bky

Buy a Miata first. Learn to drive it well. Then get an S2000.

dagle

iTrader: (1)

I would have said that a couple of years ago, but at the price of S2k's now, I'd say just get the s2k and prepare for a 2nd one . Seriously, S2k's especially AP1's are worthless now.

R Legend

This makes no sense. You simply can't push cars to their limits safely on the streets. If your worried about spinning out in the RWD the S2000 is the wrong car for you. I learned more in 1 HPDE in my ITR then I have in years of driving on the street.

HdeucedeuceA

I'm not worried about spinning out. I'm worried that if I do spin out, I'll hit something. I've had no issues with "snap oversteer" though. I've felt the rear start to loose grip a couple times and I just kept the throttle right were it was at, untill corner exit. I really need to go to a driving school though, I'd imagine that I'd learn ALOT.

JDogg

I have an 01 with completly stock suspension and alignment with 225 tires all the way around. I seriously had to drive like a retard to get the *** end to do more than just wiggle a little bit.

in the rain with bald tires was a little scary, but with good tires i could easily push the car as fast as was safe on the street and never even get the slightest bit loose.

IMHO, you have to be a moron to loose an s2000 on dry pavement and not be doing something totally stupid on the street.

my old 240 was WAY more tail happy

HondaKyle

240 is a little easier to control when its tail happy. A stock S2000 is a lot harder to get tail happy though.

maximredriver

My AP2 is extremely controllable so long as you respect the power the car can produce, especially during slick conditions. I drive it every day summer and winter, even when there is 2 to 3 inches of snow on the road. Just be cautious and keep the revs down around 3K to 3.5K and you'll be fine.

GT35R_EF

i live in the wet/damp/rainy area and drive it yearround, it all comes down to the driver

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Everyone on the internet seems to think that the S2000 has a mind of it's own. Everyone seems to forget who's behind the wheel. The driver's inputs and decisions ultimately reflect the car's trajectory.

The one thing to remember when you're coming from a FWD car is that you really shouldn't go into the corner REAL hot and expect to be able to lift midcorner when you realize "oh ****...I shouldn't have been turning this fast". I watch my friend do this in his Civic all the time. Bad idea in the S2000.

Also, the S2000's limits are high. People who breach them usually are going at some breakneck speed to begin with...or are going too fast for conditions. So the accident ends up being pretty bad. Their fault. Not the car's.

Everyone also seems to bitch about the expense of going to a track. It's really not that much money. Plus it's a ton of fun and you learn more at one track event than you do over years of back road hard driving.

I used to just drive hard on back roads before I went to the track. I never pushed the car NEAR as hard on the street as I'm able to on the track. Plus, I've learned the finer points of car control.

CivicSi95

only 2 reasons why the car will spin out. not in particular order

1. bad tires
2. driver error

bigmacnfries

3. it took too much acid

HdeucedeuceA

4. it had WAY to much to drink

JDogg

I disagree.. my 240 and the others i have driven were much more likely to have me pointing the other direction, plus they didnt have nearly the limit the s2k does.

If you spin an s2000 on the street (esp in the dry with good tires) you were doing something pretty retarded, it was raining or your tires suck.

CivicSi95

this can be considered "driver error"

Boots

i must be an idiot or something...in the three years of owning my AP1, ive lost control of it 0 times...i think im doing something wrong i always read how "twitchy" AP1's are and i have never experinced that...i think it's a phenominal car and ive never felt like it was a handful driving...but hell, my car doesnt even have clutch buzz so maybe i got a bad s2k

B serious

iTrader: (1)

What? Erroneous.

I had a 240SX for 6 years. I bought it bone stock. I modded it over 6 years and it ended up having a SR20, LSD, Coilovers, etc. etc. etc. The for sale post said "too much to list". So...too much to list.

Anyway, the 240SX was 100million times more forgiving than the S2000. Was the limit lower? hell yes. However, if you reach a 240s limit, you'll be going slower. I was able to get buck wild with the car at 16 - 20 years old (not very much driving experience) and still reel it back in. It's an amateur's car. It's very forgiving.

Not to say that they can't be made fast...but I regularly crush highly modded 240s at HPDEs with my close to stock S2000.

The issue with the S2000 having a high limit is that once you reach it....it's tough to get it back in line. If your argument is that a car with a higher limit is automatically less dangerous/easier to drive....consider driving a F1 car compared to a S2000.

The 240 was only easier to get tail happy because it had the torque/power to do so with the SR20DET. The rear geometry was also set up so that the car would GRACEFULLY and easily slide. You have to really work to get the S2000 sliding with the throttle. Once you do it, you're walking a fine line between donuts and sliding.

The 240s breakaway was very gradual and easy to catch. You need to kinda know that the S2000 is about to break away before it does so. Or catch it in the nanosecond that it does break away. If you wait even a blink too long, you're facing backwards and there's nothing you can do about it. That has been the case at every track that I've been to.

You just have to know how to drive it fast. The 240 can be driven relatively fast by any fool. Not that that's a bad thing.

Also, don't forget that the 240sx came with 90-100 less HP in the U.S. in stock form. So..with all that put together: no...absolutely not...the 240SX is not more likely to be pointing the other way than the S2000. Hell no. From experience.



That's cuz you have a case of the busta-ritis . No clutch buzz?!!! You jerk!! I had clutch buzz with the stock clutch...and now it's clutch panther/rocketship takeoff sound with my Exedy Hyper Single.

I've admittedly lost control of my S2000 at the track. But...everyone spins at the track unless you're putting around.

I can't really remember really LOSING it on the street, though. But that's probably because I'm not trying to re-enact fast and furious tokyo drift wherever I go.

JDogg

i'll admit my 240 sucked, stock 250k mile KA motor with LSD and d2 coilovers with stupid spring rates... soon as it started to slide there wasnt enough power to do anything so it either looped or came to a stop sideways. haha i hated that car.

I dont think my s2000 has ever done more that a wiggle on the street and it would obviously run circles around the 240 i had. There is a very nice road up by my parents lake house, i ended up backwards in the ditch on several occasions at 1/2 the speed the S could go through there on.. and id say I drive the S through there at less than 8/10th's.

so on the street, yes a higher limit is safer, street does not equal race track.

So to the OP, dont let tales of tail-happiness scare you away. Be responsible and you wont have an issue.

Animosity

lol

B serious

iTrader: (1)

So...losing control at 60mph on the same turn is SAFER than losing control at 40mph?

A higher limit is safer ANYWHERE...but only if you never reach or eclipse it. That's my point. That applies for the street or the track. If you're messing around with a car with a high limit, you get a false sense of security. Once you reach that limit, regardless of how well the car is tuned, physics is physics. A fast out of control object will hit things harder than a slow out of control object. That's honda-tech-physics.com The name of the site now should be honda-tech.edu.

You said yourself that you're going 2X the speed in your S2000 than you did with your 240. So if you hit a wet patch of leaves or something at 2X the speed, do you think the result would be a safer one? Hope not.

Also, at 8/10s, you're not really leaving much room for error on the street. If an animal jumps out in front of you or there's some other obstacle, if you're already at 8/10s, chances are you're going sailing into a ditch or guard rail. Unless your definition of 8/10s is different than mine.

I might run 8/10s at a track section that's "dangerous" like the kink at Road America (turn 11) or certain sections of Autobahn CC full course (err...athough I did crash at million dollar corner). 8/10s on the street is a bad idea.

-=Zeqs=-

iTrader: (1)

The UK has different alignment specs from the rest of the world to help compensate for the "tail-happy" handling of the car. Probably attributed to the weather and road conditions over there.

Tokyosmash!

Thanks for the free education bullwinkle

cali-boi_eg6

what is all this talk about random tail spins man...a car doesnt randomly spin out..a s2k is one of the best handling cars available in its class...if u cant handle it u shouldnt be behind the wheel..if u just randomly spin out please stay the hell away from me

HondaKyle

The car will spin out if you dont do it right. you cant do it right 100% of the time.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

lol I agree 200%, bro.

vsm_EJ6

Doesn't mean it was "random"... you said right there, "you cant do it right 100% of the time".. which means you did it wrong which leads to "driver error". Thats what this whole thread has been about..