255 square setup and Spoon caliper initial impressions
There are some changes you can make to a car that are just so above and beyond your expectations it is hard to really put into words. This is definitely one of those. I will get into general impression of the new wheel and tire setup first. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. I will start with one of the things I was really surprised by initially is just how much more stable the car is even just cruising on the freeway in a straight line. I am guessing this has to do with the larger front contact patch and the wider track width. And the car is dramatically more stable at high speeds. To the point that I found myself speeding quite drastically on the freeway a few times without realizing. So much less NVH. The rigid collars, suspension, and square setup, along with the exhaust make this car incredibly smooth and quiet to drive long distances. I think this is some what down to having fresh tires as that always has an effect, but never on a staggered setup have I experienced such a smooth stable ride in an S2000. Definitely something I wasn't expecting but am pleasantly surprised by.
Next up is the braking grip and stability. This is something I have experienced for short periods of time in other S2000s, but being able to really push with my own car completely changes my perspective on this. The increase in grip is so drastic I really have had to relearn every one of by braking points. It is an absolute joy to dive hard into braking into tight corners and still have grip to spare. With the staggered setup, braking from 100+ mph was always a bit interesting and I never found it to be completely consistent. And more importantly it was never consistently stable, especially when braking on somewhat uneven surfaces. One of my favorite things is how deep I can brake into a corner and keep turning the car. Doing this with the staggered setup was possible but it is very easy to run out of front end grip if you leave it too late. With the square setup it is possible to do the initial hard threshold braking in a straight line later, and then bleed off the brakes even later into a corner. Because there is more general front end grip, it is possible to do this much more consistently every time. The limit for this is just so much higher.
Which brings me to the biggest improvement. The turn-in. The motherf@#king turn-in. Oh my gawd the turn-in. This had me gleefully laughing and nearly shedding tears of joy within the first 5 corners because of how much I was underestimating the amount of front end grip I had. This gives me a huge increase in confidence in the car, especially on the downhill. I was expecting a nice increase in cornering and turn-in speeds, but I didn't think it would be this dramatic. I really like that I can be a bit sloppy with the amount of slip angle and it doesn't upset the car too badly. This puts the car on entirely different level for me. It is so easy to drive blisteringly fast now and do it run after run after run. I can't wait to see what I can do with the car now on track. It just wreaks of confidence inspiring boner inducing grip.
I have so much more confidence now under braking and turn-in I really had to start re-evaluating what gear I should be using for various corners and really started rethinking how to drive the car. All in a positive way though, not once did I think to myself "hmm I'm not sure about this" it is all just massively positive. I was definitely a little worried about how the balance of the car would be impacted, but so far it seems beautifully neutral. I was very happy with the balance I ended up with on the staggered setup, but this just takes everything that was good about that and improves upon it more. I think -3.0 camber in the front will be ideal so if I end up needing to switch to the S2 to achieve that I will go ahead and do that I think. I was definitely expecting the car to be more tail happy but that isn't really the case. The biggest difference with the wider track width is the amount of steering angle needed. Generally less angle is needed to get the car to turn, and it just always rotates the way I want it too. The increase in high speed stability and decrease in high speed harshness makes it so much easier for me to push hard through the really high speed stuff.
Here are some photos from the time I spent yesterday testing out the car:
And now for the brakes. Look, I don't mean to be rude, but all the people who say the Spoon calipers are not worthwhile and don't make a difference are stupid f@#king idiots and they clearly don't drive enough and you shouldn't listen to anything they say about cars. If all you do is dick around driving the car around town you don't need better calipers, you just don't. If you do anything beyond that, and spend anytime exploring the limits of the car (the limits of the car, the S2000, not your limits of your ability) the one complaint you would have about the S2000 is the inconsistency in the front brakes. The feel of the brakes is actually quite good in the S2000 from the factory, but once you really get into it and understand what the car can do you will discover all of these little annoyances that can really start getting in the way of having fun driving the car hard. Number one being the play in the sliding caliper. I think what I experience with the OEM calipers is the entire floating portion of the caliper flopping around slightly under lateral load. Especially with well used pads. The g-force through those corners has now created a nice gap between the piston and pads, and when you brake hard after the long straight you are on the pedal will not be as consistent and there will be a slight delay before you are getting into the initial bite of the pad. Similar to when you are changing brake pads and push the piston back into the caliper further than needed and the pedal drops to the floor until the system is primed. It is either that or the pins consistently get gunked up and don't allow the caliper to properly 'float'. With the Spoon calipers this just doesn't happen. Driving the car for hours yesterday and I never once experienced the inconsistency I came to expect from the OEM single piston sliding calipers. I don't think the S2000 necessarily suffers from pad knock back like other cars that have fixed calipers due to various components flexing, I think the entire caliper just has too much free play, especially when pads are nearly finished.
The difference in pedal feel is quite noticeable as well under threshold braking, especially when getting into the ABS. There is never any vagueness as to what is going on with the brakes. The feel is good. It's real good. There isn't really anything I can complain about. Brakes still feel great under normal driving conditions, and remain totally consistent when pushing hard. The only thing you have to think about is the amount of heat in the pads, nothing more. I feel that I generally use less pedal travel to get the same amount of braking, which is probably due to both the calipers and increased front contact patch. I f@#king love these calipers. Highly recommended.
I got some pretty good video from yesterday as well I will get posted up for anyone that wants to check that out. Anyone in the bay area that would like to go for a ride in my car I would be happy to oblige.
