I was approached by a friend whose coworker claims his 2002 S2000 can "easily" beat my Z in a drag race. He claims his car is entirely stock and that he has walked a bunch of Z's in pick up races. Now, I've driven S2000's and although they're fun, I think it's a far cry to say that it can walk away from my Z. I have headers, intake, and pulley and (by the end of next week) a technosquare ECU reflash. He says he will gladly lay $1000 down on this race. Pretty confident for a stock S2000, wouldn't you say?
I should note that this race WILL be held on a track.
I've already expressed my willingness to take his money, so now it's just a matter of setting up the date and time. I will be checking over his car to make sure he is telling the truth and not running spray, but should I be concerned? Is he just a cocky f@ck or is the 2000 really that much of a threat?

 

Whatever happened to racing for fun... for the sake of racing? I wouldn't think you'd have any problem, but if he is willing to put $1000 down I do not believe his car is stock.

 

Camel is right, for that amount of money ... he most definitely has some type of internal mods not recognizable at an engines glance! Stock for stock the Z would edge out the s

 

He's stock so race him and beat him down like the filthy Honduh trash talker he is.

 

Well, if this guy has lots of drag racing experience and you are a so-so driver he could take you. I would imagine he either has some mods or he is a REALLY good drag racer to bet a grand on a race. Then again, maybe the Zs he went up against were horrible drivers and he's just cocky. Good luck man, show that honda what Zs are made of !

 

psssh $1000?? Race for pink slips!

 

Hopefully you have some drag experience. If S2000 is truely stock (which I doubt, but possible) you should be favored to win.

 

You are doing the 1/4 mile, and not the 1/8 mile, right? In the 1/4 you will win. However, the 1/8 mile will be really close with possibly the S2K having the edge.

If both of you are stock and have equal drag racing experience, then you should be able to take him. I have seen many races of Z vs. S2K and as long as the S2K is launched properly, it will have the lead all the way up to about 70, and then the Z start pulling and passes him. In some videos that I saw, the S2K had the lead all the way up to 90mph. The reason for the S2K getting the lead early on is because it weighs far less then the Z (or so I have been told, I however, am not sure on the exact weight of the S2K).

Now about him being stock or modded, I have heard from many people that NA mods give far less gains to the S2K then to the Z. I have even heard that an exhaust only adds about 5rwhp on a S2K (once again, not sure how true that is). You already have headers and pullies, which is a great mod for the Z, so that should help you out in case he is lightly modded. I suggest get the TS reflash and maybe another bang-for-the-buck mod (may be a B&M short shifter) and you should not have any problems with him. However, I suggest you check his car closely, because more then likely he might be spraying because he's putting that much money on the line, or he just beat a couple bad drivers in a Z and is now cocky.

Another thing, may be you should ask a mod to move this thread to the Racing section, I'm sure there are a lot more people there (that don't read this section that much) that have more experience of racing an S2K.

Anyways, good luck with the race!




Jaki

 

Those S2k are hard to launch. You have to rev it to 8k rpm to get the max acceleration out of the hole. I would put my $ on the Z if both were stock. Highway roll the Z would pull away with no problem. Raced a stock s2k from a highway roll,I beat it by a couple of cars when I was stock.

 

The S2000 is a sleeper just race him for fun, no money involved. Good luck!!!

 

If he's putting down that kind of loot his S2K is probably not stock. He probably has mods that you can't see by just popping the hood like Hondata, LW flywheel, lower final drive, etc.

 

man, if hes moddified to hell, visit crawford or APS and ripp him a new one. But i raced a S2k and it was ll me after 3rd so,......TQ has a major roll in that

 

i have a solution. why dont you just install spray just in case?

 

I think i can answer this question the best since I owned an 03 S2000 until 2 weeks ago. I had CAI, and exhaust for engine mods but I also had 18 inch volks which i am sure slowed me down.
When I raced my friends stock autoamtic Z, I beat him every time, standing or rolling start, now I dont know what the results would be if he had a manual transmission, however I was very used to my car, knew where to launch , I knew where my max tire grip, acceleration and shift points where. He didint since he bought it like a week before the race. We tried with traction on and off and no difference he always lost. Race was pretty mcuh even until we hit 4th gear where S2000's shine, high revving second cam mixed higher gear ratios found on 00-03 S2000 can make that car accelrate between 80-120 pretty fast.
One more thing, if his S2000 doesnt have FI or shitloads of internal mods, that means he doenst have much power over stock. S2000 dont gain much from hondata, headers, intakes, exhaust, the 2.0 4 banger is maxed I mean MAXED out at 240 hp, mine was around 250 probably with intake and exhaust. Also consider the car weighs 2750 pounds vs Z's 3300 weight.

Stock to stock I ll put my money on the Z, becuase of the torque, but thats me driving both cars. Launching and not missing shifts is the most important things in drag racing, belive it or not I beat my friend driving a Z06 on Palmdale track with my S2000. He was a horrible driver, burned tires for about 3 seconds before he moved an inch, misshifted in to third and lost.
So consider all this, however by beeing around imports and racing scene for so long I must say I have seen many people say ill put a $1000 for this that, but then ofcourse not do it when you challegnd them.

 

If your both stock it will come down to the driver, with the Z having an advantage at 100+. If you think he can drive better run him further than a 1/4 mile. Here is a vid of my Z with bolt-ons vs my friends S2K with a single N1 exhaust-the passenger filming "only" weighs 150 lbs, notice the difference he makes.

Enjoy---> http://www.we-todd-did-racing.com/we...ZmQzMXk1NDE%3D

 

Well, I've run Moroso numerous times ince '97 and Desoto also, so I have considerable track time under my belt, albeit not too many runs in the Z. I think the venue he chose has an 1/8 mile strip, not 1/4 mile, so that may play a factor.
As far as pink slips, that was my offer but he refused.
Just today I heard that he had recently put a new engine in because he blew the original one. Also heard that he was spraying at one time or another. Oh well, I guess we'll see.

 

Sorry if this is a dumb question but what is a pink slip?

 

Title to the car... you lose the race... you lose your car.

I think the titles used to be pink slips of paper... hence the term.

 

thanks for the info. I would never do that kind of bet.

 

Raced an s2000. About 3rd gear pulled ahead. we raced from a dead start, and stayed with him all the way to 3rd then started to say byebye.