ZDAN - you seem to know your $*** on alignment. I have a stock 03 s2000, and just got in factory sized star spec z1's. My plan for the car is autocross this season and one maybe two NASA HPDE events. The tires are going to be mounted next week along with an alignment. I would like to get a good performing alignment, but if it's going to cost me an extra 5,000 miles at the rears, then I think I may be ok with stock settings.

What would you suggest, or anyone else feel free to chime in.

TSmillner, let me know how you like the rs-3's work out for you. It was a tough decision for me too. It came down to star specs and rs-3s.


-ryan

 

This is probably a stupid question, but how bad of an idea would it be to either go with a set of 225/50/16 rs3's or star specs on the rears, with a new-ish set of sO2's on the front? I picked up a set of barely used (conservatively 90-95% tread) s02 fronts off a guy locally and planned on mounting them soon, but my s02 rears are on their way out. Definitely have no plans on ever going with a new set of s02's, just wondering if maybe I can get away with a slightly grippier tire out back for now. Will it work out OK without creating some kind of catastrophic understeer scenario? Car is driven a couple times a week on the road, handful of autocrosses through the summer, and a possible HPDE in the late summer/fall, but will likely have a new set of something else by then anyway.

Also considering more camber in the front, and possibly some more toe out... I'm fairly certain the car is at factory settings now, haven't had an alignment done since I've picked it up last spring.

 

Best alignment for performance is also pretty good for tire life.

Have them ignore the specs and maximize camber front and rear, which should put you around -1.2 to -1.5 front and -2 to -2.3 rear (something like that). Set front toe = zero, rear toe 0.2 - 0.3 degrees total. Let caster fall where it may (overrated imo, except perhaps for autoX). For track work I would NEVER give up camber for caster in a camber-challenged car (which the stock S is).

Factory rear toe spec is, imo, excessive at the high end. Too much rear toe is what kills the rear tire life, not so much camber. More than -2 degrees might reduce tire life by 10-15%, but rear toe will reduce it by 50% or more!

Also, the car is more twitchy/darty in a straight line with too much rear toe, but understeers more when you WANT it to turn. Minimal rear toe keeps the back end more stable while also giving better turn-in.

I've run the gamut of rear toe, from .15deg total to over 1deg total. Too much rear toe SUCKS, for EVERYthing, and is IMO a major culprit behind reports of these cars being spooky/twitchy/evil-handling.

Regarding RS-3 vs. Star Spec, my last track event I was on 50% worn Star Spec fronts and brandey new RS-3s in back. Balance of the car was neutral in the wet and in the dry. They're both great tires. Oddly enough, while the RS-3's had decent lateral grip in the wet, they didn't seem to have much forward grip powering out of the lowest-speed corner at Mosport.

Have fun!

 

So I'm guessing that if star specs on the front and rs3's out back = neutral handling then s02's on the front and star specs/rs3's in the rear = pushing all over the place and overall, not a good idea?

 

For autoX, no way I'd go with S02's up front and RS3s or Star Specs in back. Get equally grippy tires all around.

"Factory" alignment settings are not fixed, but rather a pretty wide range, and there's no reason to think that your current alignment is in that range. But that's not where you want it for autox/HPDE anyway. If the car is stock, you want to maximize camber front and rear. Maybe a smidge of front toe-out (I don't autoX, for street/track I run zero front toe). Minimal rear toe, ~.2-.3 total.

My two cents...

 

^^^

Excellent, just needed some validation before I did something stupid, haha. Thanks man.

 

This post helped me decide on the Hankook Ventus R-S3 (version 2) for my OEM AP1 wheels but I was wondering if I could go wider than 205/55/16 front and 225/50/16 rears without rubbing issues or necessitating spacers. Thanks!