Todd's new S2000

[ryry668]

like a bawss!! awesome updates haha

[Toddxxx]

like a bawss!! awesome updates haha

thanks man

[Toddxxx]

So last Tuesday I attended the JDMYARD private trackday at Wakefield park. It was my first time hitting the track not just with the s2k but in general so I was really eager to get there and have a day full of fun

Packed up all the essentials the night before as I was set for an early start. Surprisingly it all fits in the boot fairly easily haha.



The track opened at 9 and the timing started. As the day progressed I dropped my times bit by bit starting with a 1:20.82 while still getting to know the track in the morning sessions and finding lines and breaking points and the limits of the car. Had a few hairy moments while the track was still cold and I got over zealous and pushed way too hard into the kink and turn two off the straight resulting in a 160km/h 180 into the grass haha

Dropped my time to a 1:18.32 by the end of the next session and was getting more and more confident with the car.

The session just before lunch time was my best with consistent 1.17-1.16 times with the fastest being a 1:16.03. My goal for the day was a 1.15-1.16 with the car stock and my lacking track skills so I was happy!

Throughout the day I monitored lots of things and took notes etc on how the car was acting and what needed to be upgraded to perform better and help achieve better times.

You may have noticed I said the middle of the day was when I achieved my fastest times. This was due to my tyres giving up after that point. They had just had enough. The afternoon sessions consisted of 1.17s and a few high 1.16s but the car was more erratic and losing grip a lot of the time. So first upgrade is going to be a set of better tyres! The re002 just don't cut it for track imo. They heat cycle really bad giving a total of about 5 laps at a time before giving out. Will probably go with a set of rs3's on the stock rim sizes.

Being rwd and an s2000 the rear was extremely tail happy. Hopefully the new tyres will help have a bit more grip in the rear and developing my driving skills will also help combat this. To help even more though i will more than likely upgrade the front away bar. Probably a whiteline 30mm unit or even a cusco 32mm.

The s2000 and f20c are known for high oil temps when being used hard and i did experience this a little throughout the day. Having the defi right in front of me was great for monitoring temps and throughout the sessions around the middle of the day i watched the oil temp rise to a max of 122 degress. High yes but not disastrous to the motor. Id be more comfortable with it down around 100-110 though.
this track day i was running 5w-40 oil and was very happy with it as i did not notice any burning of oil and the oi level being at the same level at the start and finish of the day. The heavier oil may be causing the higher oil temps though so next track day ill trial a 10w-30 oil and monitor temps. If they are still high or i notice oil burning i will be investing in an oil cooler. Thermostatic of course so it only comes into use on the track basically

The OEM pads are almost completely worn out as well (i didnt have to replace them with the ferodos) so the ferodos will be going on the front and a new set will be going on the rear.

All in all it was a great day! I hit my target time and now have a benchmark to go from, nothing broke and I was able to drive home and I was able to pin point the weak points on the car to fix before heading out again. Apart from the points above though the car was great throughout the day. The S2000 is an excellent car to track from stock!

few photos from the day

My stocker parked next to yonas and zi's new s2000



heading down the straight with an gt86 and mx5 trying to keep up :P



hard braking into a corner



Until next time

[Toddxxx]

Second track day paid for on July 14. Time to upgrade the car a little

[felixR]

Well done!

[Toddxxx]

Hey guys
It’s been a while since my last update. Not much has been happening lately in the way of buying new parts for the car. I have a second track day at wakefield coming up in July so I’ve been doing a little prep for that and just tinkering on the car here and there.

After the last track day I put everything back on the car and decided to reroute my catch can properly for the next one.
I bought a set of silicone nipple block off caps and blocked off the pcv valve and the port on the intake manifold. Now there is only one route from the valve cover to the catch can back to the intake.



I also replaced all my interior and numberplate globes with white LED version. So much brighter than the original globes. Great $6 ebay buy haha

Interior before



Interior after



Boot before



Boot after



Numberplate before



Numberplate after



Here you can see the comparison of the two different globes



Now for the track prep/important updates

I bought another set of ap1 stockies then sprayed them white.



Wrapped them all in a set of hankook z222 (rs3) 205/55 front, 225/50 rear.



Sticking with the standard sizes for rims and tyres will allow me to accurately measure how much the tyres affect grip level and time saved.
The plan was originally to just buy a set of hankooks and swap them over a few days before the track day when the allignment would be done but I found the set of stockies for dirt cheap so why not have two sets? This will allow me to transport the rims down to the track and swap them there to get the most life out of the hankooks. Win/win really!

Considering at one stage last track day I was racing at a tyre psi of 40+ hot I bought a tyre pressure gauge to moniter the tyre pressure throughout the day.



As you do with any track build you strive to eliminate as much weight from the car as possible. Im not really too keen on stripping the cabin of the car (atm :P) however the passenger seat will be coming out next track day.
The boot however went on a diet.

trims/tool kit/spare wheel removed



Sound deadening removed (this was actually a really easy job and only required hitting with a mallet to break it off. No dry ice required) and prepped for sick spray can job.



All finished



The excess baggage



My attention was then moved to the front of the car. Out came the A/C radiator, compressor and all associated lines (I said I wasn’t going crazy with this build right :P) Wasn’t all that hard and can easily be reversed. As the A/C compressor came out I had to buy a shorter alternator belt and fit that. While I was there I also decided to delete the air pump and lines cleaning up the engine bay even more and removing some more weight.
I used this chance to clean up the clutter around the intake manifold and tucked wires and moved vacuum lines etc. All up I removed about 7/8 brackets, re routed sensor wires and removed the air pump vacuum lines from along the fuel rail.

All the removed gear from the engine bay/front bumper area



Weight wise 15-20kg has been removed from the boot, 15kg from the cabin when the passenger seat comes out plus a little more with the driver seat and stock steering wheel with airbag already being replaced and 25kg from the front of the car im looking at a total of 50-60kg less than what I started with. This will make a bit of a difference come track day. Combined with the new tyres and improved driving im hoping to get the car into the 1.14s

Engine bay shot



im thinking of spraying the valve cover a different colour now as im no longer liking the red. Thinking along the lines of a light blue/aqua colour or even silver to match the rest of the car. May even just buy a js racing valve cover. Suggestions?

As with all track days a service should be done beforehand. I just ticked over 6 months of ownership with the car and have put 4500kms on it in that period so it was a perfect time to do the 70000km service. I got a mechanic to do this one to keep logbooks up to date. With fresh engine and gearbox oil im all set for the next track day

[eskimo_firefighter]

Nice update, that dedication on removing the A/C, haha. What gearbox oil do you use?

[Norm]

The nicest update would be to the purchase of a new tyre pressure gauge! That will help you the most on track. Keeping in mind, people do run street tyres at 40 psi on the track. Those tyres however are made out of much harder compound.

[Grant@Honed]

Good work! It's looking very purposeful under the hood now.

[felixR]

Sweet update!

No more AC!

[Toddxxx]

Nice update, that dedication on removing the A/C, haha. What gearbox oil do you use?

It's all reversible. Fo it to work again just need to reinstall and regas
Just Honda mtf06. Nothing special but works great in my car. No crunches

The nicest update would be to the purchase of a new tyre pressure gauge! That will help you the most on track. Keeping in mind, people do run street tyres at 40 psi on the track. Those tyres however are made out of much harder compound.

Last track day I was just using the re002s that came on the car but now with the rs3 I figured I should get one and monitor pressures to get the most out of them

Good work! It's looking very purposeful under the hood now.

Very minimalist just how I like it. Few other small parts to be added under the hood still!

Sweet update!

No more AC!

Thanks felix. No ac isn't really a big deal. My civic never had it and since owning the s2k I've used it once or twice.

[Toddxxx]

Quick unexpected update



I purchased an ultra racing rear lower brace the other day and it arrived today (3 days later). It replaces the stock folded sheet metal version but also bolts into the rails a little further up adding extra rigidity.

A great bonus of this brace and why I picked it over many others is the fact it is a solid steel brace compared to a lot of other braces being alloy. While alloy is light it is a softer metal and can have a tendency to warp under load. The ultra racing bracing being a solid steel brace can handle extra force without the warping and still only weighs in at 2.4kg.

With the s2000 having a tendency to oversteer ALOT the brace is meant to increase feel through the rear of the car helping the driver keep the car on the fine line between pushing the limit and spinning out.

I won't be installing the brace just yet and will take it down to the track day on Monday to test it out. I'll run a few sessions throughout the day with the stock brace, no brace and finally the ultra racing brace to see if any difference can be felt.

[Toddxxx]

TRACKDAY NUMBER TWO - 14/07/14
WAKEFIELD

So my second track day at wakefield has come and gone now. It was another JDMYARD private day and was very well run with zero problems (on my end).
I had a few goals for the day one being dropping my lap times from 1:16.030 to low 1:15s/high 1:14s. I also wanted to try new lines in certain sections and different braking points etc to see what worked best with the car and improve my knowledge of the track. I had also purchased the ultra racing rear under brace and wanted to test its usefulness at the track.

If you read my last update you would know that the only changes made between trackdays was the RS3’s and some weight reduction.
I had a friend (thanks jez) transport my second set of rims down in the back of his car to save the RS3’s from an extra 400kms of extra wear. Due to this I didn’t worry about an alignment before the track day as swapping rims continuously with different levels of wear and sizing would have thrown it out anyway.
With the car unpacked and new tyres swapped over it was time to hit the track.

The first session was used to get the right tyre pressures and consisted of mild laps around the 1.20-1.30 mark to get the tyres up to temp with constant pit stops to check/adjust the pressures. I had researched a few ideal pressure configurations that guys like to use with the RS3’s but of course I left the sheet at home! I could only remember one value and just ran at 34 psi front and rear all day. Upon getting home and reading the sheet this was the lowest psi configuration the guys liked to use. Will trial a few others next time but this didn’t feel that bad, not that I really have anything to really compare to coming from re002s.

Once I had the pressures all set up and I was happy it was back out on the track to start beating my old pb. Immediately I could feel the difference with the RS3 tyres! Road feel was amazing, I could carry so much more speed into corners and the car just felt a million times more planted. Not pushing all that hard I managed to beat my pb with a 1:15.2, almost a second taken off my previous pb already and a lot lower than I expected times to be that early in the day. From that point I knew I was going to see the times tumble quite significantly.

Next session out I pushed even harder and the car just went where I steered it without much fight. I watched times drop lower and lower into the 1:15 flats and eventually into the high 1:14’s with a 1:14.7. I couldn’t believe it I was already at my goal time and hadn’t even reached 12pm yet! One disappointment with this session was the fact I ran a very clean lap (by my standards) and in my excitement of a guaranteed pb I missed a shift into 3rd coming down the straight. I was crushed but still crossed the line with a 1:14.9. I knew the car was capable of much more!

At this stage I took the time to remove the stock rear tie bar which is essentially a piece of folded sheet metal and headed out for a bit with no brace on at all. Surprisingly removing this did actually make quite a difference. The usual happy tail end of the s2k actually felt even ‘looser’ and kept trying to slide out on corners I could usually hold my speed through.
I came back into the pits and got straight to installing the ultra racing brace.

Comparison of the two braces
Flimsy sheet metal vs solid steel bar (The extra piece on the stock brace is just a shield)



With the new brace on I headed back out and could definitely feel the difference over no brace with the rear end not kicking as much and holding its grip through the usual corners again. I could also feel a lot more through the rear of the car and it felt more controllable. Maybe just placebo as this is what described as the benefits of this brace but I believe the claims to be true
It showed too as I dropped my time down to 1:14.2!

Around this stage there was a crash on the track and a red flag came out. I came back in and parked the car. I was ecstatic with my times and had achieved more than I thought I would over the day. With the crash I became a bit wary to go back out so I opted to go for a few passenger laps in my friends car instead. I noticed where his lines varied a little from mine especially through the fishhook. I decided to head back out for one more session to try and lower my pb some more.

It was 3.40 by this stage and knew I wouldn’t have another chance to get back out on the track. I warmed the tyres back up and went straight into it. I recorded 3 low 1:14’s in a row before messing up on the next lap. I made the decision to do one more flying lap and just go for it. I tried the new line through the fish hook my friend had been taking and even though I braked a bit too hard into the last turn and lost some speed I recorded a 1:13.803!! I couldn’t believe it. The video in the car you can hear me yelling “yes!” and wooing haha.

Looking back now and watching the video I know the car is capable of better times as it currently sits as I can be smoother through sections and still alter my lines a little. All this will come with more seat time though so im not too worried. With this in mind I will try to not modify the car too much before returning to the track again. This being said I know the weak points and will address these in time. My OEM brake pads are now shot and almost completely gone so these will definitely have to be replaced with the ferodos I have sitting in my toolkit. They have lasted 2 full track days though so not bad.

[eskimo_firefighter]

Nice work with the PB Todd. That's a lot of work and dedication changing all those braces between sessions! Surprised that it even made a difference for you to be honest, haha.

[Toddxxx]

Nice work with the PB Todd. That's a lot of work and dedication changing all those braces between sessions! Surprised that it even made a difference for you to be honest, haha.

Thanks man. Changing the braces took about 5 mins. Nothing too crazy. Longest part was jacking it up haha

Like I said it might just be a placebo effect with the brace on but 100% could feel the difference with the brace off so at least that shows that a brace in the rear is necessary