My S2000 Weekend/Track day warrior

[eskimo_firefighter]

Oh wow okay then, learn something new everyday, haha.

[plAythiNG]

I see.

well now i am running new rotors (rda blanks) and new pads F&R (p.mu HC+) see how it all goes!

[eskimo_firefighter]

EXE-crew Winton Track day. 13/09/2015

Most current Setup of the car:

- 4 x 17x9+45mm RPF1 with 255/40/17 Nitto NT01, 100 Tread wear (29 PSI cold, front and rear)
- Tein Monoflex coilovers 10kg front 8kg rear (16/16 clicks front) (12/16 clicks rear).
- K&n short ram intake.
- Voltex 1700mm type 2 wing with *new 275mm wing stands* old was 245mm
- Whiteline 32mm FSB.
- Spoon N1 Catback exhaust with Spoon test pipe

Brakes
- *NEW* RDA blank front rotors
- *NEW set Project MU HC+ 800 brake pads front and rear. (replaced at 130k km) (previous set was replaced 126k km)*
- Cusco master cylinder brake stopper.
- HEL braided brake lines

Coming into this day the car has new Brake rotors, front brake pads and new fluids.

In terms of driving changes, I decided to shift into the sweeper in 4th gear rather than 3rd which was suggested by Phill, which made a huge difference in sweeper speed and I’ll be sticking with this from now on. Thanks for the tip Phill!

The car performed beautifully today without any faults what so ever. The brakes today were a huge improvement from last track day. Pedal feel was consistent and not as much fade at all (thanks to Garage460 and Autosphere for all the brake/fluid stuff).

The weather was a little on the warmer side, regardless the car was extremely consistent today with many of the hot flying laps falling very close of the PB lap, which I’m really stoked with.

A huge 40 laps was done for the day. With a new PB of 1:37.4516!! was attained on the very last lap of the day and I am stoked by this, previous PB 1:38.1541. Here are the laps for the day.

Session 1: 1:54.9977 1:43.8341 1:38.3093 1:38.0437 1:44.9554 1:41.4751 1:46.6904

Session 2: 2:05.0270 1:49.4787 1:38.8431 1:38.3105 1:49.2056 1:38.9390 2:01.9964

Session 3: 1:58.1491 5:06.3104 2:04.0957 1:37.5282 1:45.4864 1:38.2281 2:03.1599

Session 4: 2:07.3465 1:37.7027 1:50.8098

Session 5: 2:09.2920 1:37.9130 1:37.5583 2:00.1525 1:47.6510 1:51.3772

Session 6: 1:52.2972 1:38.1576 1:37.4688 1:47.8217 !! 1:37.4516 PB!!

Right now the car is capable of a 1:36 as is so I’m going to do my very best to chase the elusive 36 down. Right now I’m really happy with how the car is handling and performing at Winton right now so I will probably keep the cars setup as is in the meantime, although some upgrades are tempting......

Was an awesome day, big thanks to the EXE-crew another flawless track day and everyone else who made it awesome.

Unfortunately, the last session was not recorded. But here is a 1:37.5583

[eskimo_firefighter]

Parts update – Brake cooling kit/Famuse R1 front bar/Tow hooks/ Seat

Few updates ago had be complaining about my brakes, came up with a few ideas to combat my brake pad consumption and decided to go with the most cost efficient option with brake ducting. Cool air routed into the brake rotors should decrease brake temperatures and help prolong the brake pad/rotor life and in addition avoid brake fade and improve braking performance consistency.

Quantum brake cooling kit from the USA.

Comprised of a pair of 2 inch brake duct brackets which mounts on the brake dust shield, 2 inch hoses routed to the front bumper. I managed to install the brake duct brackets onto the dust shields as close to the middle of the brake rotor as possible to direct cool air into the vanes of the rotor. Unfortunately I had issues with clearing the useless OEM air pump which is situated under the passenger side headlight which doesn’t leave much space to route the brake hose. So with that in mind an Air pump delete kit is needed to finalize installing this kit.



Replica Amuse R1 front bumper AKA Famuse bumper.
After having this bumper for almost 8 months I finally summed up the motivation to get it installed as the AP1 front bumper was looking tired, managed to mount a DIY license plate bracket and test fit the bumper and will be sent off for paint within the next fortnight I hope… *Note the bumper was loosely put on this picture*



RSG (rock star garage) front tow hook and EBAY chinese rear tow hook.

Front and rear tow hooks is becoming a requirement for track days these days, so I purchased these tow hooks for peace of mind. The front RSG tow hook is the one of the few tow hooks that is documented to fit aftermarket front bumpers on the S2000, as most aftermarket front bumpers do not have a slot for the OEM front tow hook position.

Photo off Rock Star Garage for illustration purposes. The Front tow hook can be installed on any location within the front crash beam. So can be installed on left or right side to your own liking.



Chinese EBAY rear tow hook was purchased. It does the job.


Recaro RS-G ASM limited fixed bucket seat.

A long time coming, I’ve finally come to realization that the OEM leather seat isn’t going to cut it anymore for track use. Although the OEM is very comfortable seat and easy to get in and out of, the leather seat has no grip and has very poor lateral support. The RS-G seat only weighs about 5KG’s which should provide some weight savings and should provide a nicer seating position and lateral support which aids in providing the driver with more feedback with the cars handling. The seat rails have not come in yet but very excited to put this seat in! Love the quality materials and how the seat looks. A replica Recaro side bolster protector was also purchased to protect the seat.

[Toddxxx]

Should've gone with the ruby edition seat to match the red car :P lol jks no one wants to pay that much for a seat.

I can't remember if you're doing Wakefield or not with exe. If so what times are you hoping from the nt01s this time around?

[eskimo_firefighter]

Haha the asm ruby seat is indeed a great looking seat. But lol at the price.

Yep ill be going to wakefield with the exe crew. Hard to say considering itd be my second time there but i think the car is capable of 1:07-1:08. But id be happy with just a pb. My first pb there was a 1:11 on street tyres.

[Shakeel]

Wow you have been hiding quite a bit from me mate!

Can't wait to see the car in November!

[Toddxxx]

1.10s easy!
See you in November

[PG_DC5]

I'm aiming 1:20 =p
See you guys soon

[eskimo_firefighter]

Wow you have been hiding quite a bit from me mate!

Can't wait to see the car in November!

Haha not hiding anything it's all up to date in this blog, hehe....

Can't wait till Wakefield too! Will be a good catch up.

1.10s easy!
See you in November

I hope so mate, cya in November!

I'm aiming 1:20 =p
See you guys soon

Cya there mate!

[eskimo_firefighter]

Pre-track day preparation

Recaro RSG ASM limited seat installed.
- Was awaiting the Recaro Japan seat rails and side brackets to mount the seat to the car. Also installed a seat belt extender which works perfectly with the standard selt belt as the buckle slots through the harness hole.



- As a precautionary measure I purchased a spare set of OEM front and rear brake rotors which are well within spec just in case I had cracked my rotors at a track day. From memory it was 24mm at front and rears were at 12mm. With spare used old PMU pads that’s good for a session or two max.

- Also I decided to reinstall the OEM AP1 steering wheel just to see how it felt and to be honest I actually prefer it over the 330mm Personal Grinta steering wheel. The 330mm felt too small and the OEM has a nice weight, size and feel to it. If I were to go for an aftermarket steering wheel again, it has to be 350mm.

With all that done the car was ready for Wakefield with the EXE-Crew!

Wakefield park track day #2 with the EXE-crew

The cars setup remained relatively unchanged from the last Wakefield track day last year with the exception of the semi slick tyres, the Nitto NT01 in 255/40/17, and this will be my first time using a proper bucket seat on the race track.

Mini review of the Recaro RS-G seat.
A great modification for spirited driving, it allows you to focus on driving more rather than trying to stay put with the OEM leather seat, the Recaro RS-G is also pretty comfortable for me as a bucket seat, of course this is subjective depending on body shape and size.

The weather was looking extremely sketchy in the morning as the night before it was raining down hard and in the morning it was drizzling. Luckily by the second session the rain had stopped and the sun had come out to dry the track! PB weather!

Previous PB on street tyres (Nitto NT05) was a 1:11.4

My driving for this day was erratic and aggressive. First few sessions I had no clue with my lines and braking points. I was driving very aggressively, overshooting into corners and straining the front left tyre too much. I pretty much needed to calm down and drive more smoothly to put together a nice clean lap as throughout the whole day i was fighting with some understeer which was uncharacteristic of the car. Had to do some tuning to the tyre pressures to decrease the understeer. About 34 hot is when the NT01 seems to work well.

By the end I was able to lay down an official Natsoft PB of 1:09.3373! I was very happy with this but I knew the car was capable of going faster, as my racechrono optimal was 1:07.88!!!!
I was unable to link everything up to get into the 1:08’s which was well within range. I did manage a 1:09.04 in the fifth session but was UNRECORDED on natsoft!!! The timer wasn’t activated apparently due to weak signal.  In the future I must triple check the timer whether it is working.




Wakefield Park PB Lap!

Session 1: 1:15.0973 1:10.6087 1:10.3290 1:12.4004 1:11.0749 1:10.7575 1:20.3529

Session 2: 1:10.2600 1:14.2196 1:11.0562 1:21.1490 1:17.7376 1:11.7478 1:11.8980

Session 3: 1:13.8291 1:09.4519 1:25.5112 1:17.7340 1:10.3955 1:26.0693

Session 4 : 1:09.3373 1:17.8684 1:17.6159 1:12.5797 1:14.7175 1:10.1628
1:21.3827

Session 5: Missing from natsoft.

Session 6: 1:40.3129 1:10.4287 1:09.6688 1:09.8161 1:14.8116

Overall very very happy with how weekend went, had heaps of fun, no issues at all and made it back home safely. Hopefully I will be back next year. There's still so much more time to shave off in the cars current setup at Wakefield!
There is still one final track day coming up for the year and that’s it for 2015!

Coming back in after a PB session. Courtesy of Yingbot for the photo!


Patiently waiting in the pits with the ChargeR's EFK24. Courtesy of Preet for the photo!

[Toddxxx]

Good work PB Pete! :P
I'll have to play catch up and get to your times before the next time we meet at Wakefield.
Good luck at PI

[Shakeel]

Great work Pete! I also had an issue with the timer not working but decided to leave it and stick to racechrono as it was pretty close to natsoft timing anyway.

Nice to catch up with you again in person after almost a whole year haha.

Looking forward to our next meeting at Wakefield, hopefully I can make it down to Winton some day before that happens!

[eskimo_firefighter]

Good work PB Pete! :P
I'll have to play catch up and get to your times before the next time we meet at Wakefield.
Good luck at PI

Thanks Todd! I'm sure you'll get into the 1:09's easy on new STREET tyres opposed to my cheater spec tyres I used. I wish Wakefield was closer to me so I could learn the track more. You NSW guys are lucky to have great tracks like Wakie and SMSP. I will most like be back next year with street tyres but too early to say.

Great work Pete! I also had an issue with the timer not working but decided to leave it and stick to racechrono as it was pretty close to natsoft timing anyway.

Nice to catch up with you again in person after almost a whole year haha.

Looking forward to our next meeting at Wakefield, hopefully I can make it down to Winton some day before that happens!

Thanks Shak! Well done to you too man, was great to catch up with the you and the NSW crew. OooOOoo so when is Winton happening? Yeah was I a bit annoyed at my 1:09.04 not being recorded as it potentially could have been a 1:08.999999999 LOL. Oh well, it's not a big deal at all though.

[PG_DC5]

Glad you had fun Pete! I was envious how flat you could take turn 1 haha.