So this is how it starts...

Why no cooldown?

I'm at Thunderhill for (hopefully, if they finish paving it) the new 5-mile course with HOD on 6/7 and 6/8.

bngl3rt said:

Why no cooldown?

I'm at Thunderhill for (hopefully, if they finish paving it) the new 5-mile course with HOD on 6/7 and 6/8.

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.you need to measure tires so that they are closest to the real time track temp/pressure...thus the sooner you measure the better.They start to cool quickly...you can still use the relative trends and ratios to get an idea where you are at if you can't monitor your tires till you pit and park.

So this happened....

http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/1089648-hello-im-looking-for-a-track-car/

I'm not leaving the NSX community, the purple car is my soul and I will have it forever. But... I'm too nervous about crashing it at the track to really push hard.

I'm sure you saw my post about my incident last month, so I happen to think you are doing the right thing. My plan is to reconsider heavily tracking the NSX once I am sure my skills are up to it. I think that experience is a big factor in being able to deal with unexpected situations, and I don't think I will get the right experience if I am driving at 6/10 or 7/10. I want a car I can drive 9+/10. Since I borrowed from my track budget to replace my destroyed NSX, it's going to be a bit before I can get a track car.

From what I can tell, the S2k is great. It seems like there aren't enough of them, however, to make it an inexpensive car to run hard and repair if necessary. I have been looking more at Miata or E36 BMW for that reason. But I think an S2k would be better. I hear Shad at Driving Ambition does some nice track-day setups. Good luck and please let us know how your search/progress goes.

I did indeed see your post. I was already thinking about how devastating it would be to arrive at the track in the morning with my dream car and leave in the evening with a twisted heap - but your story (and the earlier one about the 500hp green car that bought it on track at NSXPO) kept those thoughts at the forefront of my mind.

And yes, that is my plan - build skills and confidence on a car I won't cry about putting a few (or a lot of) dents in, THEN go for mastery of the childhood dream car.

That car you posted is way too expensive.

You can get a clean AP1 (00-03) for 10-12k and a clean AP2 (04+) for 15-16K+

I definitely also agree that getting a stock one and going from there is best. I've had many friends start that way and progressively move up. Some are even semi-pro drivers now still racing s2ks albeit, evos, stis, brzs, etc now too.

Get some good pads, rbf600 brake fluid, sticky tires and go to town.

The car is also much more DIY friendly if that's your kind of thing.

I'd still avoid salvage titles though. There's tons of out there in the market and most of them are because people wreck them in the rain. As a result, the salvage title ones have suspension issues.

B2FiNiTY said:

That car you posted is way too expensive.

You can get a clean AP1 (00-03) for 10-12k and a clean AP2 (04+) for 15-16K+

I definitely also agree that getting a stock one and going from there is best. I've had many friends start that way and progressively move up. Some are even semi-pro drivers now still racing s2ks albeit, evos, stis, brzs, etc now too.

Get some good pads, rbf600 brake fluid, sticky tires and go to town.

The car is also much more DIY friendly if that's your kind of thing.

I'd still avoid salvage titles though. There's tons of out there in the market and most of them are because people wreck them in the rain. As a result, the salvage title ones have suspension issues.

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All good to know. Yes I would really like the experience of working on the car myself which I was afraid to do on the NSX since it's so costly if you break something (and some things are hard to get).

If I wind up racing an S2000 that I built up from stock with my own two hands, and I have my near-stock NSX available for road trips and spirited street driving, I will be very happy indeed.

Ive had a few s2k that Ive tracked. My current model if I were to buy another or giving advise:

ap1 9-13K depending on options that come with it 80-150k miles is fine as long as compression is tight and its a clean title straight chassis. Price gap reflects the milage more than anything. Don't be worried about hight mileage cars if leakdown numbers are good.

Ap2 05 only. has the 2.2 but is still drive by wire. which mean easier ECU mods if you want to do that. Your mostly paying for the updated trans internals and diff. cost around $12-18 mileage is same as ap1, as long as it all is within compression spec and chassis is straight.

Get either car ON A LIFT and have the mechanics look for signs of accidents, fender benders are ok but have alignment checked that it can be put back in spec and nothing is hugely bent. The chassis are stout so any perminate damage was likely a big hit.

Once you have the car:

Ap1:
front 22mm sway w endlinks
KW or Zeal suspension (probably others but i like both those for track)
17x9 +45 square set up
harddog roll bar
Seat and *5* point harnes
porterfield r4s pads and motul rbf 600 fluid.
CR chin spiler and CR or APR rear wing

I always left stock airbox but removed the resonator and usually kept stock exhaust. Its heavier but bullet proof if your going off track semi frequently.

your out the door for about 18k in a super reliable/safe/quick car. Mind you some people dont 'click' with s2000's, it take a certain type of driving to be fast.


heres one of my old cars. No wing with a mugen front and it was pretty quick on track. had a hard top for track use too..



Ive been doing research on the f20 motors again since one is going into my new build, Ive found some interesting things that are pretty simple to do to simplify the whole set up. rather than retype all them check out the build blog here:
http://illvillains.blogspot.com/

Do I need the hard top? Is that just for aero or does it provide additional roll protection beyond the partial rear cage?

- - - Updated - - -

& what are the downsides of the 06+ DBW? Complicates certain mods?

Hard top depends, There are only 2 or 3 different insurance companies that underwrite track days, no matter what club is renting the track the insurance underwriter is the same. I had read that 2 of the three (or 1 of the 2) will be requiring some sort of hardtop on convertible cars for the coming year. Its not any safer, really, but the solid roof will give you slightly better aero flow to a wing if you have one. 06 is drive by wire. no throttle cable means that ECU tuning is MUCH harder to do.

Significantly harder than a DBW NSX?

Donno, i've never bought a dbw car that ive planed on tuning. They're both likely similar technology but if you looking to get something just to tune and track give yourself a head start and start with a simplified system in the 00-05 cars. If you're stuck on an ap2 there is no performance advantage to DBW that you wouldn't get out of the 05.

Fair enough. Probably limited to AP1 land on price anyway.