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While my car is very neutral/borderline loose cornering at speeds above 70mph, it is downright tail happy in the 30-45mph range. Any serious application of the throttle in 2nd gear in that range while cornering at the limit will cause the rear to slide. It does make my daily commute a little more entertaining as I’m making left hand turns at intersections….
http://www.youtube.com/v/xRFIhTTMjjM?hl=en&fs=1
One run on the auto-x course. Yeah, I messed up in the 180 degree section before the slalom. I went a little too deep before slamming on the brakes.
With all that said, the car did pretty well. I only ran a 38.8 which wnould have been faster if I hadn’t messed up (see vid). One thing I learned is if the car is loose, just roll with it and drift the sucker around. My co-worker Jim also has a S2000 that he used to win the STR class at SCCA Nationals Pro Solo last year. Needless to say, the car is pretty well optimized for auto-x and he’s a hell of a driver. I let Jim take the car out and he managed a 37.3 just barely tapping the last two cones of the slalom, while drifting almost the entire course as opposed to my mostly grip drive. For reference on the other cars out there, the fastest car was a gutted CSP prepared Miata on NT-01 tires which cracked into the 35s. Jim ran a 36.2 in his S2000. There was one STI I saw break into the 37s. Co-workers driving a STI and Boxster S both ran 38.2. A gutted, time attack G35 only managed a 38.2. A co-worker in a Saleen Mustang ran a low-39 and I let another co-worker of mine drive my car to a low-39. The majority of the other cars including 350Zs, a couple other S2000s, and Mustangs were in the 40-43 range.
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| During the auto-x with 60F ambient temps, the oil temp only hit 102C and would cool back down to about 95C in the five minutes between runs. The peak recall feature of the Ark Design MFDII is great! |
Jim’s comments on the car were that it handled very well even though it was loose. He said the slides were perfectly controllable and he was amazed at how well the car rode. Like I said, his car is optimized for competitive auto-x, so it’s a wee bit stiff. Thanks goes to KW, the chassis bracing, and the Bridgestone tires for the positive comments. Considering Project S2000 on very well used Potenza RE-11s was the third fastest car out there behind a gutted, auto-x only car on R-comps, and the fastest street tire auto-x S2000 in the land, I think it did pretty well. I am going to address this loose issue though with a change to the suspension setup.
