Apex1.0

So I just picked up a low mile S2k. The car is in like new condition and a ball to drive. AP1's (especially early ones) seem to come with a reputation for being less forgiving at the limit. My understanding is there are two reasons for this:

1) Dynamic rear toe that was engineered into every AP1. Basically the rear suspension is setup to have bumpsteer.

2) Relatively stiff rear suspension tuning, biasing the handling to oversteer. My understanding is the 2000 has the stiffest rear suspsnsion tuning of an S.

First off, is the above true? Second if so, what changes can I make to counter act these to make my S for forgiving?

I am not sure how to deal with the toe change, with the exception of an alignment and good driving technique. I can however reduce the cars tendancy to oversteer by removing or disconnecting the rear sway bar. Has anyone tried this, does it help? Ultimetly will it make my S more forgiving?

Thanks,

Nicks2ki

Hardrace rear toe arms help counter the rear bumpsteer.

devildust

I have an 01', Im currently running a rear sway bar out of an 04, they are much softer. Makes the rear much stickier, I sometimes miss the OEM 01 bar though.
There are lots of ways to go about this though.

06Estukay

I would advise against installing a rear bump steer kit unless you know of an experienced alignment guy that has experience dialing in the dynamic toe curves. You could cause a worse situation otherwise.

Try installing a softer rear sway bar from an 06-07. It's a cheap mod.

Apex1.0

I can say I have some experience with this. I had a lowered Mustang with X2 balljoints and a bumpsteer kit. To get the bumpsteer setup correctly I needed exclusive access to an alignment machine (my buddy was a tech). What we did was set the static alignment and then used a winch/jacks to compress and decompress the suspension to measure the dynamic toe change. We tried different settings on the bumpsteer kit until we had the minimum dynamic toe change. This took a considerable amount of time and access to equipment. I do not have this ability now.

I can do a bumpsteer kit if its a bolt in affair. If it requires tuning then I would like to try something else. Like adjust the static toe settings or change the rear wheel rates.

s2ka

Try an AP2 rear bar first. The AP1 bumpsteer is exaggerated by people looking for an excuse for crashing their car... Usually due to cheap tires, wrong tire sizes, worn out rear tires, and/or bad driving skills.

Apex1.0

Just curious, why did you go from a 08 to an 00?

Switchblade

Because AP1 FTW!!!

s2ka

I missed the run to 9,000 rpm. It might have been ok if I hadn't already owned an AP1 for a long time. My AP2 was more refined but not as exciting to drive.

Croc

you also might consider AP2 wheels/tires.