I don't do this very often, but I'm looking for your opinions on what to do with a car.

My brother has an s2k that he's ready to mod, and is looking to spend around $2000. We were thinking forced induction at first, as that always seems to be the best bang for the buck, but with a $2000 cutoff, that'll be hard, if not impossible to do.

He hasn't really done anything to it yet, just a comptech flywheel and act 6-puck clutch. He still need to do the Comptech Diff upgrade, although his stock one has surpisingly held up to many hard launches and donuts with the act clutch. He also has another set of stock rims with v700's (245/225), so he's set on tires at least for this year.

The answer I normally give when someone asks this is tires and laps, but he's really into autocrossing, and doesn't care much to get into road racing until the car is paid off and he has some extra cash.

Suspension seems fine stock. I was thinking maybe some revalved Koni's with the stock springs might be money well spent. Brakes definitely seem okay. From what I've read, Exhaust and Intake modification is expensive for minimal gains. Since it's his street car also, he won't be doing any lightening, so I feel the weight saving of a titanium exhaust isn't going to really help him either.

Anyway, sorry for the long post, but just want to throw what we had already thought of out there. I'm think $2k isn't enough to doing anything major to this car, but was hoping someone might be able to prove me wrong about that. His main concern is more power, especially down low to eliminate first gear downshifts.

So what do you all think?

 

Seriously? Put that $2K towards the principle of the car.

 

does he care what class he's in? I would stay in A/Bstock as the S does very well there.

Since he's into autox I would think the FD upgrade would be quite beneficial. (I'm sorta new to the S platform so I'm hoping this is under 2k )

I also believe a decent GC/Koni setup could be had for under 2k.

 

I say save the money..

he has the basic essential needed already..
Clutch
Tires

There isn't really much you can do for $2,000, and the car performs very very well from the factory.

As for intakes, I woudln't change the stock airbox (it flows really well).
And I have heard that aftermarket intakes, such as AEM CAI, take away power rather than give gains.

The only intake that i have heard that gives gains for s2000's is the mugen Airbox..
but that's not gonna give too much.

There really isn't a wholelot to do with s2000's in all-motor.
Even with some setup like Amuse single exhaust, mugen airbox, and mugen header, it wouldn't give too many gains.

Just my $.02 on your $2,000 query

 

i just purchased my s2k about 3 months ago,but i had two previous itr's.

i would say that the best investment i made for the itr was the ats final drive and toda flywheel.
my itr felt stronger w/ the final drive than it did w/ my tuned toda spec b's

hence, that is going to be the first two mods to my s2k.

 

get ricks 4.57 FD gear w/ all extras
clear diffusers & side markers + oem front lip + oem rear wing
set of good coilovers w/ wheels

 

Low gears and a lightened flywheel/aftermarket pressure plate.

 

he said he already has a comptech flywheel and an act clutch.... so i would say go with a aem ems and a new FD.

 

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=657868

 

Seems the new final drive is where it's at. Definitely makes sense for suring his 2-1 shifting. And that should leave enough leftover for the Koni's also.


Thanks for the input everyone!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mr. Bagel &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Seriously? Put that $2K towards the principle of the car</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

Dont forget the front X-brace, makes a huge difference with bump steer.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mr. Bagel &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Seriously? Put that $2K towards the principle of the car.</TD></TR></TABLE>

His interest rate is like 1.something, so he'd be better off putting the $2k in a Roth IRA or something if that's really what he wanted to do

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SpeedXRacer &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Dont forget the front X-brace, makes a huge difference with bump steer.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I'd think twice before making that bold of a statement. An alignment makes the biggest difference here.

 

re: x-brace - <TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vapor &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I'd think twice before making that bold of a statement. An alignment makes the biggest difference here. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Indeed. An alignment can make a world of difference, especially if done right. an x-brace while you might think it helps bump steer, it doesn't do anything of the sort. Sure, it does stiffen up the front a bit, but you will not see any increased laptimes with one, nor will you be able to run in a stock solo II class with one. Do I run one? yup, but I just prefer the butt-feel difference with it.

 

all of these chassis braces do "stiffen" things up but to what point does the s2000 chassis need stiffening? That's arguble. Besides the point, it'll be interesting to see a few years down the road how the chassis holds up to the stresses of auto-x and tracking and whether it "loosens" up or not. Steel fatigues so it'll happen sooner or later.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vapor &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">all of these chassis braces do "stiffen" things up but to what point does the s2000 chassis need stiffening? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Ya, it doesn't seem as purposeful to put any braces or bars on the car just yet. Maybe once the suspension is tighter it'll help to put bars in certain ares to kind of fine tune it, but for now it seems other areas need more help.

 

Change the exhaust to lose some weight

 

http://forums.s2ki.com/forums/...16434

 

I would spend the money on some gears - $900... of maybe some lighter whells ~ $2000 or maybe gears and Ti exhaust or maybe toda headers and a amuse exhaust....
Beroz