ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America

Mikey's BB AP2 Dual Duty build

#1

Hi! I've recently gotten into the S2k scene, coming from a lightly modded 2013 FRS that I had for 4.5 years. I picked up my 06 berlina black s2k with 58,002mi on 7/19/19 after looking in my area (Norcal/bay area) for a few days. This was actually the very first one I actually looked at, it was so clean it was too good to pass up! I'm the 3rd or 4th owner iirc from the carfax and the car was completely stock (from what I could tell) without much evidence of modding from previous owners. I'll be modding the car for dual duty (99% daily, 1% track) while keeping the car 100% track capable and ready.

Current 4/11/2020
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Engine & Exhaust:
- K&N cone filter
- Greddy/GoTuning SS Spectrum Elite single exit catback (70mm)

Suspension & Brakes:
- Carbotech XP8 front pads
- Öhlins DFV dampers MI21 spec w/ 10kF 8kR springs

Wheels & Tires:
Fenders rolled flat on all 4 corners, front liner trimmed, rear bumper tab relocated & shaved.
- Desmond Regamasters (New Almighty Grey) 17x9.5 +50
- Rays Engineering Volk CE28n (Formula Silver) 17x9 +50
- Project Kics R40 lug nuts
- Bridgestone Potenza RE-71R 255/40/17

Current Fluids:
- Engine: Mobil1 extended performance 10w-30
- Transmission: OEM Honda manual transmission fluid
- Differential: Amsoil 75w-110
- Brake & Clutch: Motul RBF 600

Alignment:
Camber: -2.5 all around
Toe: 0F 1/8R out
Caster: 6.76FL 6.57FR

Interior:
- Battlecraft Hyper Teardrop shift knob 40mm
- BattlecraftHyper Teardrop shift knob 44mm
- GTA bluetooth radio kit
- Honda Access premium floor mats
- JBL door speakers
- Modifry dash phone mount and windscreen mount
- Momo volante race wheel
- Mugen racing III steering wheel (suede)
- NRG short hub
- NRG quick release (black/"cf")
- PCI sliding rail
- RAM phone mount
- Recaro RSGK silver (driver's side only)

Exterior:
- Ikon Motorsports Mugen style front lip
- OEM AP2 wing
- OEM Clear side markers
- OEM hardtop wrapped gloss black
- OSRAM cool blue intense xenon headlights
- Nokya hyper yellow halogen DRL bulbs (2500k)
- Sylvania LEDs all around (blinkers)

Misc:
- GoPro Hero 7 Black
- GoPro Hero 5 Session
- Zamp RZ-58 SA 2015 helmet

Storage:
- ASM frp duckbill
- Trackspec hood vents
- tire spats (aero project) :)

Social:
https://www.instagram.com/ap2_mikey/
Last edited by ap2_mikey on Jul 15th, 2020, 7:16 am, edited 30 times in total.

Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#2

I've already tried making this post on s2ki, but the 14 day wait period denied me and I lost the post (for now). :banghead: So i'll just make a new one. Sorry if this is a lengthy post, I'd rather have everything briefly covered before continuing on to new things.

Catch Up Maintenance and New Parts... (7/19/19-8/5/19)


Initial Impressions & Inspection
Driving this car just feels really, really good... I don't know how else to put it. Compared to my FRS on TRD lowering springs, the stock S2000 suspension feels a lot stiffer, especially when hitting imperfections in the road. Also, i'm not sure if it's my current front tires or alignment spec, but the car really likes to pull towards the repaired cracks in the road and gets upset easily by road reflectors. I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing, since technically i'm getting more road feedback...
Beautiful F22C valve cover ft. old brake fluid.
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Upon further inspection, it appears that my front tires are nearly bald on the insides. It looks like it could be camber and/or toe wear, but my fronts look like they have max -0.75 camber; nowhere near enough to wear it that badly. So I assume that my toe is out of spec, which could also be causing the car to pull towards road imperfections more? :shrug:

Pretty pictures
Just driving around, learning how beautiful the car can be. :photo:
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Spark plugs 7/26/19
This appears to be a lot easier than a spark plug job on a boxer motor. Not that I did mine, I had the dealership do it for me while they had the engine out for recall work.
I ordered NGK (7772) PFR7G-11S laser platinum plugs from amazon as replacements, which should be the direct replacement for stock.

An open OEM airbox is a neat tool tray when working in the engine bay hehe.
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Old plugs
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This seemed like it was needed, given the mileage. While I was taking these all out I also checked the gap each plug had. Here is what I measured, front to back; 1 being front most, 4 closest to the transmission:
1 .042 old, .039 new
2 .041 old, .039 new
3 .043 old, .039 new
4 .041 old, .039 new
The motor and accelerating seemed a lot smoother after replacement, especially around vtec. :vtec:

Wheels! 7/28/19
Since I would be needing new tires anyways and I had a bit of moneys from parting out my FRS, I thought it would be a perfect time to get some new wheels. I know there's a population of the S2k community that prefers driving the car in stock form for a while before modding, but I figured since I didn't have the OEM tire compound to start with, why not just take the step up?
I had a hard time looking for wheels with the right specs that I wanted. Initially I wanted to maintain the OEM stagger dimensions while stepping the width up (7.5/8F, 9R), but I couldn't find a wheel face I liked in stock anywhere or in the local preowned B/S/T groups. Eventually I gave up on the staggered setup and started looking into squared setups. A 9 width seemed to be the sweet spot for availability, price and not downgrading from the OEM 8.5 rear width, with 255/40 all around.
Eventually I stumbled on this local set of CE28n 17x9 +50 that would fit stock body with a fender roll & some functional camber. The tires were pretty beat up NT01s, which i'll be replacing with a suitable "street" tire. :)
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Formula silver will look amazing on berlina black! :heart:
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Transmission & clutch fluid 7/29/19
No pictures here unfortunately. My transmission fluid looked brand new when drained and I replaced it with Honda MT fluid. Better safe than sorry. Clutch fluid was quite visibly dirty. Replaced with Motul RBF 600, set the bottle aside for by brake fluid flush since I only ordered 1 at the time instead of 2. :banghead:

New lug nuts, tires, brake fluid, stereo discovery 8/1/19
This was an exciting day since it was my day off and all these beautiful parts decided to come in at the same time! :bow:
First up, Project Kics R40 lug nuts! These are some quality nuts compared to the Muteki SR48s I ran on my FRS. The chrome red finish got very beat up over the years, but they did the job as lug nuts. The R40s are also super light, very cool. :thumbsup:
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And my choice of tire isss... Bridgestone RE71Rs in 255/40/17 all around! A few people have told me that I am "crazy" and "wasting money" on tires I won't "use" to their maximum potential all the time and that I could have gotten 2 sets of tire "x" for the same price. However, I really wanted to raise the performance ceiling of the parts I got. I ran Hancook Ventus V12 Evo2 tires in 245/40/17 all around on my FRS. While they're great tires for daily usage, they were average at track driving and a bit sketchy on mountain driving. The sidewalls had a lot of flex to them and in some corners they would just slip out without warning. I wanted to avoid compromising on a tire, even if it meant they wouldn't last me a crazy amount of miles.
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This was the state of my brake fluid...
Occasionally when I would brake, I'd feel a sponginess to the pedal. While bleeding the fluid almost no fluid came out of the front passenger caliper, so I guess I was running old fluid AND air in my system for a bit. Keep up with maintenance people...
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Lastly for this day, when I got the car, it had an iphone and aux plug coming from the back of the radio. I pulled the stock radio and discovered this bluetooth receiver kit stuck in the back. Neat! I was debating on getting one of these or a new head unit with bluetooth, but I guess the decision was already made for me. :) I'll be keeping this and the stock radio to preserve the "old" look to the car. I have some JBL door speakers from my FRS that I could also throw in here to improve sound quality a bit without adding too much weight.
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Differential fluid replaced 8/3/19
The diff fluid I ordered (Amsoil 75w-110) took forever to reach me. It looks like it got stuck being shipped with UPS ground from across the country, but it's here now and that's all that matters.
It doesn't look like my diff fluid was ever changed, so it's good that I'm replacing it along with everything else.
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Changing the fluid really made the driving experience a lot smoother. It doesn't feel like the motor is fighting the diff to rotate the tires since the sludgy OEM fluid was replaced with fresh fluid.

90% maintenance complete! 8/5/19
Today I learned that K&N air filters are, in reality, not red at all. It's K&N oil that is red, and I find that interesting.
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And now I can say that a majority of the maintenance is complete. The exception being the engine oil & filter, which appear to be brand new, but judging from the rest of the car thus far, I should just replace it... The car runs a lot smoother than when I first got it, especially after the spark plug and differential fluid replacements. From here on out, i'll just be driving it and doing some mods here and there. I still have some work to do before fitting the wheels on properly, which i'm hoping to get done this week once a certain part(s) come in tomorrow/later (8/6) .
Last edited by ap2_mikey on Jun 16th, 2020, 1:02 pm, edited 4 times in total.

Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#3

CE28n 17x9 +50 with 255/40 RE71 - stock height test fit
After mounting the RE71s, I couldn't resist a test fit & drive. I hoped to god that I didn't load the stock suspension enough to rub the tires on the fender before I could get them rolled, but I think the fronts were plenty high. I'll save the tire impressions for when I can properly drive on them.
Some pics of how the car looks with whatever camber I have + stock height. :woot:
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Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#4

New suspension: Öhlins DFV (HOS MI21)! 8/6/19
After years of browsing different coilover options on my FRS, there was always 2 top options: KWv3 or Öhlins R&T. The KW option seems to be the better "performance" option (more track oriented), since it has independently adjustable rebound/compression knobs. However as a 99% street, 1% track car, I didn't see myself needing all that. I more or less wanted a "set and forget" type of setup or a minimal tweeking (1 knob does all) setup, like most aftermarket coilovers.
Now on the S2k platform and looking to lower my car for mainly aesthetic purposes, I opted to go straight to a full coilover setup over stock strut + lowering spring combo. Just like my wheel + tire choice, I wanted to pick something "dailyable" that would also have no problem with hard/track driving. I briefly looked into budget options, however most owners say that anything less than Öhlins or KWs would be a downgrade in the damper department. Not wanting to compromise the performance of the car, I went with the obvious best choice that fit my needs:
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Assembling the coilovers was fun! This makes me wonder if quality coilovers should come preassembled, setup to spec and ready, or if they should require assembly like Öhlins. I did have a bit of anxiety trimming the rear dust boots though. I had trimmed less than the recommended 52mm in the instructions to fit the bottom of the boot over the top section of the damper (housing?), to replicate the sealing of the exposed piston on the fronts.

When buying these, the part number was the revised HOS MI21 set, with 10kF 8kR springs. I know that a lot of people run a stiffer spring in front and swap the front to rear, but I had read that the 10k spring is too large of a difference for the HOS MI21 valving in the rear so I decided to stick with the stock springs.
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Shiny adjustment knob... :o
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Testing the adjustable dampening, 10 clicks from full soft was way too bouncy, it felt like the car was on bags or really soft springs. I found 20 to be a good sweet spot for street driving so far. Bumps in the car are firm, but not jarring. For spirited or track driving, I would like to try something around 25-30 clicks, but I still need to dial in some camber and roll my fenders.

Will get alignment... soon..
Last edited by ap2_mikey on Sep 18th, 2019, 8:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar

andrewhake
Admin
Posts: 580
Joined: Oct 2016
Location: Mt. __________
Contact: YouTube IG
United States of America
#5

Car is looking great!
o_O S2000 | Mark I Stage II...

That’s thirty minutes away. I’ll be there in ten.

Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#6

Alignment Day! 8/13/19
Finally got a chance to schedule an alignment at my local shop. After letting the coilovers settle a little bit, I wanted to get my alignment done so I can get to rolling the fenders and start driving normal again. The only suspension mod I have are the Öhlins so all my adjustments will be limited to stock numbers.
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Poke in front before:
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The before/after specs!
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I was surprised to see that my caster was already pretty much maxed out. I was going to ask the alignment tech if he could max that after maxing the camber anyways, saved him ~5 min under my car. As for the toe out up front, i'm not sure if that was from previous owner's settings as well, or if it was caused by me lowering the car...
As for the specs I went with, the reasons are pretty simple to be honest. I was looking to max camber all around to improve handling, as well as fit my "S2k spec" wheels into stock fenders with a roll. From what I've gathered on S2ki, most track spec alignments do a 0'd toe in front and 1/16 - 3/16 toe in in the rear for stability. The alignment tech wasn't able to get my car to stay at 1/16, so we went with 1/8. While my car is going to see the street/freeway a lot more than the track, I think the trade off of some tire wear for rear stability is worth it. As for the caster, again, many on S2ki say maxing it is beneficial for handling. I lightly understand the concept of caster, but not fully, so i'm just going to apply some common sense here. I like how the steering feels as is, so I left it as is. :thumbsup:

Poke in front after:
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How the car sits:
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I'm a bit worried that I wasn't able to get enough camber in the front... I'm hoping that the car gets enough camber when cornering to tuck into the fender once it's rolled. If not I may have to go with a mild pull or get a camber kit solution. Fender rolling is planned for this Saturday!

Later in the day...
After the alignment, I didn't think much about messing with the car since it was ~100 degrees outside. I completely forgot to recheck my ride height on all 4 corners before driving around, especially with a passenger in the car. While putting around town, I hit a little bump that I didn't see and...
The tires gave the fender liner a good smack :crazyeyes:
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Rears aren't even a finger gap to the rubber lining strip, rubbing a lot on the inner side of the fender...
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*These pictures are the static height btw, I have it setup for post-fender roll and have set my dampers to ~28F 23R temporarily to help prevent rubbing.
Last edited by ap2_mikey on Aug 21st, 2019, 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#7

andrewhake wrote:Car is looking great!
Thanks Andrew! Your car is a huge inspiration to me! :bow:

Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#8

Fender Roll 8/17/19
After rubbing on just about every road imperfection for about a week, I've decided to pay a visit to "therubdoctor" in the bay area. Just kidding, I was waiting for the coils to settle and the alignment before rolling.
Unfortunately I didn't get any pre- or during pictures of the rolling, but here's how they turned out. In case you didn't know, therubdoctor has been rolling fenders for a number of years (don't remember the specific number). He's rolled so many S2k fenders that it was all just muscle memory for him to do mine. He rolled the lips flat, trimmed the liner, shaved the rear bumper in the wheel well and relocated the tab. All of this was done by hand and you can't even tell unless you look up into the wheel wells.
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This leaves me with plenty of clearance and lets me turn the dampers to a much more reasonable 18 all around rather than the 28F 23R I had to run temporarily. It feels great to have full mobility of the car back and the car is officially ready for track testing, right before the end of track season.... :argh:
Great timing. I guess for now i'll just be driving and enjoying the car as a daily. The weather is still decent, so spirited driving isn't completely out of the picture just yet.

Grabbed a pic with the doctor's recently painted NSX in BMW's san marino blue. These 2 legendary Hondas look great next to each other, even though one is facing the wrong way and the other is missing it's heart. :P
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Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#9

Replacement Coolant Reserve Tank Cap 8/19/19
When doing maintenance last week, I accidentally overtightened the coolant reserve tank cap and cracked it... :banghead:
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At first I was just going to tape it up, but after reading about a few overheating incidents on S2ki that were cap related I decided it would be best to just replace it. Thankfully amazon had OEM replacement caps in stock.
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Replaced, just in time before the temps go back into the 90s. :)

Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#10

Modifry Goodies 8/21/19
Ordered a Modifry dash bracket and windscreen gopro mount. I love the dash bracket because I believe that it's placed in the most ergonomic place in the interior and blends well with the interior. For the camera mount, I was just going to throw a sticky mount on top of the glove box, but I didn't want to risk ruining it with the adhesive. Then I thought about making my own windscreen bracket out of kydex, but the piece was just too complex.
Onto the unbagging/unwrapping:
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I threw some vinyl tape onto the bottom of the windscreen bracket to "protect" the top of the glove box. Modifry recommends duct tape in the instructions, but I didn't want the duct tape to gum up from heat since I park outside in 100 degree weather sometimes.
Overall i'm impressed with the Modifry goods! They're all solid pieces and each part came with clear instructions that include pictures. Can't wait to get everything properly setup! :woot:

Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#11

Oil change & Modifry dash bracket installed 8/24/19
After further inspecting my oil filter, I've discovered that it is NOT an OEM Honda filter, but an ACDelco oil filter that is blue like an OEM filter. :argh:
Thankfully my local Honda dealer had some OEM filters in stock. I've been researching oils and oil weights to use and it seems that you can't go wrong with 0w, 5w, or 10w-30 in the car, since synthetic oils have gotten so good these days. I opted for Mobil1's Extended Performance 5w-30 oil because I used it before on my FRS and it worked well for me. I read some stories about oil burning problems using Mobil1, but some of those stories also come from owners with 100k+ AP1s, not "low mileage" AP2s. :P I'm using the Extended Performance over the regular oil because it contains additives that help reduce wear on parts and, according to some S2ki posts, its a true full synthetic compared to the regular Mobil1 oil. (not sure how true this is in 2019)
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A picture of the OEM filter diameter vs the ACDelco one. The height was the same, but the OEM is ~1/4 of an inch bigger in diameter. I'm no mechanic, but i'm sure that makes some kind of difference in performance, be it how well the oil is filtered, the oil pressures at redline, or the capacity of the filter. :shrug:

I also took the time to install the Modifry dash bracket. I don't have any pictures of the cutting I did, just the finished product.
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The bracket fit perfectly after the dash trimming and it feels solid where it's mounted. I've purchased a RAM phone mount setup from another S2k owner who used his phone as a lap timer on the track, but the eta on shipping is currently Monday. :(

Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#12

RAM phone mount installed 8/26/19
The phone mount was waiting for me at home today, ready to be installed! This is a "custom" setup using a RAM bracket with swivel ball (not sure which one), a 3in connecting arm and a ball swivel mount. This raises the phone a bit so that it is out of the way from the shifter which is ideal for the shift knob I plan on getting soon. Really happy on the quality, the mount has rubber "feet" that grip the phone and the spring is still very firm. Nothing major, but worth noting, it fits my iPhone XS Max well, but the weight of the phone and mounts combined are a bit much for the Modifry bracket and there is a slight jiggle.
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This DOES slightly ruin the clean aesthetic of a bare S2000 dash/interior, but the pros outweigh that single con for me. Since my car is my one and only daily driver, the positioning is perfect for navigation. This is also a good location for Harry's lap timer for me when on track during the bluest of moons. :P

Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#13

60,000 miles 9/12/19
Just a short update, I've been driving the car about 90mi/day commuting to school and back 5 days a week. Not the ideal environment for the S2k, but I make sure to treat the car out to some back roads everyday on the way home. :driving:
On the freeway and some roughly patched roads, the RE71s make a sort of sticky peeling noise, I've read about the tires being loud and unbearable, but I find the noise oddly satisfying. :D Though I will admit, the sidewalls are a bit stiff for poor California roads...
As of now, the Öhlins are THE best mod I've ever done between the S2k and my FRS. They are the first set of coilovers/aftermarket dampers I've owned, so having the option to play with dampening is new and very nice. I've been playing with different stiffness levels and running stiffer front/rear to get an idea of how the car will feel for when I get to test it on track. Which will hopefully be soon...

For now I'll just be racking up miles and heat cycling my tires on beautiful 100+ days. :banghead:
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Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#14

Battlecraft Hyper Teardrop shift knob 9/12/19
I had been looking at shift knob options for a while now and Battlecraft just happened to restock their Hyper Teardrop last week. I've seen these around on some civic & integra time attack builds and a few being sold on the classifieds and wanted to see what the hype was about. It seems like Battlecraft makes these in small batches in width options of 40mm/136g or 44mm/160g, this run was the 40mm/136g.

I love how mischievous their mascot looks
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I was surprised when I opened the box, the knob is actually really small/thin and almost feels like i'm going to break it. However when I put it on the car with the lock nut to clock the logo, the thing sits super high! (feels more solid too)
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Initially, shifting felt really weird. With the knob being lightweight aluminum, you feel the transmission and the gears a lot more than you would with a weighted steel knob. The shifting height also takes some getting used to, but I'm really liking it so far, it only sits ~6-9 inches from the wheel when in gear.

Overall I'm happy with it. It's such a unique option apart from usual ball or stick or ball on a stick shift knobs.

Topic Author
ap2_mikey
4000rpm
Posts: 21
Joined: Aug 2019
United States of America
#15

S2k down!!!... :( 9/24/19
I never wanted to make this post, but today I got hit in my S2k during daily duties. Physically i'm okay, but I'm really just bummed out right now since i'll be without MY car for a few weeks. I don't want to get into details at the moment, i'll just say that i'm just glad I have full coverage against non-insured drivers. I know for sure that i'll be needing a new front bumper, driver's side fender, headlight, and headlight bracket, and i'm sure my insurance and the shop I go to will take care of everything. So much for having all 10 vin numbers and an accident free status on the car... :( :( :(
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