bit recreational. I think it would suit the average person who just wants to go for a few laps and have fun. It's no where near as intimidating as say SMSP is for those starting out. The first corner is probably the only corner that could hurt you really bad with the inside concrete wall on your right. Big ups for the staff though, they're really polite and all about making sure you have a good time.

It's similar to Marulan in terms of length (around 50-55 seconds per lap). The elevation change is awesome though.

[Toddxxx]

Luddenham is good fun but i still feel like it's a bit recreational. I think it would suit the average person who just wants to go for a few laps and have fun. It's no where near as intimidating as say SMSP is for those starting out. The first corner is probably the only corner that could hurt you really bad with the inside concrete wall on your right. Big ups for the staff though, they're really polite and all about making sure you have a good time.

It's similar to Marulan in terms of length (around 50-55 seconds per lap). The elevation change is awesome though.

Good to hear
I just want to try it as it's a new track and close. Was meant to be heading out there this weekend but I thought it was Saturday not Sunday and Sunday looks like rain all day. I'll keep an eye on the weather but if it doesn't change I'll try and get to the day in 2 weeks time! Really want to do a day before the year is out!

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[Toddxxx]

Update time

Not much has happened since August. No track days yet. Hopefully that changes this weekend! One big change has occurred with the car though. Not sure why but one day I decided to pull the dash out, strip the interior, remove the AC/heater core and start attacking the wiring loom. Anything that was no longer in use was removed.


What we began with. I wish I took a better picture to highlight the mess it was.

Anything electrical has never been my strong suit and beginning this task was quite daunting and anxiety inducing but in the process I learnt a lot and it was very rewarding in the end when I put it all back together and the car still ran properly. I learnt how to trace wires and depin connectors, how to solder, how to read and interpret circuit diagrams and how to trouble shoot electrical gremlins using tools like a multimeter.

In the end I removed the wiring for the air pump, ac/heater/demister, windshield and headlight washer system, power mirrors, stereo, horn, central locking, boot release, srs module, soft top module and the aftermarket alarm system.



I also focused on neatening up all the sensor and underdash wiring and tucking it up along the dash bar. Was very happy with the end result.



And the weight figures?
Wire bag = 4.59kg
Rubbish/excess stuff bag = 2.01kg
Dash DCIs = 447g
AC/blower motor = 5.3kg
Heater core/vents = 5kg

That's a total of 17.35kg further weight reduction achieved and all I paid was $20 for a cheap bunnings soldering iron kit. That doesn't take into account the coolant amount removed from the system either as the heater core is now gone l. I'd guess at least another 1kg there but no exact measurement yet. Can't beat that value! That 17.35kg should also have me at my weight goal of 1100kg so I'm stoked about that!

In the process I also undertook a few jobs in the engine bay like rerouting the sensor wiring, removing a few brackets, painting the previously damaged battery area, rerouting coolant hoses and taping up the firewall holes left by the absent ac system. Overall the engine bay is much cleaner to look at now because of those little jobs.

Leaking battery damage before sanding and painting.


And after. Been wanting to do this job for 5 years now!


Passenger side of the engine bay looks much nicer now with the paint damage fixed and a bunch of the heater system hoses removed.



And with no more power windows I used a spare bit of carbon to make up these block of plates for the drive side switch.

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[Apu]

Ooh...playing chasey on the weight loss program! I better get off my ass and start attacking the wiring in my car!

[Toddxxx]

Made it out to luddenham raceway last weekend for the first time and oh man what a great track! It was really good to be back out racing after a few months absence. Luddenham is a great circuit and despite being short it's quite technical and with lots of hairpins and elevation change you're always doing something.

Didn't really have any high expectations for the day. Expected to be a bit rusty and for a first time I said a 54 would be good. The car also wasn't set up to optimum with unknown alignment, worn tyres and carrying some extra weight. Straight out of the box though the car was quick and really suited luddenham.

By the time I had tyre pressures set correctly at the end of the second session I was already in the low 53s and as the day wore on and I completed more laps it dropped lower and lower until I had a couple 51.x lap times pop up on the timer. There was 13 cars total for this day and by 11am a few had already left so with 8 cars left the track went open and it became more of a test and tune day. In the end I left at 2pm after completing 60 odd laps with no issues which was the main goal of the day.

Going forward id like to head back with a good alignment, remove the passenger seat and run minimum fuel like I usually do. This will save me around 25kg or so. I'd also like to test without the wing on and also play around with the rear sway bar and see if I can get a bit more grip on the hairpins. There should be a 50.x in there with just doing this and more practice with lines etc. The end goal would be a sub 50 so see how long it takes to get there. Maybe a new set of tyres next year will do it.

Here's my PB lap and some pics

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[eskimo_firefighter]

It's a great feeling after driving the S2000 on track after a long hiatus!

Great job on the weight reduction, that was a surprising amount of weight removed there!

[Toddxxx]

Long hiatus
I've been super lazy with the car and with this blog for the past few months but last week I had a work shutdown and 10 days off with nothing to do so it was a good time to set myself a list of jobs and get working on the car again.

- I removed a few brackets and the likes and sent them off to get powder coated. I also bought a ton of Allen key button type bolts to fit throughout the bay and with everything back in and a good clean the bay looks great now. **I'll need to take/add a pic at some stage.**



- I purchased these 3D printed dash block offs months ago when removing the interior wiring but they've just sat on a shelf until now. I sent them off to my friend to get them painted and hydrodipped in carbon and they came out fantastic! Interior looks complete again without big holes in the dash. Unfortunately with nothing on the dash surround to hold it in place I can't run the modifry phone bracket anymore.







- Other parts that had sat for months without being installed were my hardrace engine and transmission mounts. Decided to go with the street version as I didn't want the car to become a massage chair and still be enjoyable to be in. Installed the trans mounts first and drove the car around for a couple days and noticed no change in nvh from these.
Then the engine mounts went in. Surprisingly my OEM mounts were still in one piece and only had slight cracking around the top so they were in fairly good condition. From what I can tell so far the engine mounts have added a small amount of vibration at idle but nothing crazy. No mirrors or dash rattling etc. Also noticed that the motor doesn't rock when revved anymore so that'll be the extra stiffness coming into action. Overall what I wanted from the mount set.





- Did some research and like most other aftermarket ecus the haltech doesn't operate the factory evap system so with a chance to clean up the bay a little more and drop some more weight I've started to remove that system. Haven't finished this job yet but the main bundle of hoses under the intake manifold are now gone. As is the canister at the back of the car. Just figuring out what to do with the other stuff now.



- I'd been looking for short steel lug nuts for a while and couldn't find anything that was readily available so I just decided to utilise the tools at work and make my own from my current lugs. Cut them down then shaped on the lathe and they came out exactly how I wanted.





- Hadn't touched my calipers since painting them 4 years ago and with that paint now starting to flake and chip away I stripped them back down and gave them a new coat of black caliper paint. I've bought some brake temp stickers to do some testing in the near future at track days as well.

While working on the calipers I decided it would be a good idea to start removing the tar undercoating inside the wheel wells (clearly left the best job til last lol). Was done to save some weight but also I just like the look of colour matched wheel wells. It was a long and totally not worth it job but finally finished it. The end result does look nice though.





At some stage in the near future I'll also weld the front upper arms to avoid the common issue of the spot welds pulling apart.

I think that's everything that got done over the past two weeks. Car is back on the ground now and ready to go. I went to a little Honda meet last week and it was great to drive it again.



The goal now is to get back to luddenham this month and aim to do a 50.x lap time. I'll test no wing/rear sway bar as well as remove the pass seat and run on minimum fuel. This should hopefully be enough.
After that I'm going to guess that my tyres will be toast and I'll throw the fresh set i have on and get an alignment and head back and see how low into the 50s I can go. Then we go from there.

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[Toddxxx]

With that all caught up I should also focus on my actual blog. I always get asked questions about it so I guess people actually do read it

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[eskimo_firefighter]

Please don't slack off on the blog, I do read it. The no rear sway + no wing would be interesting. I can imagine this would be quite oversteery even with the lack of rear sway.

The MX-5 front sway on the rear is something I am considering to alleviate the oversteer. But I am a bit worried that it would cause too much roll, but thinking of counteracting that with rear roll centre adjusters. Thoughts on this Toddxxx?

[Toddxxx]

Please don't slack off on the blog, I do read it. The no rear sway + no wing would be interesting. I can imagine this would be quite oversteery even with the lack of rear sway.

The MX-5 front sway on the rear is something I am considering to alleviate the oversteer. But I am a bit worried that it would cause too much roll, but thinking of counteracting that with rear roll centre adjusters. Thoughts on this Toddxxx?

Hmm I wouldn't think it'd be oversteery. Luddenham is mostly low speed tight corners so the wing isn't doing a whole lot there. The no rear sway bar I'm hoping will help with the car through all the hairpins. Only one way to find out how it'll go!

If you're able to find the sway bar cheap like I did it's a good test to do. I'd say try the bar first by itself then if you feel you need the RCA then go to them.
I tested no bar first and found the rear just rolled and felt way too sluggish at smsp. The MX5 bar felt great though. Good middle ground!

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