i am an old far# i used to race triumphs in the 70-80s . i spent big bucks trying to make them handle . this is the one of the best production cars out of the box i have driven and i have driven a lot. if you are used to a rwd car this car will preform.it is in my top 5 for the last 25 years . people say the rear brakes to easy i say learn it drive it to it's limit ,compensate an punch it. .

 

Don't have any real driving experience with another equivalent sports car, but here are my opinion while learning performance driving in the S2000.

A driver that is inexperienced with RWD, performance driving in general or doesn't have the right tires for the situation will eventually push the car in the wrong way which will lead to the car is tail happy, sucks in rain, sucks in snow, or the car has something wrong comments. I've spun the car countless times (in autocross and track, never on public streets) and everytime it was solely driver error. The car is pretty old school handling wise, not much built in understeer safety margin, no nanny electronics (except ABS), balanced chassis responsive to driver throttle and brake inputs. You put the wrong driver inputs and the car punishes your mistake. Learn the mechanics of driving and the car will reward you with incredible performance, more than most typical drivers can harness (more that I can now).

In stock form the car IMHO:
- has a mild understeer bias on a constant radius, throttle turn
- is hard to get power on oversteer unless at speed and high revs
- is very sensitive/responsive to weight transfer (balanced), so can be easily controlled to deliver understeer or oversteer and control grip for cornering. Also can screw you if don't do the right thing when driving.
- very nimble, i.e. best at changing direction, feels great doing direction change transitions, has really good turn in.
- steering feel is surgical precise, but doesn't give much road feedback
- suspension is great for flat surfaces, but the rear has issues when there are mid-corner bumps which cause "swimming" or bunny hopping
- there is a very small transition zone from riding on rails to sliding out of control, easy to lose it if you're not totally concentrated on feeling what the car is doing

 

As with Bill above..

I'm probably reaching that "Old Fart" area also. Starting with a Spitfire, TR-6, TR-7, Fiat X, RX-7 and the baby... A 300ZXTurbo AE (as Bill said) Out of the box... This is pretty hard to beat. The only thing I could compare it to in straight line driving would be the TR-7. A true extension of ones limbs.

There is one road in the north end of Spokane WA called Rutter Pkwy that leads into Indian Trail.. Everything from 30 deg to 180 deg turns, most of them on 10 to 30% grades, just wide enough for 2 cars, stone fences align yards with huge clifs that drop off the roads edge, straight rock facing on the other side..

A true thrill to drive. I've taken the S through the paces on this road more than once.. And the ONLY thing I can compare it to would be a 'Wild Mouse' kind of ride at an amusement park. Locked & Gripped into your seat @ 60 to 85 MPH around same corners in near black conditions...

Geeeezzzz! Brings a whole new meaning to that old SuperTramp song "Take the long way home"

The most fun I've ever had with my clothes on.

 

Don't die dude

 

Suprised how good handles w/ $200 Tein h tech vanadium lowering springs.

 

I had MGB TR6 also a TR7 ......the S 2000 is light years ahead of anything the

Brits ever dreamed about.......TR6 was a pretty decent car atleast mine was

the TR7 was a total nightmare. It handled ok but nothing like the S.

 

The TR-7 was a nightmare in the rain(electrically).. UNTIL I spent a bit on Pirelli P7s and update the suspension. It really was OK and drive great in downtown streets..

 

I've had a few powerful rwd cars before the S (all BMWs) and have done quite a bit of track driving in the S and other cars.

Here's my observations with a totally stock UK car on SO2s:

1. Car is very sensitive to throttle input - when the car is loaded up mid corner you can adjust the line without changing the amount of lock on the wheel, but by just varying the throttle input.

2. You have to be careful turning into a corner while still on the brakes. In some cars you can trail brake right up to the apex to give you a nice tight line. In the S this will usually result in considerable oversteer. Much better to get the majority of your braking done on the straights and then adjust your line using the throttle/steering.

3. Lift-off oversteer can be quite sudden. If you have the suspension loaded mid corner and you lift off the throttle suddenly the sudden weight transfer will cause a spin. You need to be quite gentle with the throttle - lifting off gradually makes a big difference to the attitude.

4. SO2s need warming up! First few laps on a track with SO2s need to be taken quite carefully. Once they are up to temperature they are very grippy and very controllable when they slide. When they're cold they can be a bit of a handful!

5. Steering is very quick. I very rarely need more than 1/4 of a turn of opposite lock to catch a slide. Most spins I've had or witnessed are caused when you are too aggressive with the wheel and over-correct. (Steering could do with a bit more feel though.)

6. Direction changes (e.g. in a chicane) are lightning quick. The way the S can transition from a hard left hander to a hard right hander (or vice versa) is very impressive. It often feels like the sudden direction change is going to cause the car to spin but the rear tyres just seem to dig in. The lateral G forces you can achieve with properly warmed up S02s are astonishing.

7. Pretty difficult to induce power oversteer in higher speed corners. I've tried to deliberately provoke power slides on the track in higher speed turns (above 50mph) and the cars seems to just dig in and go round the corner even faster. This is only in the dry - see next point.

8. Car can be drifted beautifully in the wet. Living in the UK I have to put up with wet weather track days quite often. I tend to use these as an opportunity to slide the S round every corner. The lack of grip from the S02s in the wet makes this easy and the S can be drifted quite successfully. (Admittedly I've had some pretty big spins doing this!).

9. Brakes are very good. In all the track days I've done I've never experienced any brake fade. I am careful to keep my sessions quite short and do at least 1 cool down lap after each session, but the S brakes has never ever faded on me, even after some serious abuse. With warm tyres on a dry track you don't need ABS!

All in all I think the S is a very well setup car. It doesn't tolerate being driven badly - it requires a certain amount of finesse and experience to get the best from it. But that's what I like about it - it isn't easy to drive fast so it's more challenging and rewarding. Driven well on a track you can embarrass some much more expensive machinery!

Si

 

back in those days, that was the best technology for handling so its a natural progression

strengths - weight distribution, steering ratios, suspension (obviously) and the ability to mod for improvement

weaknesses - difficult to find one other than tires wear out rather early and a little more torque would be nice but that is a borderline weakness

 

Base upon my four track days at Summit Point with my S2000, I couldn't agree more with the above.