S NI SEN

11-13-2013

Ohlins DFV! HUGE thanks to Patrick at Urge Designs for getting these to me very quickly after I decided to order. I got lucky and ordered when there were a few sets were on their way the the U.S. Patrick helped answer a ton of questions I had and made great suggestions. :thumbup:


I work for a company very well known for it's packaging, and this is pretty nice packaging.


All the parts ready for assembly. The assembly on these is extremely simple with nice clear instructions included. They came adjusted to the recommended settings out of the box, so just install the rubber boots, springs, bearing spacers and top hats. For the rears they recommend trimming the boot but I decided to just pull it down along the shock body a little further since a little extra protection from the elements can't hurt.


Assembled, with a slight change as you might have noticed. I will be running these initially with a staggered setup 225/255 and wanted to keep the spring rate balance similar front and rear as my 06 AP2 is stock. I will be running HyperCo 550lb (9.8kg) springs all around. I do plan on trying to maximize the staggered setup with the HyperCo as well as the included Ohlins 10kg/8kg springs to see which setup I like best. But the blue HyperCos are looking pretty good on the gold dampers. Then I will do the same on a square setup. My plan has always been to setup the car for the street first and see what it can do on the track second, that is why I ordered the Ohlins after picking up the SRCs as well. I couldn't resist the SRCs due to the price, but now I will have the chance to test the Ohlins on two different spring setups, and I plan to test the SRCs on 12kg springs all around as well as the included 16kg springs. So I should be having plenty of fun starting in December or January.

Here are some more shots of the beautiful Ohlins:







Ohlins/Eibach springs (100Nm & 80Nm):




The adjuster knobs are great on the DFV.


Expect a very thorough review of these once they are installed along with the Volks and some other supporting suspension bits and some actual data to compare what I was able to do on the stock suspension with 225/255 RE-11As, and what I can do with just a suspension and wheel change but using the same tire sizes. As I said, it should be a very fun year.

11-13-2013

I also got some other gold stuff! New torque wrench (CDI/Snap-on 1/2" drive) and Sunex 19mm extended socket. Should help keep my CE28Ns from getting scuffed up, at least when taking them on and off.

11-15-2013

Happy Birthday to me! (well more to my car I guess..)

Mugen Intake!



Purchased from long time s2ki-er Back-cracker and got the ASM radiator plate as part of the deal. (As well as some cool S2000 homecoming swag )



I wasn't planning on buying the intake until well after my suspension was all sorted out but this deal popped up and I couldn't resist, especially with the ASM plate. It is amazing to get see the giant box this shipped in full of packing material and then picking up the box and it weighs nothing at all. I really like the design of the Mugen intake, but even more the amount of weight it removes from the front of the car is brilliant. This will be properly hoarded away until I am close to completely done with stage II. Can't wait!

Anyway. Time to start what should be an excellent birthday weekend. Touge time tonight and track time on Sunday.

11-22-2013



New personal best! My quickest 3 laps of the day for my third time driving Thunderhill in my S2000. Great day overall with excellent weather. I had some issues with my right front caliper sticking and my steering alignment (likely related) but was still able to do a 2'07.358 and was consistently putting in 2'07 lap times throughout the day. 2'06 is definitely possible. I am guessing 2'05 would be about the max possible with staggered 225/255 tires, so it will be interesting to see what I can do with new suspension and even better alignment in the future.

Specs: All stock except..
Brake Pads: Project µ Club Racer
Brake Fluid: Project µ G-four
Brake discs: Girodisc 2-piece OEM size rotors
Chassis: Spoon Rigid Collars
Tires: Bridgestone RE-11A 225/255
Custom alignment.

also..

J's Racing axle spacers!



Just a few more parts from J's which are on the way and I will be ready to install the suspension.

11-27-2013

Last of the suspension parts have arrived! J's Racing S1 front camber joints/rca and rear rca.

11-28-2013

I picked up a Craftsman 1/2" impact wrench awhile back, and discovered that they also make a cordless air compressor that uses the same batteries. I still need to get a decent lightweight jack so it is a bit easier to do quick maintenance stuff at home if I want to. I usually go to a friends shop with a lift and full set of tools but this should be helpful at the track. I had no idea you could get a cordless compressor like this one though, should be very useful!

11-30-2013

Buttonwillow CW13

Buttonwillow was a blast! Unfortunately didn't get any video since I was just sort of feeling out the track. Great circuit even with all the crazy bumps. My very first session the rain started coming down and wow is that track unbelievably slipper when raining. I didn't get a lot of clean laps due to quite a bit of traffic but I was able to do 2'08.0s each session that was dry. Each one I was losing out somewhere different, and I was seeing 2'06s on my lap timer if I would have been able to string my best sectors together. I definitely understand why people say it is a good test of dampers though. With stock suspension many of the sequences of bumps really make the car move around in an unpredictable way. I didn't have any major incidents all day but in my final session I had a nice mis-shift out of riverside trying to shift after hitting a bump and ended up in the dirt. I knew I was going to get blasted with dust but I had to keep the car under control and got a nice blast of dirt in my eyes. I definitely look forward to really learning the circuit after getting some more laps under my belt. It was super fun though, most of my friends were able to set some nice PBs.

12-15-2013

Had an excellent today at Thunderhill Raceway! This was my 4th time there and I destroyed my last personal best and managed a 2'06.4 (2'06.415 on the transponder, 2'06.327 on my lap timer). Basically 1 second faster than my previous time at Thunderhill. I actually only made it for the 4 afternoon sessions today but the weather was perfect and the final session of the day the track was nice and cool and the car was excellent. My current set of RE-11As were well past the wear bars but time and time again they have proven that they grip until there is no rubber left. I was consistently doing 2'06's and saw 2'06.0 on my lap timer with all my quickest sectors combined. Great way to end the day for sure. :thumbup:





Like an idiot I left the little lens cap on my GoPro all day long so I don't have video of my fastest lap. I do have the data log though from my lap timer. No biggie though, I just wanted a really good benchmark for the close to stock car and now I've got one. More disappointed that I didn't catch a couple of the glorious 4 wheel drifts that went down. I will definitely be shooting for 2'03s-2'04s for part II of my cars life, which will still be on 225/255 tires. I switched to using close to 0 rear toe-in now and I think it is a good match for the staggered setup.

I was really thinking 2'08 would be a good time for my car so definitely glad I was able to make it to Thunderhill this one last time before the year ended and set a really solid benchmark. Mark II/Stage II will begin soon, now hopefully I can make the car faster not slower.

1-21-2014

Upgraded my helmet with a nice Honda F1 visor sticker. I have another visor coming in as well to help deal with those tricky Thunderhill sunsets.





Purchased here (curved version for my Arai helmet): http://www.ebay.com/itm/Helmet-Visor-St ... 0764350457

2 days until Ohlins, J's Racing, and CE28N action.

01-24-2014

And so it begins...



































Just a quick glimpse. The car is so beautiful now. Sebring Silver and bronze CE28Ns is a combo I had never seen in person before and it is by far my favorite. This post is more about how the car looks, rather than how it behaves. Needless to say I went out and gave it a good shakedown. Nothing better then getting a far more comfortable ride in normal use, then going out for a more serious drive and realizing that I can now start entering corners significantly faster. Huge thanks to BlackTrax for the great work on the install. 2014 is going to be a very fun year.



Welcome to Stage II.

01-24-2014

Thunderhill low setting sun spec Arai Iridium visor! Ready for battle. This is the Iridium Silver version. Has a great mirror finish and a nice tint to it that should help nicely for those final sessions when the sun blinds you on entry to a completely blind corner.

01-25-2014

Ohlins DFV / Stage II Driving Impressions (Street/Touge):



Summary:

Initial impression

After I picked up the car from the shop I took it out for a quick testing session and was immediately pleased with the results. A stock S2000 has very little roll compared to most cars but there is still that small amount that requires the driver to compensate for the slight delay that can occur between inputs. On the new setup I noticed I was turning in a bit too early since I was used to compensating for the roll. In fact I noticed that most of my inputs were a bit too early now. My habits changed very quickly though and after a few runs I was turning in later and later and the car reacted beautifully. Even better, all of my other inputs were slowly adjusting. With less dive I was now braking later than ever before. With increased overall grip I was getting to full throttle earlier and taking corners flat I never could before. And with the improved damping all of these inputs are always right in sync with what the car is actually doing at the time. These are the types of differences I was expecting but I was pretty shocked at just how big of a difference it has made.

Ohlins DFV impressions

The Ohlins DFV are at their recommended ride height (25mm lower than stock, 330 ride height from wheel center to fender F and R) and were setup at 11 clicks from full stiff F and R (I meant to use 10 per the Ohlins recommended setup but realized later I had miscounted). This was an extremely compliant setup and I immediately noticed how much more compliant the car was compared to the stock suspension, even though the springs are significantly stiffer and the ride height is lower. In some of the more technical sections with a bunch of linked up tight and narrow corners I felt the damping was a bit too soft. Keep in mind this was when I was really tossing the car back and forth and it was reacting over roads that camber back and forth. Whenever making a drastic change of direction the car felt like it wasn't quite in sync front to rear. Not terrible but noticeable. Still great to drive and massive improvement over stock but I knew I wanted to try them a bit stiffer. I felt already that the spring rate was perfect for the type of roads I like to drive. In no way is it too stiff to enjoy the really tight, twisty, bumpy, and narrow roads I often like to drive. If anything the car just handles them much better than stock, even with the lower ride height. Even when getting the car slightly airborne I am reconnected to the road in a way that is just dramatically more staple. A high speed corner with a pretty harsh dip right in the middle that I always had to do a little lift for I can now take flat and the car stays completely composed. I can't wait to test them out on Bumpy Ass Buttonwillow.


(The measurements in these setup sheets are adjusted from the recommended Ohlins ride height settings to account for my J's roll center adjusters)

The next morning I set the dampers to 8 clicks from full stiff (F and R). I wanted to try 2 clicks stiffer than the recommended setup and as I was adjusting I realized they were actually set to 11 not 10, so this was technically 3 clicks stiffer than the setup I drove and felt it was a tiny bit to soft (which was 1 click softer than what Ohlins recommends). I drove my usual route to work (the same route I had tested them set to 11 clicks) and I honestly didn't feel that the ride was any more harsh. There is a section of freeway that I have to drive over that is very wavy and the car feels dramatically better than stock over this wavy section. I also drive over a few railroad tracks on my way to work. After installing the Spoon Rigid collars there was a noticeable improvement in how the car reacted but this time driving over them I actually started laughing at how much better it is. The only indication of going over railroad tracks that I really sense from the car is the vibration through the tires and the sound. I found myself swerving at bumps in the road just so I could enjoy how compliant the car is.

Later that evening I went on my usual route up into the mountains to give the car a thorough shakedown with the adjustments to the dampers. This was a much more thorough test and I was driving with a person that I frequent the mountains with. With the dampers now adjusted it took me about 4-5 corners to realize just how much more potential the car now has. INCREDIBLE. As I started to get a feel for it, I started turning in later and later and with more speed. It was then I started to realize just how different this setup really is. The car is an absolute turn-in monster now. I specifically was testing on some very tight corners where the stock car would exhibit a bit of understeer. I purposely tried entering these corners too hot and not once could I get it to understeer. It just turn turn turns. Many times I was telling the car out loud how much I love it after each corner, hahaha. Of course there is a limit to what the tires can do, but now when that limit is reached the car just goes into a 4 wheel slide in an incredibly smooth way. I have complete control of the rear end with the throttle now that just wasn't quite there with the stock suspension. It's almost magical the way this car turns in now. I gave a good friend of mine a ride along (who I consider to be a much better driver than I am) who drives a highly tuned Audi S4 touge monster with Ohlins 2-way dampers that blew me away when I went for a ride and drove it. He has driven my car as it was stock and gone for a ride along with me driving on the same roads. This is the first time (since my rental car bandit days ) that I have properly scared him in a car. It took him many runs to adjust to how far I could brake into corners before turning in. We were entering corners at speeds that would cause his AWD monster to start understeering and my car was now eating up. He just started laughing as we did more runs and I just kept entering corners faster and faster. His impressions were the exact same as mine. Complete control of the rear end of the car with the throttle now and the turn-in is something his car can just not hang with. His car should definitely be able to exit corners much quicker and leave me in the dust on straights but he couldn't stop talking about how amazing it is under turn-in.

The new improved alignment plays a very large role in making the car the turn-in monster it has become I think. One whole degree more of negative camber than my last setup and -0.2 offset from the rear. (-2.6 F -2.4 R, 6.0 Caster, 1/16th total rear toe-in). As mentioned the car is 25mm lower than it was stock (at 330mm wheel center to fender) F and R. It also has a slightly wider track F and R with the CE28N's compared to the stock wheels. All of this combined with the excellent Ohlins dampers and I have a setup I really couldn't be happier with and was able to get comfortable with almost immediately. I was really afraid that I might get slower trying to relearn the car but it is just dramatically quicker. I can't wait to get to the track to see just how much faster! I was getting some very minor rubbing on the middle fender liner tabs when the car was under really heavy load through some low speed corners but this should be a pretty simple fix that I will get taken care of before hitting the track in February. The type of roads I drive in the mountains aren't really so different from the track, but I will definitely be posting up with my track impressions as well.

Driving back home I couldn't stop thinking about how the car felt entering a corner. When a car understeers I am always sort of taken out of that world where I have become "one with the car". When a car has snappy behavior when going into oversteer I feel like I am fighting with it a bit. Now this car just feels like it wants to do exactly what I want it to do and is actually begging me to drive it faster. What more could I ask for? :thumb up:

Again I would like to say thank you to Patrick at Urge Designs for the Ohlins, Anish at Speed Freaks for getting me the camber joints, and Jei and everyone else at BlackTrax for the great work on the install.

Same angle as before testing out some light painting methods.

Thunder Thunder Thunder Hill!





Had too much fun driving and forgot to take some photos until the end of the day. Fantastic day overall testing out the new suspension setup. Great weather and I decided to run with the advanced group which flows much much better than what I was used to. Lot's of street S2000s mixing it up with packs of E30 BMW spec race cars, the little bastards.



Stuck on 2'06s and had 2'05 in my grasp multiple times but let it slip. I was setting personal best sectors all day long throughout the entire track but couldn't string them together nicely. Just how it goes sometimes. The increased performance of the car was very apparent and the sector times show that. The car was noticeably quicker just a few corners in. A 2'04 lap will definitely be the new long term goal on this setup. Thunderhill is much less frantic and more flowing than the mountains, so it was great at showcasing how much better the car now is at transitioning into different states of oversteer through longer steady state corners. Everything is so much more linear and controllable, but at the same time it all happens more quickly and in a more direct way, which is brilliant. I think the best way I can describe it is comparing my driving inputs to how the car reacts. Everything is nicely tightened up and now a small input has a greater range of effect and the curve across that range is becoming more and more linear. The car brakes, turns-in, settles, and exits much more effectively. It was great following the other S2000 guys with more elaborate track setups, running 1:59-2:03 range. There are advantages everywhere really running a square setup but something I was discussing with a friend is just how much of an improvement there is on corner exit. More front grip doesn't just give you the obvious things you would expect, it heavily dictates how the rest of the car will behave throughout the entire corner. I have some great drivers to compare myself and my car to so it should be great trying to find out just how close I can get to them on 225/255.



These are all award winning S2000s.

Thanks to Bill Wang I was able to get some raw shots of me driving at Thunderhill and work them up a bit better.







Can you spot the improvements? If not you have no future in photography. :p Thanks again Bill!



My second session of the day I ended up getting sort of stuck behind some BMW Spec E30 race cars but had a blast chasing them down and making some passes. Also was able to find a video from another S2000 driver who got some great footage from behind. The pace was down quite a bit but definitely some fun driving!

02-22-2014

Updated my maintenance spreadsheet design and added weight savings section. Hopefully this space sees some additions soon.



Also pulled a nice all nighter in the mountains until about 6am last night. Practicing a tricky corner trying to find the ideal line and brake release point with my friend. A well tuned S2000 in full song and grip mode is more fun to watch through a corner than some 240s doing slow speed drifts.

02-22-2014

Got some Rays hub rings and CE28N replacement decals. I prefer the wheels without the "Volk Racing" decals on the spokes, which I removed, but i figured I will destroy the CE28 decals at some point in the future.



I was looking for a nice bag to carry tools in and also a little seat for track days, and I found this instead..



I can carry almost all the tools and parts I like to take to the track with me in this and I can also sit on it.