mugensport9

hey guys i just saw this info and thought maybe id be helpfull to some people


Mugen recommended S2000 suspension set-up.

Spring and damper (especially undamping side) were set rather hard, the ground clearance was lowered and the carÂ’s positional changes was restricted as much as possible. As a result, when the car is sliding, the carÂ’s response to the driverÂ’s control became faster and the sensitive control also became possible. Further, with the new suspension arrangement, it is now possible to use a wider range of tires from S02 standard tire to S tire which is designed for the sports driving.

Basing on the separately listed specification chart, we recommend that a suspension set up appropriate for your particular needs be used for the improved driving.

Important points for S2000 suspension tuning.

Tire.
Selection of tire is one of the important works.

Standard S02 tire and S2000 are the perfect matching. Without doubt, the performance is also the first class quality and it gives a reliable performance for either the new tires and slightly worn tires (on dry surface). We strongly recommend S02 tire especially for the sports driving.

If you wish to use “S Tires” for the exclusive sports driving, we recommend BS540S (Fr215/45-17, Rr.235/40-17).

Balance between the front and rear ground clearances.
The carÂ’s behavior could be changed by adjusting and changing the front and rear ground clearances for a 10mm interval. It is possible to have over steer characteristic if the front end is lowered and under steer characteristic if the rear end is lowered. For S2000, the ground clearance adjustment is a very effective approach for changing or improving the handling. When tuning the springs and dampers, make sure to measure the ground clearance (in millimeter unit) of the front, rear, left and right before installing and assembling the parts. And after the installation, the ground clearance should be readjusted to the original position. Otherwise, any behavioral change which may be caused by the ground clearance change will interfere with your correct assessment of the result of tuning.

Front and rear toe alignment.
The front and rear toe alignment, along with the ground clearance adjustment, is a very effective method to change the carÂ’s handling characteristic. For an example, the standard toe-in angle of a base car is 6mm. However, if the angle were adjusted to 6mm, 8mm and 10mm, the rear end behavior will become more stable by taking foot off the accelerator as the car enters a turning corner. As a general tendency, when the toe-in is increased, it tends to become under steer and when decreased, it tends to become over steer. For those having a hard time with under steer on the mini-circuit or gymkhana, downward adjustment from 6mm to 4mm and to 2mm may be very effective.

Front and rear springs.
Spring rate of the standard car and Mugen recommendation is as follows.


Standard Car

Front
3.9kg/mm
Rear
5.2kg/mm

Mugen Recommendation

front
7kg/mm
Rear
11kg/mm

For S2000, it will be difficult to significantly change the handling characteristic by changing the spring rate only. It will be necessary to make overall adjustment with tire, ground clearance, toe angle, camber angle, etc. Even though the vertical (grounding) load of each of the 4 wheels is same, we believe that it will be necessary to install soft spring for the front and hard spring for the rear in order to neutralize the turning characteristic since the front has narrow tires and the rear has wide tires. Even when the spring rate was increased, we believe that this balance should be maintained.

Damping force of dampers.
MugenÂ’s sports type damper is tuned to be soft for very slow speed range and hard for the mid and high speed ranges. The damping force of this damper can be infinitely adjusted for a wide range by turning a needle at the top point of the piston rod. Generally, the needle should be fully tightened and turn back 2 or 3 times for the normal correct range. When entering a sharp tight corner, it will be effective to adjust the front harder and the rear softer. Conversely, when the rearÂ’s following performance is important to improve the stability during a high speed cornering, we recommend to adjust the rear harder.

Camber angle.
Try to adjust the angle for 15 degree at a time. It should be noted that the front camber must not have too much angle.

If a driver is troubled with the drift control or spin during the sports driving, we recommend to adjust the ground clearance and toe angle of the rear wheel toward a slight under steer. You will find that the car is clearly easier to control.

mugensport9

Almost forgot this


Suspension Tuning (for Racing Circuit)
Parts development for S2000’s suspension is currently being conducted for sports driving on the racing circuit. We are accumulating the knowledge about the suspension through the basic experiment on the test course and tests conducted on the actual racing circuit.

Characteristic of standard cars.

Steering response is very good.

The car requires a severe slide (drift) control by the driver.

Since the car’s response during the slide is delayed one step behind the driver’s input, it is not possible to make the sensitive control.

Since the car’s response is delayed one step behind the input from steering and accelerator, the car may ended up in zigzag running or spin unless the driver predict the car’s movement early and make responsive control accordingly.

When the slide (drift) becomes apparent, the car’s rear end may abruptly thrown out to the opposite direction and the driver may not be able to control it unless he or she is an expert driver.

Even though the ride is rather hard, the car’s positional change is significant.

Since LSD of the standard equipment is very effective, the street type radial tire has sufficient performance to run on the racing circuit.

Since this same LSD is very effective, it requires the driver to be cautious of accelerator operation on the wet surface. S02 standard tires installed on S2000 has such a characteristic that its slight under steer on the dry surface changes to over steer on the wet surface. Therefore, the driver should give a special caution to the driving on the wet surface.

jerrypeterson

Stuff like this cracks me up. What a load of hooie.

Changing spring rates on an S2000 seriously effects bias and that is the first place you should make changes when you are bolting on replacement suspension. The S2000 is simply another short wheelbase car, there isn't that much special about tweaking the suspension aside from a few gotchas not even hinted at below.

Mr. Bagel

Yes, it is quite funny. It's all very general stuff that doesn't account for a lot of factors, and is compiled in a matured Engrish kind of way.