50 Shades of SSM

[popza]

Hello and welcome to my journey through s2000 ownership. Mainly using this to document my tinkering with the car, as it will never be the cleanest or have an overly impressive build sheet, but hey I will enjoy it.



1999 Honda S2000 AP1

Build:

Engine & Drivetrain

- J's Racing Tsunichinoko Air Intake
- HKS Hi-Power 60mm Dual Exit Exhaust
- Berk High Flow Cat
- AP2 Retainers & Keepers
- Exedy HD Clutch
- Hardrace Diff Mounts

Suspension & Brakes

- Bilstein PSS9 Coilovers
- Spoon Rigid Collars
- Hardrace Front Offset Balljoints & RCA
- Hardrace Rear Toe Arms
- Project Mu HC800 F & R
- F: DBA T4 Slottes Rotors / R: OEM Replacement Rotors
- ATE Super Blue Racing Brake Fluid

Wheels & Tyres

- Work Emotion Kiwami F: 17x8.5+48 / R: 17x9+38
- Khumo Ecsta V720 F: 235/45/R17 / R: 245/40/R17

- Volk Racing CE28N F & R: 17x9+40
- Khumo Ecsta V720 F & R: 245/40/R17

Cosmetics

- Replica OEM AP1 Front Lip (Terrible Fitment)
- OEM Honda AP2 Tail Lights
- OEM Honda AP2 Centre Console

[popza]

Now I will try and update this in chronological order, but at the time of posting this I have had the car for around 8 months, slowly altering it and performing maintenance the previous owner neglected. First up was the standard oil change.



New OEM Filter and the standard go to oil for Australians. With it being a relatively high km early ap1 motor, 10w30 is generally known as being to thin so I went straight to 10w40, and have had good experience since.



The previous owner not only used the complete wrong, cheap branded filter but they over tightened it significantly. Kind of shocked it came off and didn't tear all the way through, but glad it could be replaced with a quality part and it left me wondering the quality of the oil in the car!



The colour of the oil that came out of the car wasn't promising, but at least it wasn't full of metal.



Apparently I didn't get a picture of it, but I also flushed the coolant. In this picture I am running distilled water and cooling system flush through the car before filling it up with Penrite blue coolant.

[andrewhake]

Love the AP1 with those headlights!

[popza]

Love the AP1 with those headlights!

On behalf of 95% of Australian S2000 owners, thankyou!

Its funny how on American posts etc the clear headlights are sought after, but the amber versions are significantly sought after by people here!

[popza]

The joys of purchasing a pre-modified car. Nothing is done correctly. The car had been lowered for longer than I would have liked with no driveshaft spacers installed. With no obvious signs of wear or the shafts being swapped around I went ahead and purchased some Hardrace 2 piece drive shaft spacers. For the price everything seemed to be of good quality, I will leave it up to you to argue about 1 vs. 2 piece. No pics of the install but driveshaft spacers are well documented so I am sure I am just rehashing facts.

[popza]

Over the Christmas break, nationwide there is a big police crackdown on the roads, and many people use this time to take there cars off the road, myself included.

Over this time I orginally planned to install Hardrace offset lower balljoints and rear toe arms. The lower ball joints for additional camber adjustment in the front and the rear toe arms provide rear bump steer correction which I told myself I needed instead of actually learning how to drive

No comments on whether these parts provided big performance upgrades as in future posts I will reveal some more mods I ended up doing at the same time.

*To be edited with a Honed Developments article on AP1 rear bump steer when the website is fixed.



It kind of annoys the OCD in me that the blue of Hardrace paint and anodising don't match, or even come close but you get what you pay for.



Forget to take a picture pre-install but this shows the significant increase in front camber. Alignment needed post installation!

[popza]

Installed at the same time as the parts in the post bellow, with the aim of trying to save myself from AP1 "snappyness" was this FSB.

The bar in question is a Cusco single FSB which popped up used (300km, no scratches on the paint or anything!) locally. I re-used the OEM endlinks, as the Whiteline adjustable ones I purchased make contact with my coilovers.

With my current F235/R245 staggered and minimal front camber alignment, I honestly find this made the car a bit boring, but after spinning on a wet off cambered corner, its staying

[popza]

The final thing I have done that will alter the handling of the car are the Spoon Rigid Collars. Pretty much can only confirm Andrew's review of the product, what a change for the better, something I would reccomend to everyone for the price!