AP2 S2000 - A love letter and long-overdue build thread

In reply to roninsoldier83 :

Thanks for the info. I looked 'em and am definitely out from the perspective of $ but I appreciate the insight. Someday! 

roninsoldier83 said:

In reply to Slippery :

How many miles/years have you been running the Kraftwerks SC? Any reliability issues? 
 

I'm mostly leaning towards the SOS SC due to their reputation for reliability and the fact that their kit seems pretty comprehensive/well engineered. 

I have about 28k miles on my SC and I believe I bought it sometime in 2008. Just keep in mind that mine is the old KW when Oscar Jackson owned it. They later went to a different setup with the SC on top, kind of like SOS.

The extra load of the SC resulted in a couple of water pump pulleys cracking and I lost a tensioner (SC tensioner, not factory). I know just change both every 10k miles or so preventatively, I have a couple of them just in case. I know the Rotrex SC have a finite life and they were not easily rebuilt, but mine is still fine at almost 30k miles and also it has been overspun. I am running a smaller pulley and about 12-13 psi at sea level, I used to spin it all the way to 8600 rpms but I later backed the redline down to 8200 rpms.  On a Dyno Dynamics in shootout mode (no compensation) it did 395 rwhp.

I drove this car to California and back from Florida, via Colorado and did not notice a huge power loss. I did have to back the timing a degree or two as I could not find 93 octane gas west of Denver. I would SC it again in heartbeat.

As for clutch, I went through a couple of different ones. The best is an ACT pressure plate with a stock Honda disc. I am also running a Toda flywheel.

Not trying to sell you on KW, but more so on a SC vs a turbo.

I believe this was just west of Denver on our way to San Francisco, mine is the silverstone one. We had just driven an S2000 with a k20 swap, this was 2010!

Regarding muffler and steering wheel, just save the headache and get a Mugen. The fit is 100% perfect and the sound is perfect.

This is what my house would look like on any regular weekend ;).

In reply to Slippery :

Thank you for the feedback and information! 

Also, beautiful silverstone! Even though I'll likely stick with my soft top, I dig the fastback and duckbill rear lip! Solid build, brother! I'm also slightly jealous of the S2000 crew in your local area lol. 

If you're ever in Colorado again, feel free to reach out- I'd love to check out the car! 

Saw your 128 listed again?

In reply to docwyte :

Yeah, probably more testing the waters. It takes no effort to re-post it. If the right buyer comes along and wants to pay me my asking price, I'll likely reinvest the money into an NC2 Miata, specifically to run the SCCA's new Club Spec MX-5 class... but I'm pretty torn about selling it. I listed I would trade for an NC2/NC3, but honestly I'll likely keep it. We'll see. 

I love the variety in this thread, and I'm excited to see more. What are your plans for next season? I know you said you were getting away from SCCA events

Paris Van Gorder said:

I love the variety in this thread, and I'm excited to see more. What are your plans for next season? I know you said you were getting away from SCCA events

Well, it depends. The S2000 will likely stay a street car and eventually get a supercharger. 
 

If I keep the 128i, I'll run a couple of local autoX and TT leagues that have rulesets that are power-to-weight ratio based. If I end up going in a different direction, I'll reassess. 
 

I would like to have a single Motorsport oriented car, that I can compete with for years to come. I'm hesitant to go back to SCCA autoX unless it's with a Spec class. I don't want to buy something, spend a ton of time, money and effort building it, only to result in class rules changing the following year and me no longer having the appropriate car to compete in. The idea of limited mods on a car in a spec class is appealing- even if there's not a ton of competition, I could at least compete for PAX. As interesting as it's been, I would like to run something I can be competitive in for years to come as I refine it and have some fun getting faster. 

So you want to auto-x or TT?  Auto-x rules change all the time and if you want to be competitive, that's a hard thing to do without having the "car of the moment".  For NASA TT it's easier, the E36 M3 I was talking about slots into multiple classes and is competitive in all of them...  Would you do a full on gutted race car with roll cage, fire system, etc?  Then have to tow it to the track?  That changes things significantly too...

docwyte said:

So you want to auto-x or TT?  Auto-x rules change all the time and if you want to be competitive, that's a hard thing to do without having the "car of the moment".  For NASA TT it's easier, the E36 M3 I was talking about slots into multiple classes and is competitive in all of them...  Would you do a full on gutted race car with roll cage, fire system, etc?  Then have to tow it to the track?  That changes things significantly too...

Both. If I keep the 128i, I won't be doing autoX with the SCCA- I'll be heading down to PPIR for their track attack series that is PWR based, just like NASA TT (although quite a bit less strict). Ironically even our own local SCCA TT switched over to a PWR system over the past year. 
 

If I switched things up with an NC, that changes things- I don't expect the SCCA to change a spec class they just created anytime soon. In that case, I would autoX with the SCCA as the same car could be used for both- although I'm curious how our local chapter will handle that with their unique ruleset- which is making me lean towards sticking with the E82.
 

I'm not sure how far I would want to take prep (gutted, cage, fire suppression)- we'll see how I feel next season, one way or another. As you can tell, nothing is really set in stone (it never really is).