coolme187

Hi guys, Im new to the S2000 and am coming from a long line of VW ownership, so please bear with me.

I've been looking around at suspension options that would actually not change the stock suspension geometry, yet increase road holding and handling. Does anyone here have any input on this? I know that a good spring and shock combination would do the job ie Bilstien shocks w/ stock springs. What are people here running? Anyone here familiar with the S2000's suspension geometry? The car will be built to be a weekend trackday car. I did search and did not find what I was looking for. This is what I had more in mind:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?&id=...482260#27482260

http://e30m3performance.com/myths/Weight_T...t_transfer2.htm

Although both these pages are for VW's and the E30 M3, the information it provides is true for all cars equiped with MacPherson Struts.

coolme187

Also to add, anyone running any kind of swaybars, stress bars, braces, etc please add any input as well

RED MX5

You might get more/better responses to this if you post it in the Racing and Competition forum. I would strongly suggest learning to drive the car well on the track in stock form before looking for mods. Stock handling is excellent, so if you want to get the most bang for your buck you need to focus the mods you make on the areas where you need to change things to better match your personal driving style and track conditions. The biggest improvement you can make in lap times will come from a good driving school.

Post your question in R&C for more/better answers.

Billman250

It will be a long time before you master the stock suspension.

It is awesome even at racetrack speeds.

RedY2KS2k

The S2000 doesn't have MacPherson struts.

tinkfist

Even on R-compounds, the stock suspension is hard to beat. I am able to run with suspension tuned, R comp'd STi's and Evo's (w/o engine mods of course) and I am completely stock with R-comps. If you have little track experience, invest the $2000 in track events with instruction. If you have tracked extensively already, get used to the S on stock suspension, then upgrade. The folks in R&C will rip you up if you post this over there. The short of it is that many people are choosing high end Tein, KW3 Variants, or Bilstein PSS9/generic spring setups.

Billman250

I agree, spend some $ on a track day. Nothing will beat the performance return you will get.

In all my years of meets, track days, fall colors, dragon runs....I'd say about 90% of s2k owners are unaware of the incredible speed this car can pull off around a turn with stock suspension, and stock SO2's.

Billman250

For cosmetics, I'll soon be trying a srt of Eibach Pro springs.

I'll let you know how the handling is affected.

waltk88

I concur with the advice here. Drive your S2000 on the stock suspension with a decent alignment (start with UK specs). Once you're confident with taking the car to its limits on the track, try R-compound tires, high temp brake fluid, and race pads.

RED MX5

Bill, you need to move down here to Georgia.

Our chief mechanic is one of the best drivers I know, and my alignment man is also very good; It make a difference, and it's hard to find good mechanics that are also good drivers. Your customers are lucky to have a guy like you around to help them take care of their cars.

I'm not always comfortable talking about the way "90% of s2k owners" drive, because it is too easily mistaken for arrogance. Too many people have the attitude that the way they drive is the "right way," so when someone holds them back in traffic they see them as an idiot, and when someone blasts past them they see them as a fool. LOL, maybe we all do it. Anyway, you're right ... When we went to SESM 2004 I had just gotten the car and was trying to wear out the all season Toyo's before replacing them. The tires were very hard, squeeled a lot, and had the wrong stagger, but I was able to run away from at least 90% of the cars there. At one point I got behind a guy in a supercharged car (I only had a CAI at the time), and all the SC did was make it harder to pass the guy on the short straights. It would be different if I were a great driver myself, but at the time I wasn't nearly as capable as I am now, and I'm *still* not really that good. I quite literally bought an S2000 becasue after one drive I knew the car could make me a better driver, and between the car and the schools, I've made far more progress than I ever anticipated.

Most people (the vast majority) never learn things like threshold breaking or how to handle emergency situations that require taking the tires to the limit of adhesion. Having established and ben an instructor at a school that taught thses skills, I know for a fact that learning these things reduces the number and severity of accidents, but most people actually think they already know how to drive "well enough." I read somewhere that most people only use about 25% of their cars breaking ability before crasing into things, and even if that's off by 50% it's still very sad.

I started out in autocrossing, because it's cheap and easy on the car (relatively speakeing). The things you learn autocrossing transfer directly to the track and street, so time spent in schools like Evolution are never wasted. I actually ran some high speed SOLO I events before ever going to a school, but that was back before we had things like HPDE's. Anyway, time and money spent on the driver pays bigger dividends than time and money spent on the car.

I'm still running the OEM wheels and S02's after four years, because I still haven't gotten all the goodie out of them yet. Right now I need an adjustable FSB so I can dial in more push on the faster courses. Modifying the car without that kind of specific goal is little more than a crap shoot. The stock suspension already has non-adjustable Showa coil-overs with external resevoris at the rear, so meaningful improvements are non-trivial, and relate more to driving style and specific track conditions than anything that is wrong with the stock suspension setup/tuning. Fix the driver, then tune the car, because the car does not need to be fixed.