My S2000 Weekend/Track day warrior

[butter]

*grunts*

[eskimo_firefighter]

Plans For 2017

Previous update on the car would have me putting a lot more emphasis on safety gear for the car. My plans for 2017 have deviated from this.

The main goal of 2017 is to simply attain that 1:33 at Winton that I've been longing for the whole of 2016. Having hit a 1:34.0X multiple times in 2016 I am hoping to achieve the 1:33 this year. I am giving myself the remainder of the Z221 Hankooks tyre life to hopefully achieve this.

Once done with the tyres I would probably tone it down with the time attacking with the S2000 as I am pretty satisfied with how far this car has come in the past 3 years, hence the reason of not wanting to butcher the S2000 and weld in a roll cage and focus on having the S2000 as a fun street car that occasionally goes to the track without too much emphasis on lap times.

VOLK Racing TE37

A set of TE37's in 17x9.5+41 finally arrived after quite a long wait. Big thanks to MKMotorsports for supplying these wheels. This is quite a rare and unique set of TE37's due to the high offset while having the concave face. Big fan of the classic bronze on the TE37's. Looking at getting a set of high performance street tyres as soon as I can and get them mounted on the car.

[felixR]

Beautiful wheels Pete!

[Toddxxx]

lil bitch!

Rims look nice though!

[eskimo_firefighter]

Beautiful wheels Pete!

Thanks Felix!

Can't wait to see the rims on your car Pete!

All the best with chasing that 1:33 at Winton this year. It will be a fitting conclusion to the S2000's TA fairy tale

Thanks for your support mate!

lil bitch!

Rims look nice though!

Haha, thanks Todd.

17x9.5+41 TE37's + Hankook RS3 245/40/17

Got the TE37's mounted on the S2000 with a square set of 245/40/17 Hankook RS3's. No issues with fitment as the specs are similar to the CE28's (17x10+45).

EXE double day at Winton is booked for June, so I am excited to have some fun in the S2000 after quite a long while being away from the track.

[iwearmoccos]

Seeing this car for the first time this year was a highlight!!

[felixR]

So tough.

[Toddxxx]

Doesn't even take a photo to show off the concave

[Shakeel]

Looks great Pete! Hope to see you at a trackday again soon

[eskimo_firefighter]

Seeing this car for the first time this year was a highlight!!

Haha! Thanks Rhys!

So tough.

Cheers FelixR.

Doesn't even take a photo to show off the concave

I will take more photo's someday just for you Toddxxx.

Looks great Pete! Hope to see you at a trackday again soon

Cheers Shak, I hope so too!

[eskimo_firefighter]

Non-exciting Pre-track day preparation.

The cars setup has remained unchanged since its last track day. Installed the Voltex wing and changed over to the 17X10 CE28's with the Hankook Z221's.

A alignment was done thanks to Ray from Raceline Motorsports.

Wheel alignment specs.

Front
-3.5 camber . 3.0 total toe out. Caster +6.5.

Rear
-2.8 camber rear. 3.0 total toe in rear.

Replaced all consumables.
- New Project MU HC800 courtesy of Garage460.
- Castrol Edge 5w30 courtesy of Repco Clearance Sales.
- Motul 90PA rear differential fluid courtesy of Mugsee from Autosphere.
- ATE Super Blue racing brake fluid courtesy of Mugsee from Autosphere.
- OEM Honda Gearbox fluid courtesy of Honda.

Obligatory Pre-track day preparation photo.



EXE-Crew track day 03/06/2017

PB at Winton of 1:34.0420 stands from 15/05/2016! I havent PB'd at Winton for 13 months, and since then I have been getting consistent 1:34.0's at the next two consecutive Winton track days, H-Nationals 2016 and Uninats. So I was very eager to get that 1:33!

This would be my first track day after a 9 month hiatus from the track, I knew I was going to be rusty so I took a cautious approach to the day. The weather was 15 degrees and clear. It was PB weather.

Lap times for the day.

- 2:16.2910 1:51.8680 1:42.8210 1:40.2330 1:39.4740
- 1:53.0250 1:40.4200 1:39.4450 1:42.6450
- 1:46.3640 1:41.9160 1:40.8810 1:36.8290 1:36.8580 1:36.1890
- 7:13.6720 1:43.3220 1:37.9910
- 1:45.7840 1:36.9610 1:36.4900 1:34.6560 2:02.5830 1:35.6740 1:37.4240
- 1:44.2230 1:37.4150 1:35.8780 1:35.6940 1:35.8600 1:50.8530 1:36.7080.

Best time of the day was a 1:34.6560. It was nice to see a 1:34 but was critical on the driving today as I had only gotten into the 34's just once. If I wanted that PB I really had to push hard for it, luckily there was one more day.

Although the car felt great, the only gripe I had with the car was that the shifting is starting to feel a bit sloppy which could mean that the engine/transmission mounts were getting worn out as it was quite difficult to change it into third at times. The car is still using its OEM mounts which are probably worn out. No excuses nevertheless.


EXE-Crew track day 04/06/2017 - Day 2.
Coming into this day I tried to take in my learnings from yesterday and apply it to today, the weather was a repeat of yesterday so it was optimal PB time. The lap times were dropping and started to get a few 34's but still off from the PB of 1:34.04.

- 1:51.7330 1:41.3850 1:39.5410 1:58.7960 1:39.3990 1:38.1630
- 1:46.8860 1:36.8500 1:39.3460 1:39.8280 1:35.7030 1:53.7530 1:34.9780
- 1:45.3560 1:40.3880 1:35.9240 1:35.2680 1:34.4680 1:41.0360 1:43.4740
- 1:43.4480 1:35.8340 1:40.8860 1:39.5700 1:35.3580 1:34.9640 1:36.3970

Then finally in the 5th session......

1:47.7290 1:35.3830 1:34.5510 1:40.7860 1:33.7400 1:38.3810 1:43.9350

!!!1:33.7400!!!

I had no idea that I had gotten this time until I came into the pits and a mate showed me on Natsoft, as I had turned off the phone screen for Racechrono. I was ecstatic, after 13 months of chasing this time down! I skipped the final session as I was finally satisfied.

Unfortunately I was so hyped that I forgot to turn on the GoPRO to record this laptime.

According to the Racechrono DATA, this is as good as it gets. The PB was less than a tenth of a second off the optimal. This lap had all my best sectors in it essentially.



A comparison of sector times between the last Winton day (1:34.16) and today's PB (1:33.74).





Thanks to Ying for the snaps on the track!





What next??

I'm content with the 1:33 at Winton, I think I've done the best I can with the car in it's current form. I believe to go the next level up and chase 1:32's and beyond would need a decent amount of money thrown at the car which I'm not really willing to do as I still am adamant of keeping this car a cost effective, fun and reliable street/track car. OEM is best after all? Haha. Although the engine and transmission mounts needs to be addressed.

The next goal I suppose is to try get into the 47's at Phillip Island (current PB 1:48.2) and eventually hit up Sydney Motorsport Park aka Eastern Creek.

Big thanks to the EXE-Crew as always for hosting such awesome days. Great company, relaxed atmosphere and impeccable track organisation.

Finally made it!

[Shakeel]

Congrats on the 1:33 Pete!!

Nice to see you back in action after a while

[chaumeh]

Grats on the PB mate! it was very satisfying to read

[s1 s2]

Congrats!

[stienerv2]

Congrats Pete! Good work at beating your PB!