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.
08-06-09
WTB: Tear-Proof Soft Top
That would be nice, a tear-proof top. I think hard tops would be less popular if that were in fact a reality. None of that matters though. I have a frickin’ tear in MY top. Look! I has a picture!
I noticed the slice a few weeks after purchasing the car, right where the top mates with rear of the car. I can remember it like it was six months ago. I was running my lithe, delicate half Asian hands over the canvas top draped in a lamb-skin soap glove… I digress. I found the damn cut in the top shortly after buying my car. Zip forward to today. The cut has not grown at all as far as my slanted eyes can tell. I am fortunate that the cut is in a, dare I say, unimportant section of of the top. I still drop the top nearly every time I drive the car. No leakage when I wash the car either. Check your top regularly and you may just find a nasty little surprise. Your soft top should be checked often, like your girlfriend’s breasts for cancer. In some cases that may be more than twice daily. One can never be too careful. Cancer kills.
07-24-09
Press Start Button. Listen to Horrible Clicking Noise
Now this noise I talk about started up shortly after purchasing my Hondar back in February. It didnt happen all the time, and it would go away shortly after it started. After a time I figured it out it never made the noise on cold start, just hot starts, and only sometimes. Fast forward to a month ago. Now the clicking/card-in-spokes sound happened every warm start. What the hell is that? And why won’t someone fix it for me?
I did what any kid my age does when something like this pops up: google search for s2000 forums, join said s2000 forums, and see what all the wise 16 year old Asian kids from San Diego have to say about this “clicking on warm startup”. Of course I am car literate. I assumed one of the following: ticking dry valves, dragging starter gear or timing chain tensioner.
I ruled out dry valves simply because it does not occur on cold startups, even when I leave my car in the garage for a week without driving it. Starter was still a possibility, since the starters on these cars are known to go out fairly early. And timing tensioner is a known failing point, though the tell-tale symptoms for a failing tensioner is screeching and grinding noise coming form the timing chain area. I opted for the timing chain tensioner. I have 83k and change on the clock, I figured it was worth it for peace of mind.
To Make an Already Long Story Short
It was the tensioner! I bought the tensioner off of the tried and true Majestic Honda website. It comes with both O-rings and the plunger restrain for ease of installation (illustration item number 12).
The Good News
It’s easy to install, and I took pictures.
Let me break down what I did:
1) Disconnect VTEC solenoid signal plug and move aside (tension is located just underneath the VTEC solenoid).
2) Unclip airbox cover, remove air filter, remove bolts holding air box to the chassis (two bolts, one behind the air box and one inside the air 
box) so you can have increased access to the front timing chain maintenance hole (see pictures with pliers)
3) Remove both 10mm bolts holding the tensioner to the block. Do not confuse these with the bolts holding the backing plate of 
tensioner, that wont help you in the slightest. The tensioner should fit very snugly in there, you will be able to wiggle it around, but it may not pull out very easily. I used big pliers and pulled away from the block. You don’t have to be vicious, just 
firm. CAUTION: The plunger that applies pressure to the timing chain races CAN fall out of the main body (see last picture to see the pieces that may then occupy the inside of your timing chain housing), do not tip the old tensioner in or around its home… It may try to crawl back in and do some damage. A little bit of oil will come out of the tensioner, this is normal.
4) Insert the new tensioner with the “L” plunger retainer facing towards the hex-shaped access hole, which faces the front of the car. Bolt that sucker down. Almost done. Spec on those 10mm bolts is just shy of 9 lbs, no need to muscle this.
5) Use a 10mm hex bit to remove the front timing chain access plug (see picture). Use some needle nose pliers and pull that plunger retainer. Dear god, do not drop that little piece down into the timing chain cavity. Just, no. Replace the hex plug. No need to muscle it, snug is just fine.
6) Replace the air box bolts, filter and airbox cover, and re-plug in the vtec solenoid signal plug before starting it up (or else you’ll throw a code). You are done.
Final Thoughts
Not only did the clicking noise go away on warm startup, but the wavy feeling in the powerband, like there was a vibration coursing through the drivetrain, went away in the lower gears on hard acceleration from low speeds. Win-Win!
07-10-09
Cheap Wheel Search, Part 1: Mazda RX-7 FD Wheels
The FD RX-7 is world-renowned for its excellent performance, unique rotary engine and exquisite looks. However, all the positive points about RX-7s are overshadowed by their eccentric owners who won’t let you forget that back in the early 90s the RX-7 was a desirable car.
Despite the RX-7′s many, many shortcomings, we are fortunate that their 16×8 OEM wheels are perfectly reliable. In my search for cheap alternative wheels to the factory Honda units I learned that my co-worker had an extra set FD wheels I could try on. I was sad to find out that the damned S2000 front hub rings are too big for these wheels. If the center bore were increased on these wheels by just a bit I think these would fit no issue.
If running a non-staggered setup tickles your fancy, FD RX-7 wheels might be a cheap and light wheel set for the track. Running AP1 rear wheels all around is another popular method but also requires you to ream out the center bore to fit the front hub rings. I will have to research how much it costs to bore a set a 4 wheels (in case you want to rotate all four wheels).
Unofficial Wheel Specs
Bolt Pattern: 5×114.3mm / 5×4.5in.
Size: 16in. x 8in.
Offset: +50
Weight: 16lbs
07-01-09
A Day Trip Through Willamette Valley Wine Country
Saturday was a full day! I wanted to visit the Part’s Obsolete Porsche Show, but to convince my wife to come, I had to promise some wine tasting. For those who haven’t heard, the Willamette Valley has a thriving Pinot Noir wine industry and we’re lucky enough to have it right in our backyard. And taking back roads to the show would offer us literally two dozen choices in wine tasting rooms at the various vineyards dotting the hills on our trip.
I’m going to let the pictures tell the story to keep this from becoming a really boring novel about our trip. Needless to say, the S2000 was right at home cruising between wineries in mid-70′s comfort!
dc
Here's the route we took roundtrip from Corvallis to taste Pinot Noir and hit a vintage Porsche show
We stopped in the small town of Independance, Oregon for lunch at this great little Italian restaurant for lunch. I had the Ravioli and Shana had the Italian sandwich. Both were delicious!
Here's a shot of the S2000 at Left Coast Cellars. Check out the grapes in the background! I recommend the Latitude Pinot, which I wish I had bought a couple of bottles of. Guess we'll have to go back!
The entire snap shot gallery of our trip:
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.
05-28-09
I’ve Got Leakage
One of the stronger selling points of S2000 was the speediness and ease of use of its soft top. Hell, even Jeremy Clarkson had nothing but kind words for the S2000 upon its debut. I drove a friend’s 2002 AP1 for a whole weekend and loved every single mile of it. His soft top worked flawlessly, the latches lining right up with the updated hard top strikers that 2002+ S2000s were equipped with. Just how it should be.
My car’s top motion does not perform so flawlessly. When putting the soft roof back up it comes about two inches short of reaching the top-most windscreen frame and requires me to depress the top, hold it and latch it to the strikers in order to secure it. Beyond this one troublesome issue the top seals the car properly. I have left it out in the rain for a couple days, washed the car using full washer nozzle pressure right around the window seal many times without so much as the odd droplet get through (and only when washing the car does that happen, rain is much easier going here in the Pacific northwest). The Miata I once owned had a perfect top and if you left it out in the rain it would typically take take on moisture, fog up the windows. It would also take on a funky moldy smell without proper remedial actions to reverse the moisture-catching. It would get strong enough to ALMOST mask the old man smell my Miata had. Anyone who has owned one knows exactly what I am talking about.
Leaky Top at 45 MPH
I didn’t notice it when I first got the car because I had the top down where ever I went. A few weeks later there it was. Taunting me. Annoying me, like looking at Simon Cowell’s horrid flat top of a hair cut when he appears on Top Gear, and all you can think is “man what the hell…” If I thought the wind noise was bad at 45 MPH it was much worse at 90 MPH. The noise in the cabin was like the sound you hear when taking off in a turbine jet. The most annoying part about it was a light touch on the center of the top handle where it contacts the frame would quell wind noise almost completely. What’s a bro to do?
Tighten Stuff Down
I should have known that when this issue first popped up it would make sense to look for loose bits of hardware, like bolts. But I didn’t. I went with a trick someone thought up on S2Ki. I’ll go into exactly what that is on my second installment of how my soft top sucks compared to everyone else. Apparently it is quite common for the striker and latch mechanism bolts to come loose, and that was definitely the case for my car. If I was paying closer attention I would have noticed that passenger-side latch was in fact quite loose. I truly thought the the swivel action of the latches was a feature. After looking at the mounting bolts, or lack thereof, I discovered the passenger latch was missing the truss bolt altogether, and the countersunk bolt had nearly fallen out as well. That was the culprit.
I discovered the lateral-sliding latch button locator bolts were also loose. Apparently anything involved with latching the top to the car is prone to get loose, so do yourself a favor and check your bolts! Something that caught me as strange are the mismatching bolts to secure the latches to the soft top skeleton. I checked Honda parts diagrams for the latches and determined that this was in fact proper; One countersunk bolt and one truss bolt. You will notice that the countersunk bolt location has a bevel appropriate for the use of such a bolt, and helped convince me that it in fact belonged there. Same goes for the truss bolt, no bevel when located in its home.
The Wind Was Broken
Tightening the bolts did the trick! Testing at speed proved that tightening had lowered cabin wind noise almost completely. Before that I could put the petal to the metal and by the time the revs had reached 6,000 RPMs in 2nd gear the wind noise would overpower any level of volume from the stereo. Great Success!
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.
05-10-09
Silverstone S2000 at Sunset Wallpaper
I had rented a nice lens for some other work I did earlier in the week and decided to sneak out and take some pictures with it before sending it back. I went out to my favorite spot where I got this picture of my Ducati last year and decided to see what the S2000 looked like at dusk. Needless to say, I’m pretty pleased with the results!
Click the image for a 1680 wallpaper of the S2000, and leave a comment if you’d like a different size.
dc
