Todd's new S2000

[Toddxxx]

Continuing on from the last post I finished the removal of the EVAP system yesterday. Out came the hard line and the rest of the hoses not needed. Rerouted the vent tube up to the OEM position.
All up 2.1kg of stuff removed.



In other news luddenham track day booked for this Sunday
Will nut and bolt the car on either Thursday or Saturday morning but we're good to go.

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[Apu]

I’m going to Trackschool on Sunday!

[Toddxxx]

I’m going to Trackschool on Sunday!

Was an option but chose the luddenham day. Got goals for there now

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[Toddxxx]

Hey guys. True to my word I'm updating more frequently again.
Updated the blog with 5 new posts this week. Still a little behind here but if you want to read specific stuff head on over.
Track built.wordpress.com

Anyway, I attended luddenham last weekend with my hopes set high on beating my PB from a couple months ago and hopefully pushing towards a 50.x lap time.
The day was held on mother's Day and looking like perfect weather so I was hopeful it would be quiet and I'd get lots of track time. That didn't end up happening though

The day was packed full. Seems Ian luff has left running the track days and they're now run directly through luddenham. 45 cars had booked which is way too many for such a small track but I just made sure I got put in the fastest group and always went out first to get my couple laps in. It was an okay run day but started off slow with a few issues. Hopefully this gets fixed as the people running the day get more experience. Enough on that side of things though.

I took this day a little more serious than last time I was there just shaking the car down and hoping everything would work after I ripped out half the wiring. This time I removed the passenger seat like usual and went with minimum fuel in the car. I and I was straight back on the pace in the first session equalling my PB with a 51.9 after a couple laps of just setting up. This was done with the rear sway bar on and one of the things I wanted to test was no rear bar so next session it came off and the car felt so much better. I had way more grip out of all the hairpins and could power out a fair bit earlier. This dropped my time by a couple tenths and I had a new PB of 51.7. I was quite happy with that as coming out of the last corner I misshifted and missed third and went to 5th and bogged across the line. I knew that would've been that low 51 sec lap I wanted so I just had to get the lap together.

Coming back into the pits after that session I noticed my front tyres were getting quite bald. I went into the day with 2 of the 4 getting pretty low but luddenham was just munching through the tyres now. I decided to keep them on the front rather than swap to the back to try and keep the grip in the rear as I'd rather fight understeer than oversteer on such a tight track. And that is what I did for the rest of the day. With the two front tyres almost done I was down on grip and struggling through the understeer but I kept putting down consistent low 52/high 51 second laps.



I sat out a session to save what remained of my front tyres for the last session of the day when it was a bit cooler. I went out and just pushed but the grip was diminishing quickly. I put in a good lap and went .004 faster than the lap done earlier and that was the best I could do with the car. Still a PB and a fun day racing. Of the tyres weren't so cooked or if I had've put together that earlier lap I would've had the time I wanted so at least I know that going forward.

I'd still like to test no wing and see if it contributes much here so that will happen next time I'm out there. For now it's new tyres going on and I have to fix a small issue I found after this track day but more in that next update.



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[Toddxxx]

Following the luddenham day I booked in to do this Friday's private practice at SMSP so I had a little prep to do beforehand.

The previous track day was my 5th on the motul oil so I had to collect a sample and send that off for analysis and then change the oil. I'm going back to the usual penrite but I'll cover that in another post once I get the oil analysis back. That was fine and done quickly but while I was doing the change I noticed something I didn't want to see.

A common issue with early model s2000 is the front upper control arm mounting points. They're spot welded to the chassis but once tracking on sticky tyres they have a tendency to tear away from the car. It's a known issue and I always check them after every track day and I really should be got them welded a long time ago but I've always put it off and guess what!? Both sides were now starting to show cracks and the right side had even pulled the bottom spot weld out. So straight away that was track day cancelled and I'd have to get around to fixing that





I've stripped down both fronts and will get the wire wheels out and remove the underbody coating around the mount points in preparation for stitch welding them to the car. This is what Honda did on the later model ap2 and there were no issues there. Hopefully I'll get that done this weekend and then head up to my uncle's and get to welding. He used to build and race sprint cars and my dad is a truck/bus builder by trade so I'm in good hands.

Even though I had no track day anymore I still got the new tyres put on the rims so they're ready to go once the car is back together.



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[Toddxxx]

Got the car prepped and ready to weld the upper A arms this coming weekend.

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[Toddxxx]

Still haven't had a chance to weld the A arms so car is just sitting at home .
Hopefully will do it next week.

In the mean time I cut more out of the car lol

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[Toddxxx]

Finally got the A arms welded today. Pretty quick job. Just have them primered atm but will get some aluminium spray paint and paint over it properly once I'm back from holidays. When that is done I'll get everything back together and then it's time for track days!

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[Toddxxx]

Got to work on the car the other day and put it back together ready to transport it to my new house where I finally have my own garage! Sprayed the welded areas on the upper arms, reinstalled the brake ducts and tidied up a few things. Looks good as new now. Very happy with how it turned out. Shouldn't have a problem with the mount points pulling off the car any more.

Also got the fender vents back from paint. My friend chris painted them and did an awesome job on the colour match. Love the look on them on the car!



Hopefully will transport the car to my place this weekend and I'll book in an alignment next week so I can get the car to a track day before H Nats at the end of september. Very keen to drive again!

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[Toddxxx]

Car is home

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