Okay so the general consesus on this board is that revving to 7,500rpm with the edge of your foot on the clutch, followed by a sidestepping of the foot, and abrupt release of the clutch is the best way to launch. I find this kind of disturbing. If that's the only way to "street race" then I'm not gonna be doing much street racing. The car wasn't made to withstand anything like that. It's a well-engineered high-tech machine NOT designed with crazy, clutch-dropping, drag racing like that in mind. I don't know why this is so highly advocated here, but it's not that hard to still get great E/Ts by using an aggressive feather technique. I've never even heard of people doing such things to their fine automobiles. It's like people treat the s2k like it's some sort of rice rocket they can beat up, it's not, it's a highly-tuned machine with lots of technology and prestige. Doesn't matter if this is the fastest way to launch, why would you treat a prestigious car with such disdain? Besides we're not talkin like 1 second in the 1/4 mile you're saving here...more like .1 - .2 and that amount of time saved just isn't worth ripping the bottom end and the drivetrain to shreds to me. To you it may be worth getting that extra "jump" which is fine by me man, but it disturbs me that new owners come here looking for good advice and everyone tells them to rev it up and let the clutch just slam back and hook like that. Unheard of. The s2000 I think needs to be treated with more care and fine driving, not this roughhouse drag racing attitude. This is just my personal opinion, and i'm frankly surprised more people around here don't share it. Seems like everyone around here is ready to just drop the clutch out...and maybe their drivetrains too? Once again this is only my opinion, and i'm not condeming what you do. I just think it's crazy, but i mean who the hell am i anyways? So I want to know how many of you practice this and why? I've honestly never heard of other car owners doing these kinds of things, especially the owners of high-end cars(which I believe the s2k is). How do you all feel about it? I'm curious to see how many people around here honestly don't mind dropping out the clutch on their s2ks. Vote on the poll and post your reasoning. Tell me i'm an idiot if i am, but I just can't understand this technique and why it's so highly lobbied for.

 

Have you EVER seen a race car launched from the pit lane? They are not leaving two big black marks in the asphalt for show, it is because it is fast. The clutch in this car will not grab at 4000 rpm if it is slipped. Abusing a consumable like tires is not the same thing as abusing the car. I personally have never launched at 7500 rpm because I get too much tire spin at that high of an RPM, but I can see how it makes sense in high grip track surfaces, with weight in the trunk, etc.

 

agreed - the nhra dragsters that do this clutch dropping to show off/heat up the tires/etc. use titaninum/custom gears and have one guy to work on the clutchs alone. Not to mention the parts get replaced after almost every run - drivelines, rod bearings, you name it. Even in the import racing series with the hondas they blow the transmissions up every 5-10 runs. I want my s2000 to last - transmission and all. But just because I'm not going to dump the clutch doesn't mean I'm going to baby it.
I've got vtec and I know how to use it

 

If you want to go 0 to 60 in under six seconds you have to do the clutch drop. End of story. Anyone who asks how to hustle this car around needs to know this.

If you don't want to accelerate from a dead stop that quickly then, by definition, you're not drag, (or street) racing. If you want your car to last forever you need to baby it. That means going easy on starts, stops, and turns... oh yes, don't leave the garage because that causes wear-n-tear too.

The rest of the story is this is NOT how every performance car has to be driven for best 0 - 60 times. Many really muscular machines do best with nearly idle speed launches. We're not one of those.

 

The original Car & Driver review of the S2000 mentioned that the only way to get really quick launches from the car was to drop the clutch at a high RPM, but they cautioned that launching this way would make you "real good friends with your Honda parts department" or something to that effect.

I just don't get it, even if I were sure I could safely side-step the clutch and get the wheels spinning without damaging the tranny (which I'm not), how can you do this to rear tires that are roughly $180 per? I guess some of you guys really are made of money!

I for one do not choose to see how fast my S2K can reach 60, that's not the purpose of this car, as if anyone didn't realize that yet.

 

To each his own ..I guess..


-simon2000-

 

It really depends on the surface of the road. At the autocross site I'm run at (old airstrip), 3500-4000 rpm is enough to provide the right amount of wheelspin - this is with a straight clutch drop .

 

Also remember that even at a high RPM launch there is a chance that the rear wheels won't spin. I'll let you ponder where all that force goes if it can't be distributed through the wheels. I have dropped at high rpm's on occassion but I am of the opinion that this car really wasn't designed to be a drag racer so I don't do it often.

 

That's how you launch an s2000 quickly. Period. If Honda advertises sub 6 second 0-60, then that implies that it was designed with being launched this way in mind since it doesn't even come close with a convetional launch. As far as I know, all the cars with diff issues were supercharged. About the side-step technique: that is just a way of making sure that you don't slip the clutch. If you really want to you can just drop it conventionally, but just be prepared to burn your clutch every once in a while if you don't snap the clutch hard enough.

 

When the S2k first came out, Car and Driver or Motor Trend (can't remember which) reported 11 second 0-60 times when launching the car at ~2000 rpm. That sounds ridiculously high, but I was wondering if anyone knows actual 0-60 times when the car is launched with minimal clutch slippage, low rpm, and no tire spin? Or can anyone try it out and report? I imagine it lies around 7.5 - 8 seconds, which I can live with, especially if it means long clutch and longer tire life.