My S2000 Weekend/Track day warrior

[Norm]

Its your first time using those pads right? Make sure you bed them in properly.

[eskimo_firefighter]

Nice specs mate, remember to report to me in the morning at Winton for your special driver's briefing .

Cheers ChargeR. Ah geez in trouble already. I'll see you tomorrow morning then haha.

Project mu hc+ is amazing pads for the track! Youll love them

Awesome man. I was hoping they'd be awesome because they seem to squeal quite a bit on the street!

Very nice Pete

Good luck out there this weekend, and I bet you'll have heaps of fun!

Thanks a lot Shak! For sure I'll have fun! Come down to Winton some time soon man!

Nardi personal FTW, i'm rocking Nardi personal too, with red stitching as well and its boss!

Awesome steering wheel indeed, too bad that mines suede and is really worn down from daily and tracking usage in the EK1 thought . Should have gotten the leather one. Do you have the leather one?

Nice build man! Saw your car getting a wheel alignment from Ray lol real clean car
I'd look into some rca for the front, or first have a look at how your lca are sitting lol
Good luck at winton

Thanks man! Rays an awesome dude for wheel alignments. Were you the owner of the black AP2 that was there?

I might consider the RCA but I'll have to do a lot more research. The S2000 doesn't seem to have as many suspension geometry problems as the EP3/DC5 hence why I overlooked the RCA. I'll definitely look into it.

Its your first time using those pads right? Make sure you bed them in properly.

Yes sir it is, don't worry though Norm. I bed the brakes in real good.

[wongy]

Yep,I got the leather one 350mm leather with red stitching

[aTR]

Awesome man. I was hoping they'd be awesome because they seem to squeal quite a bit on the street!

Yea they do on mine too! But once they've heated up, oh man do they brake like crazy! You got brake shims on?

[Bluscreama]

Yeah ray and Adam are top blokes! Yep my black ap2 man, Vu also done my front and rear guards, in for full respray this week.
I reckon rca Is a must for a s2000, look into it more.
Rca's will help with bump steer, sort out the lca and bring it close to stock possession, plus if you get the camber adjustable rca bonus

[Toddxxx]

Thanks mate! What specs will you be runing? 9.5+38? 9.0+35?

Currently have a set of 17x8.5 +35
They'll be my street rims and then I'll look into getting a second set in due time that'll be 17x9 +35

RCA are a good mod on any lowered car. Front and rear suspension have different geometries and roll centers so if you do end up getting them get a set for the rear as well as man people over look this.

Good luck and have fun tomorrow

[eskimo_firefighter]

Yep,I got the leather one 350mm leather with red stitching

Awesome, maybe if I come down to Sydney for WTAC this year i'll check it out in first person!

Yea they do on mine too! But once they've heated up, oh man do they brake like crazy! You got brake shims on?

Can confirm now, they brake pads are awesome . Didn't put the brake shims on, maybe that's why it squeals a fair bit.

Yeah ray and Adam are top blokes! Yep my black ap2 man, Vu also done my front and rear guards, in for full respray this week.
I reckon rca Is a must for a s2000, look into it more.
Rca's will help with bump steer, sort out the lca and bring it close to stock possession, plus if you get the camber adjustable rca bonus

They really are, can confirm now that Ray did an excellent job of setting up my alignment . Thanks for the advice regarding the RCA! And awesome looking AP2, nice to see one around in the Northern suburbs.

Currently have a set of 17x8.5 +35
They'll be my street rims and then I'll look into getting a second set in due time that'll be 17x9 +35

RCA are a good mod on any lowered car. Front and rear suspension have different geometries and roll centers so if you do end up getting them get a set for the rear as well as man people over look this.

Good luck and have fun tomorrow

Oh nice just to inform you though, if you plan on running the 245 on 17x9+35 at the front. Fitting that will be extremely hard on stock guards. Considering it pokes out an extra 10mm, you will definitely need to flare and camber it in more so to fit them in. Also the 9+45 and 9+35 has the same face (flat face RPf1, concave? non-convex face, what ever you want to call it haha), I guess the center bore of the wheel on 9+35 will be slightly deeper but that's about it.

And cheers mate, I did have fun!

I'll discuss my thoughts about getting the RCA's or not on my next update.

[eskimo_firefighter]

Saturday track day at Winton Raceway. (03-05-14)

Saturday's weather was really sketchy with the rain coming in and it was quite cold. Being my first time driving a RWD car I was actually crapping my pants a fair bit.

I used Saturday's track time to get familiar with the car mostly as it handles drastically different to the cars I've driven in the past which includes the EP3 and the EK1.

First session was super damp and cold. Took it really easy and finished the session with a 1:57. This session was probably one of the most scariest sessions I've done. Despite taking it really easy, there was one lap that I to correct oversteer exiting the S bend which is a very dangerous place to lose it. Cold NT05's in the wet are awful.

Later during the day the sun came out and weather turned out to be pretty good. Cold weather but the track was dry so I was able to push a lot harder than the first session and this is when the S2000 really started to shine.

It handles completely different to what I'm used to. This car really loves to oversteer, so there is a lot of throttle and steering inputs that I had to do when cornering. But when done right, it's really rewarding and a lot of FUN! Power is adequate, however when dropping under 6k on any of the corners, being under the torque band of the S2000, the car struggles to pull through the corner. This can be fixed with more track days/better driving as I know that I can carry more speed through the corner. A lot of people recommend to get a shorter final drive to a 4.44 or 4.7, but I'm pretty happy with the stock ratios.

Loving how the car is setup right now, as the oversteer is really progressive and controllable even when things got really hairy just counter steer and control the throttle a bit and I was fine. The NT05's are pretty good tyres, need a fair bit to warm up but grip when they are warmed up.

Monoflex coilovers were great. In my attempt dial off the oversteer I decided to drop the rear dampening incrementally every session by 2-3 clicks and these clicks you will actually feel a difference compared to the coilovers I've used. Ended up being happy with full stiff at the front (16 clicks) and 8 clicks at the rear which really helped stabilize the rear on mid corner and corner exit. But I think corner entry the car liked to dive squat a tiny bit which can sometimes lead to corner entry oversteer. Do I need a thicker front sway bar to go faster? Neeeeeh. But it might help though. :P

Brakes were awesome. HC+ brake pads with the ATE racing fluid (courtesy of Autosphere) allowed me to brake consistently hard throughout the day. No brake fade and pedal feel remained consistent.

Right now I'm loving how the car handles right now so I don't think I'll need the RCA's to correct anything. Even though correcting the LCA angle can be a good thing I'm not for certain whether it will benefit me or not, so I'll just leave it as it is. It seems to handle pretty awesome to me right now. I don't feel any major bump steer issue or any major handling issues. To be honest the only reason I'd consider a set for the front right now is to just get more camber, which I don't even need.

First day was an awesome experience, experimented a lot and learnt a lot about car control and the S2000. Ended up with a PB 1:45.5 but I knew it can go much faster than that.


04/05/2014 Sunday track day.

I pushed a bit harder. I was getting accustomed to the car but the 2nd day ended a lot earlier than expected because the rear brakes were shot. Rear brake pads wore down to bare metal and that ended the day early by 3 sessions. Wish I didn't cheap out the rear brake pads but nevertheless very happy with how the S2000 did. I could've borrowed a friend of mine rear brake pads from a DC9 (DC5) but decided it was a too much effort. I'll be back soon anyway! Played around with the tyre pressures a lot which helped the tyres grip a bit more in the cold weather. Dropping it from 34 cold to 30.

Ended up with a PB of 1:43.4. Which I'm really happy with.

Also like to add I was very skeptical on guard clearance with the 255/40 up front, but it had NO issues at all. I was even able to jump the ripple strips! Not to the extent of how I did it on the EK1 of course.

Also the motor burned a very tiny amount of oil after over 55 laps. Which was surprising. Also every session I was checking for the infamous loose oil filter. Which has a chance of coming loose after a track day due to the vibrations. Some people get an oil filter stopper for peace of mind. I'd rather just check manually it.

What's next?

I'd really like to get a new front bumper, but the waiting on SHINE auto to organise a group buy on an AMUSE R1 imitation/fake/replica/style front bumper (shame on me I know). If anyone knows where to get one of these for a decent price else where please let me know.

Definitely next on the list are rear brake pads, considering getting PMU HC+ or B spec.

My plan is to get out there as soon as possible in its CURRENT setup. I know in its current setup it can do a second or two better. The key right now is just more track days!

Might consider a front sway bar but pretty happy with how it handles.

Awesome weekend was had, no dramas at all and made it home safe. Thanks for reading if you actually read it all, haha.

S2000 PB 1:43.4











Just some notes for future personal reference:

- 30 psi cold all round or lower is good. 36-37 psi warm is okayish? Might try lower next time?
- OEM brake pads are terribad. Bring spare brake pads.
- 16 clicks front and 8 clicks at the rear is my favourite setting.
- get on the power earlier, don't be such a wuss.
- Maybe get a thicker front sway bar.
- I'm not driving a front wheel drive car anymore.

[felixR]

Fantastic read Peter.

Well done on the PB too

[Shakeel]

You are my hero Peter!!

[munkaii]

Great read peter! Good to hear softer rr dampers helped out a lot. Next time I'll ride shotgun with you.

[Norm]

I personally think the hot PSI of 37-38 is too high for the Nitto NT-05. I would probably try and aim for 33-34, and even lower if its in wet conditions.

[eskimo_firefighter]

Fantastic read Peter.

Well done on the PB too

Thanks boss guy Felix.

You are my hero Peter!!

Haha! Thanks Shak, I try my best. Come down to Winton soon. Or maybe I'll come up to Wakie later in the year.

Great read peter! Good to hear softer rr dampers helped out a lot. Next time I'll ride shotgun with you.

Thanks for reading Kev. Yeah softening the dampers really helped a lot, happy with it's current setup and next track day I'll really put try to put down all that I've learnt from these track days and go for the PB.

I personally think the hot PSI of 37-38 is too high for the Nitto NT-05. I would probably try and aim for 33-34, and even lower if its in wet conditions.

Yeah I agree. I actually forgot I did bleed out a fair bit of PSI and then got a PB afterwards. I believe i bled it down to 35 hot. I'll try 33 hot and see how I go. Thanks Norm.

[Toddxxx]

Oh nice just to inform you though, if you plan on running the 245 on 17x9+35 at the front. Fitting that will be extremely hard on stock guards. Considering it pokes out an extra 10mm, you will definitely need to flare and camber it in more so to fit them in. Also the 9+45 and 9+35 has the same face (flat face RPf1, concave? non-convex face, what ever you want to call it haha), I guess the center bore of the wheel on 9+35 will be slightly deeper but that's about it.

And cheers mate, I did have fun!

I'll discuss my thoughts about getting the RCA's or not on my next update.

Yeah I know haha. Shall be a fun time trying to fit the wheels. -3 camber all round and pumped rear/flared front should be sweet.
I won't be running rpf1 as they don't clear bbk.

Glad to hear you had fun. First track day with the s2k for me tomorrow

[eskimo_firefighter]

Thanks mate, once again good luck at the track tomorrow! You're going to have a lot of fun! Do you have the roll center adjusters at the front to go -3?