My S2000 Weekend/Track day warrior

[Toddxxx]

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.

Well it's always nice to be proven wrong
I'm the same though. At least now someone has gone and done some proper testing and come back with results for us. I have no qualms buying these products now.

Very true. You'd need to do proper wind tunnel testing to compare the downforce data etc of the two. I'm sure amuse did that when they developed the bumper and even though it's a copy it'd do the same job as the legit one

[eskimo_firefighter]

Well it's always nice to be proven wrong
I'm the same though. At least now someone has gone and done some proper testing and come back with results for us. I have no qualms buying these products now.

Very true. You'd need to do proper wind tunnel testing to compare the downforce data etc of the two. I'm sure amuse did that when they developed the bumper and even though it's a copy it'd do the same job as the legit one

Haha for sure. I think a lot aftermarket modifications lack factual data to prove their modifications work, although they may work great and heaps of R&D have been put into them, it'd be nice if they provided data to their customers to validate that our money is being put to good use. On the contrary I can understand why they wouldn't release data like that, in case of copy-cats.

For example, APR seems to be a great company that provides great data of their downforce levels, drag co-efficient, etc. Where as Voltex provides nothing like this.

I really like Honed Developments approach as they gather data to prove their stuff works. If you saw their post about their brake ducts and obviously the bumpsteer measurement, it is impressive and informative.

And yes Amuse definitely would have done a lot of homework on developing their front bumper, which makes me feel guilty of putting a WeakHouse Famuse front bar on my car, but the damage that I copped on my AP1 front was pretty bad, haha.

Perhaps I should pay them back by buying a genuine part off them one day, haha. R1000/R1?

[eskimo_firefighter]

PIARC Super Sprints, Phillip Island GP Circuit - 10th of April 2016.

With last weeks PB at Winton, I was more keen than ever to hit up Phillip island.

Current PB was set last year on the 15/11/2015- with a of PB 1:51.8378.

Weather was great being in the low 20's and some overcast.

Time Attack!

It has been a while since the last Phillip island day and since it was a new setup, I thought it would be wise to use the first few sessions to get accustomed to the track again.
For the first time ever I had been black flagged (with orange circle) which indicates that my car had an issue. I slowed down and then heard an audible noise from the rear end, only then I realised what had happened.



My rear bumper tab snapped and the rear bumper was flapping about and dragging along the floor at 200kph. The rear bumper had suffered some damage which was a bit annoying. Nevertheless no big deal.

Duct tape fixes+cable ties fixes everything.



Initial Impressions of the New setup at Phillip Island.

The new setup felt awesome at Phillip island. With the extra front camber it seemed to have eliminated most of the understeer that I had from the last track day at PI. Instead there was heaps of front end grip which allowed the tighter corners such as the Honda corner (turn 4) and Siberia (turn 6) to be taken with more speed however the rear end was very willing to rotate now at these corners.

The car was very neutral at high speeds biased towards slight understeer, which is my preferred setup for a high speed track like Phillip island. The medium/slow speed corners the car was biased towards oversteer, the rear end was keen to rotate on this day but I found this to be advantageous as it allowed me to be early on the throttle whilst rotating the rear end slightly to allow me to shoot out of the corners.



Gear Changes.

After reviewing my previous PI PB lap video beforehand, I then realised there were two corners that needed much improvement.

Turn 1 (Doohan Corner)
Previous PI day had me downshifting from 5th to 4th. Today I used 5th with less braking which allowed higher cornering speeds through this turn. A bit scary at first but eventually I was comfortable with this.

Turn 9 (Lukey heights)
Previous PI day had me downshifting from 4th to 3rd. Today I used 4th through out the corner and planted the throttle through the floor, enabling me to carry more speed through this turn.

With all these changes to my driving and getting comfortable with the car at Phillip Island, by the second session I had PB'ed with a 1:50.0644!

Session 2: 1:53.0232 1:50.0644 2:07.7909 3:02.5073 1:50.9819

With that I was feeling confident that I could go under the 1:50 mark! Finally in the fifth session I was able to PB with a 1:49.3838!!!

Session 5: 1:52.9730 2:34.7920 2:03.9030 1:49.7970 1:49.3838

Feeling real happy to be under 1:50, I was about to pack up and head home happy with a new PB. But then they called out for another session with combined groups. I had petrol left so why not?

I did the longest parade lap to set me up for my flying hot lap for no traffic interruption.

Then hit a new PB of 1:48.8554!!!!!

Session 6: 2:19.4804 1:48.8554 2:13.7704 2:12.4685

Smashed 3 seconds off my previous PB of 1:51.8378

1:48.8554 Phillip Island PB Video

RaceChrono Data Comparison


Extremely happy with the result. The car has performed flawlessly over the past two weeks at Winton and Phillip Island with some unexpected results.

Even so there is more to extract from the cars current setup and some fine tuning to the suspension to do. The aim for the rest of the year is to attempt to fully maximise the cars full potential on the NT01's without resorting to too much chequebook racing.

A shot on Phillip Island GP Circuit.


These two great shots from last weeks Winton, courtesy of A.Szetzo for them.




BONUS VIDEO - Double 1:49 laps in a row chasing a mates S14 with 200kw+ on A050's. Shows the difference between the two cars with totally different characteristics at PI. Both managed to clock near identical lap times.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPY0...ature=youtu.be

[Toddxxx]

Chequebook racing haha
Nice one Pete!

[ryzz]

Congrats on the PB's!

Loving these detailed posts about your track days! Keep them coming!


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[eskimo_firefighter]

Chequebook racing haha
Nice one Pete!

Hehe, thanks Todd. I got a few parts in mind for the next few weeks though, haha.

Congrats on the PB's!

Loving these detailed posts about your track days! Keep them coming!


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Thanks mate, will do!

[chaumeh]

Congrats on the PB's!

Loving these detailed posts about your track days! Keep them coming!


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+1

Grats on the PB!

This pic. <3

[butter]

Dam! Just noticed how much contact patch there is on the inside tyres of that photo.

[eskimo_firefighter]

+1

Grats on the PB!

This pic. <3

Thanks Tom! One of my favourite pictures so far.

Dam! Just noticed how much contact patch there is on the inside tyres of that photo.

Yeah I noticed that too, pretty cool. Probably needs stiffer suspension to keep more of the inside tyres in contact on the track. Or cheater spec adaptive suspension, hehe.

Oil Analysis

Considering I do not run any Temperature gauges and still run an OEM radiator on the car I thought it would be worth while to do a check up on the car.

With the car having gone through numerous track days and what not, I was curious on how the engine/oil is holding up. There are other ways of determining the engines health with a compression/leak down test which will be done soon. In the meantime I went with this route as it was easy, cheap and I hope it'd show some interesting information on the oil. I have never done this for any of my cars so it's a whole new learning experience.

Note the OIL was actually changed after 8000KM not 5000km shown on the report.



This information means nothing until you refer to the graph below which dictates the acceptable wear levels. Refer to the column for petrol powered engines.



According to the analysis the oil is showing acceptable levels of wear on the engine.

Although the sample status has been marked as "Caution" due to the engine over-fueling (Over fueling is also known as running rich), I have to take into account that the engine is running the OEM ECU which is designed to run rich when the engine is pushed. This oil has gone through 2 track days one of which was Phillip Island which is extremely demanding on the motor and plenty of street driving. So in other words I don't see this as much of an issue. All in all pretty interesting information. It might be worth to do another Oil Test on a sample that hasn't gone through any spirited driving or track days to factor out the 'over fueling' issue.

Viscosity Measurement

I think the most interesting piece of information in this report is that The Castrol Edge 5w30 seems to be doing its job properly of maintaining its viscosity level.

Viscosity - A measure of the oils resistance to flow at a given temperature

This part of the report they had measured the oils viscosity level by heating it up to 40*C. This seems to be one of the standard methods of measuring the viscosity @ 40*C, however google also shows that measurements are usually also made @ 100*C. This report is lacking that which is a bit disappointing.

The report shows the Viscosity reading of <69 cSt (centtistrokes).

The higher the cSt (centtistrokes) number the more resistance to flow it is.

A Google search shows that the official Castrol Edge data on its typical oil characteristics on its Viscosity, is 70 mm²/s (Square millimeter/second)

Although mm²/s (Square millimeter/second) and cSt (centtistrokes) seems to be a different type of measurement, another google search also showed they both are pretty much identical measurements.



My conclusion is, the oil even though it goes through quite a fair bit of abuse the Castrol Edge is pretty decent stuff as this oil analysis has showed that the oil has maintained its Viscosity rating. Would have been nice if it was measured @ 100*c also.

Feel free to flame me if any of this is incorrect. I am always happy to learn new stuff.

Testing New Steering Wheels

I had previously ran the Personal Nardi Grinta 330mm on the early days of my S2000 Ownership. It felt weird at the time, maybe because of the OEM seat? I went back to the OEM which felt nicer to drive around on the street.

Now that I have the Recaro RS-G seat I thought it would be worth while to reinstall the 330mm to see how I liked it.





I liked it again. Steering the car just felt more responsive and fun, giving me better control of the car.

However the 330mm was still obstructing my view of the rev counter slightly.

Surprised at how I liked the 330mm again as I had always thought it was too small and made the steering feel too go-kart and video-game'ish like (I need to expand my vocab). I tested a mates 350mm MOMO tuner wheel (thanks Pboi). And I liked the sizing even more which is near stock, stock is 360mm. It felt more natural and didn't block the view of the rev counter but still offering the perks of a race inspired wheel.





My mind is now set of purchasing a new 350mm wheel for myself, in leather this time as the suede deteriorates after use.

Back to street use.

No track days for a short while so the RPF1's are back on. 17x9+45 RPF1 with 245/40 AD08R. Despite being the most overplayed wheels in the universe, still one of my favourite wheel designs.

[wpg81]

Thanks for the interesting info on the oil analysis. Who did this for you and how much dose it cost?

[ryzz]

I learn so much reading your updates!

Do you wanna sell the 330mm Personal Wheel? [emoji6]


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[s1 s2]

Thanks for the update OP!

[eskimo_firefighter]

Thanks for the interesting info on the oil analysis. Who did this for you and how much dose it cost?

No worries, thanks for reading.

http://www.e-monitor.com.au/

Basically you pay them $32.50, they send you an oil sample kit with postal bag to resend.

I learn so much reading your updates!

Do you wanna sell the 330mm Personal Wheel? [emoji6]


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That's great to hear! Haha I'll have to think about that. This Personal Wheel has been with me for many years since my EK1 days, so it holds some sentimental value to me haha.

Thanks for the update OP!

Thanks for reading!

[Toddxxx]

350mm Monte Carlo ftw!

[jdm.itr]

The amount of information that you get into your post is amazing, i envy you Peter haha
Keep up the good work man!