Front Camber: -3.3
Front Caster: 6.5 degrees
Front Toe: 0
Rear Camber: -3.0
Rear Toe: 1/8" Total
It turns out that the J's S2 has just enough offset to give me the -3.3 camber, but not enough to give me the caster that I want. Also, since the top washer of the SPC camber joint was rotated 90-degrees, it was fixed in place and gave me a large amount of extra negative camber. We couldn't get any less negative than -3.15 degrees. So my final alignment specs were:
Front Camber: -3.3
Front Caster: 5.2 degrees
Front Toe: 0
Rear Camber: -3.15
Rear Toe: 1/8" Total
Even driving home, I was able to appreciate what a huge impact caster has on the steering feel. I remember when I first drove an S2000 and commenting on how numb the steering felt compared to my 2000 Honda Prelude. When I realigned my S2000 with 6.45 degrees of caster, the steering felt much better. Now, at 5.2 degrees, I was back to that bland, numb steering. I figured, at least what I lose in steering feedback I gain in ultimate grip. Turns out I was wrong...
Before I left Evasive, I also picked up a Greddy Oil Catch Can since I was getting huge blow-by at Lost Hill at Buttonwillow and the Bowl at Streets of Willow. All told, I spent about $350 for the J's S2, $100 for the Catch Can, $250 for the labor. So while JDM goodies make me feel warm and fuzzy inside, it also makes my wallet significantly lighter. So light that I was forced to roll the dice on my tires that had long ago become full slicks. I also forced Kragen to resurface my rotors that had heat cracks in them because I didn't want to pay for new rotors. Turns out I was also wrong...
A record 28 S2000's showed up for the Challenge!My first session out, I took it real easy because I wanted to bed in the pads on the freshly resurfaced rotors. I didn't really push the car much, but I knew the handling had changed and I'd have to relearn the car again. My second session out, I took Ben (a new S2KC competitor) out with me to show him the lines. This is when I started to explore the limits of the S2000.
New alignment specs make the car very, very looseIt turns out that the new alignment specs finally made the fronts grip like they're supposed to, and the car had insane turn-in. Unfortunately, mid-corner and corner-exit balance was much more toward oversteer than I was used to, so I spent almost half a session sliding all over the place. When I pit in mid-session to check out the car, Ben promptly took that opportunity to get the hell out of this quirky-handling car. After a couple more laps, I got much more used to the handling balance and clocked in a respectable time of 2:05.949, which was a full second faster than I had ever done before, on tires that were nearing death. Except I forgot to put in my CF card in the G2X unit, so I didn't get any data on that lap. Doh!
My third session, I started to feel the grip of the rear tires really take a dive. I did a huge drift through Riverside at 90+mph, so after a cool-down lap, I pitted in early to take a look at the tires.
Such a fine line between grip and no grip...After I took a look at those tires, my heart sank. I knew I should have gotten new tires before this event! That's what I get for trying to budget expenses. I figured this was the end of my day, and that I wouldn't be able to compete in the S2000 Challenge Time Attack. I was moping around, until Si mentioned that he saw a pair of 255/40R17 NT01s lying around that probably belonged to Aaron Bitterman. It turns out Aaron gets those NT01s for advertising Nitto tires at each SpeedVentures event (obviously it worked on me). Magnanimously, he agreed to let me borrow these tires for the day. I skipped (figuratively--these tires are heavy after all) to the tire shop to have the rear tires mounted.
Buttonwillow Tire Shop to the Rescue! At this point, two of my friends Javi and Shawn showed up. They're both S2000 fans and needed a bit of convincing to finally go out and buy an S2000 and take it to the track where it belongs. In my fourth session, I took Javi and Shawn out as passenger but found that something had changed. The alignment was off and now that I had new rear tires and bald front tires, the car was an understeer pig. It literally blew my mind what a difference there is between old and new NT01s. (There is truth to the statement that old NT01s are like good street tires.) The car understeered so heavily, I had to frequently lift off the throttle to get the car to turn, losing so much speed. Despite having more grip in the rear, I was now so much slower because the balance just wasn't there.
After my fourth session, I decided to crank the wing angle all the way up. That way I could minimize the downforce in the rear, and the car would rotate better. I set it at +1.5 degrees (that is, front of the wing higher than the rear of the wing), but on a surface that made the car roll forward, so I'd say it was closer to +5 or more. I took it out as is during my fifth and final session before the time attack. This should do the trick, and I should be able to go faster. Turns out I was wrong...
Actually, the effect of the rear wing doesn't really make much of a difference in the slower corners like Cotton Corners, Grape Vine and Sunset, where I was understeering the most. It definitely did help a little, to the point where I was able to manage the understeer by trail braking or using abrupt steering inputs to upset the car. At the same time, reducing the rear wing angle made the car really floaty at high speeds such as Riverside. So I had low-speed understeer and high-speed oversteer, which is actually the reverse of what I prefer. (I like to set up the car for slight oversteer then get the wing to balance it out.) The best I could do that session was a 2:08, 3 whole seconds off my pace earlier when all four tires were dying. I was out of ideas, so I left it as is for the Time Attack.
William in an AP2 with nearly the same setup as mine (225/255 NT01, Front Aero, Rear Wing) had been running low 2:05's all day. I figured he had won this time. Either way, I would give it my best shot. I suppose it was the pressure of Time Attack, but magically I was able to produce a 2:06.5 during my second lap. It was good enough to beat William, but not enough to beat Emilio (who drove William's car to a stunning 2:04.5--with a mis-shift that cost him 0.6s) and a new competitor, Eddie, whom I'd never heard of until the Time Attack (who drove a 2:05.7). As Emilio is a sponsor and isn't allowed to collect prizes, Eddie took both the 1st place prize for Street Class (a free alignment from West End) as well as the prize for PAX (a vacuum cleaner worth $600).
At the end of the day, Fil kindly reminded me that if I had just gone and bought new tires like he said, I would probably have beaten Eddie and won the vacuum cleaner. Ironically, the value of the vacuum cleaner was almost exactly the cost of a new set of tires. Doh! That vacuum cleaner would've hit E-bay so fast!
After the race, Emilio had commented what a huge difference a bumpsteer kit makes on AP1s. After some more discussion, I decided to take the plunge on a new J's Bumpsteer Kit. I'll have to install this, and then get a new alignment (Doh!). So next time, I'll have a fresh set of NT01s, new XP12 front pads, new rotors (the front rotors finally cracked all the way through--yikes!), J's Bumpsteer Kit, and a new alignment. I really didn't like how numb the steering feels, so I think I will reduce the front camber and try to get back some caster (to at least 6 degrees). If Emilio can do a theoretical 2:03.9, I will be looking for low 2:04s. Scary to think that Emilio's own car is faster, still! One day--I'll catch up to you, Minamoto!
Things I need to do better at Buttonwillow:
- Sunset: be more aggressive with the throttle at corner exit
- Club Corner: don't lift, the car will stick (I think...)
- Left Turn into Bus-Stop: transition faster (BSK should help here)
- Riverside: turn in later, try to get as much exit speed while sticking to the right
- Left Turn into Lost Hill: don't lift, the car will stick (depends on how well I do #4)
- Sweeper: watch out for that fresh patch of pavement--it's got less grip so don't be as aggressive with the throttle on corner exit or take a wider line
- Sunset: late brake and turn in a tad later to favor exit speed
- Be more aggressive with the brakes overall (new XP12s should help here)
- Stop granny shifting! (William made fun of me for this...)
