on my way to the club this time (seems like i party alot doesnt it?) and i pass a black s2k. black rims, somewhat ricey wing, aftermarket exhaust, but nice nonetheless. its about 11 or so and we're rolling down parmer towards mopac. i pace him for a sec and then i see he isnt game and i go on. light coming up ahead and it catches both of us. i look over and he looks over........is it on? nope he takes off normally and so do i. catch another light. he looks over again and rolls down his window. we chat about my car and his. so im thinking, "he'll do it this time". nada. i take off slowly and he is ahead. he slows at about 50 and i get beside him. i can hear him rev, so i drop to 3rd. get beside him and he hammers it, and so do i. i completely walk him, but as i get about a car on him, i hear him downshift. "ok he picked the wrong gear", so i slow. he gets beside and i honk 3 times. we go at about 50 or 60, and the same thing happens. he goes and then it sounds like he downshifts. now i know about v-techs, but this was def a downshift. so i walk him again.
we get to another light, and i ask him if he is in the wrong gear. he says that he shouldve downshifted sooner. obviously, he just got the car and is getting familiar with it. so i wont count those. but i will count this one. we take off from the light and he slams it at about 20. im in second and floor it too, pull about a car on him, and shift to 3rd. slip, grab, and pull another few cars. shut it down right as i get into 4th. he's about 5 or 6 cars back. cool guy but i wish he had been more experienced with his car. that could have been some serious fun. or maybe the G is just faster.....

Doc

 

uh huh, i wish u lived in NY

 

The one time I had the pleasure to drive an S2K I realized how truly difficult it is to drive a honda well. It made a sunfire amount of power until 6-7K when it got crazy. It would definately take a lot of wheel time for someone to get used to the car. Good runs though.

 

yea the power in the s2k is not there until 6,200 rpms. The whole thing about that car is not letting it ever go under that and thats including the take off. If people are familar with s2000's they would know in order to pull off a 2.1-2.0 60 foot you need to dump or feather your clutch from 6k-7.5k rpms. Wheel spin is minimal but it just must be done right. My first time out with my car i ran a best of 14.4 with a 2.3 60 ft, another month with my car 13.9@101 with a 2.1 60 ft. You really cant just get in it and drive it well, thats why some people think the s2000 really is slower than it is, people just dont push it the way it could be pushed...

 

i bet you do trust me i have a lot of respect for the car. i rode in chris s' s2k and was very surprised at the power when the vtech kicked in(not to mention the incredible handling). as i stated earlier, i wish the guy had been a better driver or more familiar with the car. but he was young and im sure will get better. im sure i ll see him later after he gets his headers etc.......


Doc

 

I walk my buddies 2001 S2K on a regular basis...roll...stop...whatever. And he's the one who taught me how to drive stick. From a stop he does much better, he hangs with me through first and a little bit of second before I start pulling out on him. From a roll, I walk him right away, no matter what the speed.

 

how bad do you beat him though? Mine and your 1/4 mile times are very similar you having an even better 60 ft too which means i would gain a little back in the 1/4 on you, i roll through the 1/4 at 7k in 4th too with my sweeat spot 7-9k left to go. A lot of peoples s2000s might really be slower than mine i dont know, honda does make some freaks. Before i got my s2k i had a turbo ls integra and i had the pleasure of racing a 350z and i was neck and neck with it to about 70 where it seemed to die out a little up top and i pulled a car or two. When ever i raced s2000s it seemed they would pull a little on me up top where i would leave them down low. When i say pull i mean they would start inching back on me, never really passing me. My integra had a gsr tranny on the ls engine so my top speed on that thing wasnt that high so i never went too crazy, but are there any of you on this board from Long Island, i wanna race a 350 in no way am i hating on it, i just dont know the potential of the car, i drove one, i was going to get one, but my s2k used was only 25k with the convertible, the cloth 350 i was gonna get was 28.6k. Anyone from Long Island up for a little race??? later

 

You can't compare 1/4 mile and Trap speeds from 2 different tracks and on different days. Conditions will never be the same. I've driven an S2000 and now my 350z. They are similar but the 350z has more usable power. You have to drive the hell out of the S2000 to get the same results. The 350z has tq so you can shift a little off and still pull an ok run out of it.

 

Hey DrRick-

How do you shift man? Seems like I've read a few of your race stories and your always chirping and losing traction on the 2-3 shift.

I haven't chirped once on 2-3 shift. Do you shift with your foot on the gas?

Help me out-

 

i dont have the heart to power-shift this car, for fear of banging the rev limiter. i just shift as fast a possible at or near redline. the 1st time i ever got seriously down on the car, i was shocked as hell that 3rd made noise. but it does it pretty consistently, prolly nine times out of ten. what really shocks me about the car is that if i floor it at about 10 mph or so, the back end will step out and the slip light will come on. now maybe that is normal on the Z, but def impressed me.......

Doc

 

thanks, guess I just need to shift faster

 

I probably put 3-4 lenghs on him from 20-100.

As for comparing my time to yours. Not really comparable. I was at a REALLY slow track. Every car there was consistantly running about 2-3 tenths and 2-3mph SLOWER than usual. (and it wasn't because of 60' times..track was nice and sticky) Stock 99+ stang GT 5-speeds were trapping 94-95mph, a bone stock LS1 6-speed ran 13.6@103. My buddies Maxima that had a previously been running 13.6-13.7@100-101mph on slicks ran a best of 13.9@97.9 even though he had a personal best short time.

A quicker track and better conditions would probably net me something in the range of 13.6-13.7@103-104mph.

BTW- about the "dying" after 70mph...definitely not in the Z...My best gears are 3rd and 4th. If I don't pull a car down low...once I get well into 3rd and into 4th I usually walk them.

 

Very poor low end torque for the s2000. They must be slugs on a roll.. I raced a modded wrx I beat it easy on a roll. Off the line was a different story. I heard him revvvvv it! Before the launch.

 

don't worry about the rev limiter. I went and test drove a Z (haven't bought yet, saving up down payment). I drive a 99 mustang gt normally.

the revs climbed much quicker than I'm used to. so much so in fact, that I hit the redline before I even realized it. here's the cool part. I resolutely held the throttle to the floor & spent a half second or so to figure out what the h311 was going on.

the tach needle hit redline and the shift light came on. then the tach smoothly went down about 300 rpm below the redline and stayed there. remember I'm holding the throttle all the way down this whole time.

then I remembered the throttle is drive by wire, completely controlled by the computer. so the computer just backed off the revs a bit and held them there. it was all unbelievably smooth.

once I realize what happened, I did my normal fast shift into second and floored it again. it was cool that it chirped second when I felt like I had been coasting for a while.


I'd guess as long as you don't grab 1st when trying for 3rd or something like that you should be fine

 

this is really good news for the person that buys that car you drove . oh and try shifting from 6th to 2nd at 70...........pucker factor of 9.5


Doc

 

Ok, mrS2k...you want to run a Z tough guy?

Where in LI do you live?

 

i live right near port jefferson and ill pretty much do this whenever....

 

I'm in this too!

 

JonSilv where are you from? Ill be glad to make a few runs...

 

I raced a slightly modded one too, it was a good race, I didn't think the S2k could keep up, but he actually got me 1 out the 4 times, but I missed 4th gear (don't know how, but I have done it more then once). All for all, I think the Z has a better edge, but the s2k w/ a slight advantage will give you a run for you money