08-27-09
Prepping for Another Track Day
Time has been in short supply lately so I have not been posting as often. Sorry. You’ll have to find something else to put you to sleep.
Besides the usual S2000 quirks, this car has been solid. I make a habit before a track day to look over the brakes, tires, suspension, and check fluid levels/leaks. Being so effin lazy, I only check an item per sitting. Fluid is still nice and clean from the last change, though I’m sure it could benefit from a small bleeding. I dont like to top off brake fluid if it’s at a good level, because it lets me know how far the brakes have been worn and is an early warning sign to low pad thickness.
I took 30 seconds to look over the engine bay for anything blatantly out of place. I tend to check my oil level before any long drive and know that the oil level is good. I am bad in that I rarely check coolant. But then again, Honda built this car, not BMW.
A quick old school trick for free brake cooling is to remove your inner splash guards. By removing them it allows the inner pads increased ventilation, decreasing the chance of frying lesser track-worthy pads. Enjoy my glowing brake fluid reservoir.
08-09-09
Just Returned from EESCC’s Willamette Pass Auto-X 2009 Event
And I am exhausted. Though we did not have to camp, it was a very full weekend. Both courses this weekend were really fast. As is the usual flavor of EESCC events at Willamette Pass the courses featured long slalom sections and many chances to brake hard and accelerate hard. There were a few unfortunate crashes, but in all cases the damages were minimal. There was even a wide-body Fiat with a rotary motor! In other news the S2000 competition was fierce on day two, I’ll post more on the event soon.
06-26-09
UK Alignment and Beyond
I babble too much, so let’s try another strategy. I am going to ask myself a series of clarifying questions that I will attempt to answer as precisely as I can.
How did the UK alignment stack up against the standard US alignment spec?
Grippy, noticeably less yaw when cornering. Though that could also be the addition of the RE-01Rs. But I can say that there was a noticeable difference with the RE-01Rs BEFORE the UK alignment and very noticeable after the alignment as well. Thumbs up!
Did the alignment help for autox?
Yes and no.
Why yes and no?
Improved frontal grip, which means more drifting on course. One step forward, one step back.
Do you feel the corner speeds have improved on country driving?
Yes!
Were you satisfied with the UK alignment spec?
Yes.
So why modify it further?
Three words: lifetime alignment service
I see, so what have you modified?
Increased negative camber up front by half of a degree, from -1 to -1.5 degrees
Did anything else change in the setup from the UK spec?
Yes, the technician either could not attain -2 degrees camber in the back (or was too lazy) and got me between 2.1 and 2.2 degrees of negative camber, which is fine by me.
Your impressions of the setup?
Holy crazy turn-in, Robin. This could get me in trouble.
Is the handling incredible?
Yes!
What will get you in trouble?
Frontal grip feels so amazing that I fear if I get ham-fisted with the steering that the rear of the car will break free that much easier. So far it’s been behaving itself. Grip in the corners feels even greater than with the UK alignment.
Does the handling feel more knife edged?
Yes.
How has tire wear changed?
Too early to tell. I have spare 225s for the rear sitting in the garage, what do I care? I’m Bawlin’!
What urged you to modify the alignment further than the UK spec?
I saw what some of the other S2000 owners were running for track use and what the SCCA autocross champs were running on their cars and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. And now I know that it rocks!
Would you like to be a Formula 1 test driver?
Yes.
Any other interesting notes about the alignment?
The alignment was noticeably out of whack (see first pic) for the month or two I’ve had the UK spec on the car. A couple autocross events, numerous long country drives and a track day later and it was out of whack. Could be the technicians who worked on the alignment, could be an S2000 quirk. I’ll have it checked in a few months.
Any other notes on the handling of the car?
Insane turn-in, pick the entry line into a corner and hold it with ease. You can kick up the corner speed up a bit if you are comfortable too. Be wary, it does feel a bit knife-edged at times. I’ll give an update in a few months about my impressions of the alignment then.
06-19-09
A day at PIR, Forecast: Rain
It was less than ideal conditions for a picturesque track day, but despite the rain it was a great day at the track. This being only my second HPDE my spirits were high and I was expecting to learn a lot. Adding in the rain factor pretty much sealed that idea. Having previous autocross experience in small rear wheel drive cars in the rain I had certain expectations of how the car would behave.
The Rain Dance
With water on the ground, the first session I took it very easy. The chicane felt slippery when using lots of steering input, so I minimized steering corrections as much as I could, which helped a lot entering the chicane, which only left the middle section of the chicane to deal with. It was tricky finding a good balance with the S2000 and it’s high strung power band. Get on it too early, you were going to get drift, too late, you were holding people up. And then there was the starter motor the lime green De Tomaso Pantera left on turn 3 of the chicane. Not something you want to hit. Hell, it was half the size of my car. Built Ford tough.
Beyond the chicane, turns 4 and 5 were challenging for me not due to traction levels, but because I was unable to realize the potential of the car. My instructor pushed me to enter the turn harder into turn 4 and take that speed further into the turn and go easier on the brakes, yielding much faster entry into turn 5 and carrying it through the turn complex. Halfway through turn 6 yielded push in the wet conditions, the solution was to let the car unwind sooner, as the turn is quite large, you can carry speed through most of the turn without inducing terminal understeer, and it may set you up perfectly for turn 7.
Overall, I was grateful for the varied weather. It gave me a chance to feel out the car andr push harder than I would on the street.
Dry pavement with Precipitation
Session 3 was by far the most dry. Traction levels around the back “straight” increased significantly. I felt much more confident running full throttle around the lazy back bend, and speeds on the front and back straights were around 110, leaving plenty of room to brake comfortably. The cars that were passing me in the earlier sessions I was now passing. Take THAT Mazdaspeed Miata, and take THAT Shelby GT500. But you can pass Mr. R35 Skyline. You can pass me, the Sti and Evo 9 in front of me as well, all in one swoop if you wish. Those cars attain triple digits so very, very fast.
Brakes, Tires and Engine Thoughts
It being in the mid 60s all day, high ambient temperatures were not threatening factor for the S2000 at all for the brakes, engine temperature or tires. I can’t really say the brakes, tires or engine were really put the test given the weather conditions. The closest I got to pushing the brakes to the limit was near the end of session 3 of 4, and noticed the brakes were fading just a slight bit on the two hardest braking zones on the front straight into the chicane and into turn 10 leaving the back straight. If were focusing on braking points and really pushing it I feel the Axxis Ultimates would have been pushed beyond my comfort level in regard to fade level.
The engine took every lick of revs to 9,000 RPMs, and the tires didnt feel greasy at all. It’s very likely they didnt get much temperature in them til the 3rd session out, so much water and slower laps proved to be easy on the tires.
Conclusion
Track days are fun, and the S2000 loved its day at the track. There will be more to follow.
06-08-09
S2000 Shootout Re-visited for EESCC Events 3 & 4
Mixed Results
The results for the weekend were varied as well as the courses. The course for Saturday lacked enjoyable rhythm and really made you pace yourself and look ahead to the next corner. It took me 3 of my 4 runs to get it right. More technical than a power course (even for our small venues) and required more than patience than usual.
I was lucky enough to beat the other two S2000s day by more than a second. I was not so lucky on Sunday. Event 4 meant a different course but with similar elements. It was faster, longer and had a rhythm that was more appealing than the previous day. The course only took a single run to remember and I spent the next three working on faster laps instead of stumbling about.
I was leading the two other AP1s right up until the last runs. My last try was not spotless and featured a bit of front wheel skidding on gravel through a set of turn-around gates. This time the gap between the fastest and slowest S2000 was less than 4 tenths of a second, and they both pulled out their fastest times right at the end. The lesson to learn here is the S2000 that was only 17 thousandths behind the leader is running Kumho SPTs while the leader and I run much stickier tires ( I run Potenza RE-01Rs if you remember and the other fellow runs Direzza Star Specs). The driver is always the deciding factor.
A Little Wide Angle Fun
I picked up a GoPro Motorsport Hero WIDE angle camera from my cousin at Crossover Auto. The video above is the product from the GoPro kit.
Dylan’s Runs
Below are the runs Dylan recorded on Event 4 (Berlina black S2000 pictured above).
05-27-09
Check out our S2000′s at PIR on June 5th!
I just learned I’ll be joining Gabe for a track day on June 5th at Portland International Raceway. I’m very excited to get the S2000 in an environment where it can really show off! Let the grudge match begin…
05-26-09
Taking the S2000 Back to the ‘Ring
Oh how I wish the title of this blog post was reality, but my $220M PowerBall ticket hasn’t hit… yet. But when it does, consider my ticket punched for a month long Nurburgring trip in the S2000!
In actuality I dug the Playstation 2 out of hibernation, where it’s been sleeping for the past several years. Luckily the memory card still holds my garage, and what do you know, there’s a Silverstone S2000 in the inventory and it’s only modified with some semi-racing suspension, aftermarket alloys (my wife hates the gold!), soft tires, and an exhaust.
My first lap back at the ‘ring yielded an 8:30 lap time. Still got a PS2 laying around? What can you do around the North Loop in a similarly prepped S2000? Lets get an online grudge match going!
And yes, like the rest of the world (universe?), as soon as the new Gran Turismo 5 is launched, I’ll pony up and buy a Playstation 3. But until then, Sony can suck it for promising and postponing this title for entirely too long!
Update 5.27.09
So my second attempt, this time sober, yielded an 8:22. I’ll bet a very clean lap could land as low as 8:10, and in the hands of an expert, maybe even under 8.
While I keep practicing and waiting for challengers, here are a couple of masterful S2000 videos around the Nurburgring:
Update
3rd lap now, 8:18. I’m finally getting a mostly clean lap, but several spots where I can be quicker.
dc
05-21-09
Setup: New Kicks for a Modern Classic
Before I purchased the S2000 I had made a list of items needed to prep the vehicle for duty. The list of duties in mind were autocross, spirited country drives and track events. Tires were at the top of the list. And not just any tires, but good tires. To some that means a fine set of Toyo Spectrums from your local Les Schwabs. For those with a brain and a desire to do more than go up and down I-5 one only need look to Bridgestone Tires. Now some of you will say that Bridgestone is not the only one who makes high performance tires worth a damn, and indeed you would be right. Michelin is used by many of the top car manufacturers not just as run-of-the-mill OEM tires but also as performance pieces that in some cases is the very source of performance for some well-known car models (does the M3 ring a bell?). Another big manufacturer that comes to mind when racing and performance are concerned is Pirelli. Dunlop as well; funny name, good tires. Avon was big in Formula 1 in the 80s along with Goodyear. But let’s face it, Michelin is French, so they suck by default. So what, BMW has been running Michelin Pilot Sports of varying types on most of their lineups since the beginning of time. Pirelli is ALWAYS overpriced and the name Dunlop just sounds funny. I only see Avons when I am at an autocross or at the track in the form of slicks, and does Goodyear still make tires? I know they still have a blimp or two, but that’s about all I care. Where was I…
I will say though, I always tune in to see what tires are being put on new cars. This is a relatively new thing for me. In previous years I was too poor to even consider buying premium tires. I was happy when I had tires with tread! I went with Bridgestone RE-01Rs for a couple of reasons. First off, they were on closeout, and resellers were making space for the brand new RE-11 which is replacing the now venerable RE-01R. So I got them a third of the price I would have paid for them a week earlier. They were also the SCCA Street Touring class fast tire two years previous, so I knew they would at least be competent (last year’s Street Touring champion was the Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec). Did I mention they were insanely cheap when I got them? So cheap in fact, I bought 6 tires; two sets for the rear and one for the front. S2000s are known to wear out the rears twice as fast the fronts, especially with a UK-spec alignment, more on the alignment in a later post. A fun fact to know is the predecessor to the RE-01R was-fittingly named- the RE-01. It was supposedly designed for the NSX Type R in Japan and was a key player in the success of the NSX-R in competing with cars like the Skyline GT-R. RE-01s were also used on the Integra Type R and Prelude Type-SH. If it was a Honda and the sportiest model offered it had RE-01s. AP1 S2000s came with Bridgestone S-02As but RE-01Rs seem like the natural fit.
Out with the crap and in with the not Crap
I bought the car with the bastardized, red-headed step child to the Z1 Star Spec, the Direzza DZ101. These tires are a decent semi-sporty tire for daily driving and going slow at autocross. They have soft sidewalls and are pretty sloppy compared to other tires in its price range. I knew all I needed to know before I even drove on these. My buddy Bryan has had two sets of these, and he hated them from day one. Now to be fair, he said they felt better after diminishing half of the tread, and for the price they are a decent commuter tire. Couldn’t be worse than Toyo Spectrums. The previous owner of my car had a less than stellar review of the tire. Having owned multiple Porsches and a dozen or so BMWs he has accrued some experience in tire choice and preference, and the Direzza DZ101s were his least favorite. Him and Bryan bonded over the subject of the DZ101 and just how bad they are. As a regular tire I think they are decent, and if your first experience in an S2000 with them on the car I believe you would find them to be sufficient. Not knowing what is possible with even the stock chassis it would be easy to assume that these were more than suitable for a sporty roadster. But you would be wrong.
Making the transition from DZ101s to RE-01Rs was a religious experience. Turn-in feel is firm and planted, making the Dunlops feel like an all-weather radial. Mid-corner bumps are also much less sloppy, and the yaw of the S2000 was greatly decreased, the car feels planted. They also look really sexy. These are meaty tires. I chose to roll the stock-spec sizes: 205/55R16 up front and 225/50R16 in back. The Direzzas they replaced are the same specs yet these sit much wider. The aspect ratios look a lot more equal (front tires compared to the rears) than the others. The rear Dunlops were noticeably shorter than the their matching fronts, a pet peeve of mine and other S2000 owners and most tire selections in this size category, forcing most S2000 purists to stick with the OEM-spec tire, the Potenza S-02A. That issue is solved with the RE-01R.
At autocross the difference between these tires is very noticeable and yet very similar. The Dunlops were very loose in slaloms and ABS was never far off under hard braking. Debuting the Honda at my first autocross with it proved highly entertaining and very sideways. Every turn of the steering wheel was an opportunity to drift the tail and show how the S2000 can dance. In contrast the RE-01Rs felt much more firmly planted, most notably in long drawn-out turns that are common for our autocross course designs. You could take it into the corner fast, ease off a bit and cruise through the corner and still have a bit more grip for any last moment adjustments for what you might perceive as a faster exit line. Under braking you could be a lot more vicious, these tires are much more capable under braking as well. However it should also be noted that the S2000 is a hooligan no matter what tires you put on it. An S2000 is to drift as the mullet is to Camaro. As far as autocrossing an S2000 is concerned with a setup like this, it’s entertaining but not necessarily the fastest way around the course.
Some other tires I feel belong in the same performance category as the RE-01R are the Direzza Star Spec and the very new arrival that is getting people talking is the Kumho Ecsta XS, the newcomer taking over for the Kumho MX. I have been hearing good things and can’t wait to hear more about them. No doubt the RE11s will be a strong fighter, but will they beat out the much cheaper competition? I guess we will have to wait and see.
05-08-09
Setup: Does This Make Me Look Fat?
At the beginning of every auto-x season I find myself pondering things. You know, profound shit. Are my ambitions in life a metaphor of the human condition to overcome great obstacles? Does my acute joy of this car make me materialistic and therefore American? Will I ever give up eating egg McMuffins on auto-x mornings? If two bros driving in a Neon SRT4 and BOTH are wearing flat-billed Famous Stars and Straps hats sideways, what are the odds that the bills are facing away from each other? Hella deep thoughts.
So anyway, at EESCC (local auto-x club) we are fortunate enough to have access to a set of Longacre scales for those members who are interested in using them at the test and tune event. I took the opportunity to see how the Honda ’2000 cornered out. After wrapping up the first half of the day I put the car on the scales with exactly half of the fuel pegs on the counter.
At half tank with me in the car the car is a single pound away from a perfect cross weight. That translates to an equal feel turning left or right. In some cars where balancing of weight in the car is not so equal in cross weights the feel can be lackluster turning in one direction but feel much more satisfying turning in the other direction despite having a limited slip differential or other factors that benefit handling. I guess I’ll just have to lose a pound off of my person to get that one little digit to drop. Maybe I’ll start eating fiber the night before the big weekend since I don’t have a whole lot to lose elsewhere.
The car has a slight rear bias of 50.8% at half tank which may explain why its so easy to get it to oversteer on course in throttle-on situations. On course all this car needs is a little bit of encouragement from the right foot and a friend we know as Vtec gets the rear of the car rotation enthusiastically. What is so amazing to me is how the handling of the S2000 is so polarized from it’s tail-out behavior on course at auto-x and so planted on city roads and windy high speed country roads.
It should be noted that my spare tire and tools were removed, and for those who don’t own an S2000 or were in TAG (and if you were sniffing glue when you were a kid TAG stands for Talented and Gifted) as children, the spare sits on the passenger side of the trunk and tools dead center adding to rear bias and may also throw off cross weight by a small amount if installed in the vehicle. I don’t have the exact weights of the spare tire and tools, I will have to look into that. Impressive Honda. You made a balanced platform right out of the box, at least with my 150-pound person inside of it.
I guess it is no surprise the car handles the way it does when you look at these figures. I am not one to believe that figures and specs are what make a car fun. But this isnt a bad start. Oh ya, s2000: You’re overweight! I guess it could be worse. It could be a 2+ ton Mercedes “roadster”. But then, as Jeremy Clarkson puts it: “You’d be a cock.”
05-01-09
Honda ’2000 Showdown
Two S2000s, piloted by IT professionals. Bored yet? The stage: TWO AUTO-X EVENTS! Oh god, please don’t leave. The silver roadster with a few new components to test out at this event was here to showcase what a fresh set of Bridgestone RE-01R tires could do. We’ll call the owner Ace. And driving the berlina S2000 on a humble set of Kumho Ecsta SPTs was here to set the standard with regular tires. We’ll call him Gary. So did the RE-01Rs take the gold or did the better driver seize the day? Neither won the day, Ace and Gary sucked it up and were beaten by a Pontiac Solstice GXP. Despite their failure to conquer their class they kept the competition fierce.
Saturday, EESCC Auto-X Event 1
The competition does not get any closer than it did on Saturday. The differences in setup between the Ap1s were a wash to optimum line choice and good driving. Ace’s advantage on with stickier rubber, UK wheel alignment and upgraded brake pads could not find an answer for Gary’s times. Gary couldn’t shake the silver s2000 despite his flamboyant roadster maneuvers. The result was a tie to the tune of 40.842. The 2nd place ribbon was handed to Ace. Ace reported that the tires and car feel was greatly improved by the tires despite his inability to out-class the competition. Frontal traction on course was the most noticeable improved feature with tires and alignment. But the S2000 is a wild one and inducing oversteer was still all too easy… Ace reports.
Sunday, EESCC Auto-X Event 2
A new day and a new chance for victory. Ace and Gary weren’t the only game in A stock. Another S2000 was lurking about, but it was a Sebring Silver, and no one cares about that color. Even less desirable still was the TBS Consultants Solstice GXP which none of the S2000s had answer for. There was energy in the air, like a hipster on the prowl for a new ultra v-neck t-shirt at American Apparel. Ace tried a new approach since he was finding oversteer on the inside on long corners and turn-arounds, which was costing time despite its fun factor. Ace felt by maintaining higher entry speeds into the longer turn-around sections and taking a wider line and sustaining understeering through one of the two larger turns on the course saved him more time than it was costing him. Whatever the reason may be Ace edged out Gary by .6 of a second. So was the advantage a result of the tires or the driving this time? The guy in the Sebring’ s2k was trailing the duo by a few seconds up until his last run where he just .1 of a second off of Ace’s best lap after a little advice on gear selection from Ace and Gary. Both Ace’s and Mr. Sebring’s s2k was shod with stickier tires (Dunlop Direzza DZ1 Star Spec rubber on the Sebring Silver s2000). Let’s wait and see what the season holds for performance from these three drivers to find out for sure.
