My S2000 Weekend/Track day warrior

[eskimo_firefighter]

03/04/2016 Winton Track day with the EXE-Crew/Nugget Nationals.

Huge anticipation for this track day and A lot of preparation has been done for this day with hopes of a new PB.

Weather was great, with a max temperature of 25.

Considering it has been since November since my last Winton Track day, a few modifications and a NEW TRACK RESURFACE! I thought it would be wise to use the first few sessions to relearn the track and the car.

Initial impression the new resurfaced track.

The new track is much smoother than before. Before there were noticeable bumps at the end of turn 5 (sweeper), turn 8, turn 10, turn 1. all of which can unsettle the cars balance. Overall the whole track is much smoother all round which is confidence inspiring.

Hard to say but it seems like the surface is also lacking in grip compared to the old surface. Perhaps not enough rubber laid down yet?



Initial impressions of the new modifcations.

Rear bumpsteer kit:
The rear bumpsteer kit seemed to have made the rear end a lot more stable under braking. Makes sense as under droop (when the rear end lifts) the corrected bump-steer geometry has given the rear end more stability under hard braking and turn in. Although the rear still likes to slide out when provoked, the slides are very progressive when it occurs.

New alignment
Thanks to the more camber front and rear, cornering stability and speeds have improved. Especially the front camber. The turn in has greatly improved which allows me to throw the front end in the corner with the rear to rotate slightly to follow through the corner. The new alignment in conjunction to the rear BSK has allowed me to turn in with aggression without too much sketchiness which was not possible before hand.

Diff mounts + ingalls engine torque damper.
The diff mounts has greatly improved the stiffness of the driveline enabling quicker shifts and downshifts. Allowed me to be very aggressive with the throttle inputs during cornering which allows me to be on the power sooner.

Probably one of my favourite thing about the differential mounts is that the car doesn't suffer from the open diff syndrome. The OEM Torsen LSD, when the inner rear wheel lifts up from the ground the diff essentially becomes an open differential, which delays power put down to the ground on mid/corner exit. This usually happens at turn 10 on my previous setup due to the soft rubber on the OEM diff mounts which gives the differential unit too much slack.

17x10 CE28N
Felt like it provided more feedback and grip, which gave me more confidence.

Recaro RS-G
First time at Winton with the Recaro, and it has made a huge difference. Winton is quite a technical track so a seat that keeps you in place is almost essential. Should have gotten one of these much earlier. The OEM S2000 seats aren't that great for the track.

Time Attack

So with the first two sessions relearning the car and track and getting very close to my PB of 1:37.4516 set back last year. I was starting to get very confident that could PB today.

Session 1: 1:53.7250 1:40.1420 1:39.8060 1:38.5800 1:51.3130 1:54.8040
Session 2: 1:50.0420 1:37.5270 1:49.7510 10 1:48.9500 1:41.7600 1:42.6760

Then finally.... In the 3rd Session.... PB!
Session 3: 1:50.1190 !!1:35.9770!!1:38.9100 1:44.4710 1:43.3820 1:55.8120

An improvement of my PB of almost 1.5 seconds!

PB LAP! 1:35.9770

Ecstatic with this result, I decided it was time to just chill with the PB chasing and go for fun laps taking out passengers afterwards to save all my consumables.


Overall impression of the car.

Awesome. Although these individual modifications may seem insignificant, when combined gives the car a new character. Although the car is still very demanding to drive, I am loving how it responds to all my inputs, it has been very rewarding to get to this point relying on suspension tweaks, balance and driver improvement.

Special mention again goes to Honed Developments on the data gathering and tuning of the rear bumpsteer kit . They know their stuff

https://www.facebook.com/honeddevelopments/?fref=ts

Epic day, dipping into the 1:35's was totally unexpected. Even though I am content with the lap time there is always improvements to be made.

It's time to save the tyres for Phillip Island and aim for my next goal.

Special mention to the EXE-Crew who continuously hosts fun and smooth track days!

Courtesy of Alex with the quality photo's! Visit his Facebook Page for more of his great photography!

https://www.facebook.com/HBTKphoto/?fref=ts

N/A RWD vs Turbo AWD EVO's


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[chaumeh]

Awesome update as usual Pete. Always a great read.

Photos are awesome. Car looks great!

Congrats on the PB!

Just for giggles, have you tried racing with the roof down? or does that upset aerodynamics too much?

[dustinyo]

Killing it out there Peter. Congrats man!

Having a more stable rear end under braking is something I need. Definitely looking at getting some soon.

Nice work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Toddxxx]

Yay! Go Pete!
Great update again and great driving in the video.
Really happy with the results that the RBS kit provided. I suffer a twitchy rear end when braking hard at the kink at wakey so I'm going to look at buying one soon now!

Car is looking rear too! Need a hardtop on there though

[wpg81]

Congrats on the new pb. Hard work is paying off. That's a huge wing and it looks awesome!

[eskimo_firefighter]

Awesome update as usual Pete. Always a great read.

Photos are awesome. Car looks great!

Congrats on the PB!

Just for giggles, have you tried racing with the roof down? or does that upset aerodynamics too much?

Thanks mate! Yep tried the top down racing a few times. Good fun. The rear wing doesn't seem to work as well with the roof down but it is great fun.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...34995168_o.jpg

Killing it out there Peter. Congrats man!

Having a more stable rear end under braking is something I need. Definitely looking at getting some soon.

Nice work!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yay! Go Pete!
Great update again and great driving in the video.
Really happy with the results that the RBS kit provided. I suffer a twitchy rear end when braking hard at the kink at wakey so I'm going to look at buying one soon now!

Car is looking rear too! Need a hardtop on there though

Thanks guys! Definitely a worthy investment but also take in consideration of other changes that I had made such as a new alignment setting. But I am very confident it has made a difference. Would be interesting to see your thoughts on it after you guys install a set on. Buy a quality set!

Congrats on the new pb. Hard work is paying off. That's a huge wing and it looks awesome!

Thanks mate!

[plAythiNG]

Good stuff on the PB
Good stuff on the positive results on the parts!

[ChargeR]

Well done on a crazy fast PB Pete! Shows what refining the setup and a good driver can do. Happy to help out with your car, and hopefully we can be of further help in the future. Roll on 34s.

[eskimo_firefighter]

Good stuff on the PB
Good stuff on the positive results on the parts!

Thanks Alex!

Well done on a crazy fast PB Pete! Shows what refining the setup and a good driver can do. Happy to help out with your car, and hopefully we can be of further help in the future. Roll on 34s.

Thanks Tom! Much appreciated mate! More than happy for my car to be the test mule for potential Honed S2000 parts. Haha.

[eLtrix]

That was awesome Peter! Congrats!

[Toddxxx]

So you think your new super PBs have been due to suspension adjustments and the work done by honed or just putting it down to more seat time and bigger balls? :P

[Toddxxx]

Front bar could also play into it being better in the aero department?

[eskimo_firefighter]

That was awesome Peter! Congrats!

Thanks man!

So you think your new super PBs have been due to suspension adjustments and the work done by honed or just putting it down to more seat time and bigger balls? :P

Front bar could also play into it being better in the aero department?

Yes it was a combination of the small suspension tweaks, bigger gonads and more seat time.

Very grateful of Honed Developments assistance with the measurement of bumpsteer as I'm the type of cheapskate that wouldn't install parts unless I know for sure it would improve or make a difference. I don't believe everything that the internet says, haha.

I was very close to selling the rear bumpsteer kit until I heard Tom/Grant was able to do the bumpsteer measurement and results were very pleasing.

There is also a possibility of the Famuse bumper assisted with the improved turn in/grip with better aero but too hard to say.

Will do another write up soon when I get the time for last weekend.

[Toddxxx]

Yes it was a combination of the small suspension tweaks, bigger gonads and more seat time.

Very grateful of Honed Developments assistance with the measurement of bumpsteer as I'm the type of cheapskate that wouldn't install parts unless I know for sure it would improve or make a difference. I don't believe everything that the internet says, haha.

I was very close to selling the rear bumpsteer kit until I heard Tom/Grant was able to do the bumpsteer measurement and results were very pleasing.

There is also a possibility of the Famuse bumper assisted with the improved turn in/grip with better aero but too hard to say.

Will do another write up soon when I get the time for last weekend.

I remember you saying that you thought the suspension tweaks wouldn't make much of a difference but I believe 100% those tweaks have resulted in your times tumbling.
An easier car to control and better handling and use of the suspension would help immensely!
I'm glad you went through with it because now other s2000 owners (me) know exactly what to expect and I'll happily splash out the cash for these parts now

I also think the amuse bar would've helped a lot at PI

[eskimo_firefighter]

I remember you saying that you thought the suspension tweaks wouldn't make much of a difference but I believe 100% those tweaks have resulted in your times tumbling.
An easier car to control and better handling and use of the suspension would help immensely!
I'm glad you went through with it because now other s2000 owners (me) know exactly what to expect and I'll happily splash out the cash for these parts now

I also think the amuse bar would've helped a lot at PI

Yep I remember saying that, I am quite the skeptic indeed haha. I believe that too, refining the suspension setup made a big difference in the cars handling which gave the confidence to push harder. The Winton PB video with the 1:35 was driven far more aggressively than the previous PB video of 1:37 thanks to all the small tweaks done to the car.

Using me as a test subject, tsk tsk. Well at least these parts for the suspension isn't too much money considering the potential gains.

Yeah I wouldn't be surprised if the Famuse bar helped at PI. It's a great design with a nice long undertray, the gains are probably there but it's hard to quantify it.