First Autocross with the S2000 at RIR

"InfinityAero" (infinityaero) 06/17/2019 at 11:09 • Filed to: Autocross, Racing, S2000, Exige, Camaro SS, Track Day

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Snagged a couple good friends and went to Richmond Raceway for an AutoX session. I’ve owned the car for over 2 years so I was past due to start learning the limits of the car in a controlled environment. One friend brought along his Lotus Exige; the other his 5th Gen Camaro SS. Special thanks to the Camaro friend who brought his camera and took some excellent shots with a massive lens.

The autocross was setup in the infield of the racetrack — it was a pretty cool experience to stand in the middle and look up towards the stands, and later to hear the squealing tires and exhaust barks richochet around the stadium.

Soon before the start of festivities...

You’ll probably need to zoom...

We decided to attend the practice day instead of the actual competition day— that meant “unlimited” runs. Each participant would also work a shift on the track either assisting with timing/starting gate, working to route traffic through the one-way tunnel, or picking up cones on the track.

The starting queue was pretty packed for most of the day, with most people staying through a solid 4 hours of driving.

They kept the line moving pretty well... the wait ran about 10 minutes most of the day.

I’m sure the first thing you’ll notice from that shot is the giant-looking X3 M4.0. That was fun to watch over the course of the day; definitely quick in a straight line and it looked like it was pretty composed and flat through most of the course. Not your Grandma’s station wagon...

There was a pretty good selection of cars otherwise; an Exocet kit car, M3s from three different generations, about a half-dozen Miatas, the E30 there with a built suspension along with a couple race-specced E36s, a Integra GSR, a couple RX8s, at least one Corvette, the last three generations of Z-cars were represented, along with a Maserati getting out of its comfort zone and a couple Golfs, one R and another GTI, and last but not least a plucky little stock Honda Fit . A nice eclectic mix for a day at the track. Funnily enough c lassic Fiat spiders came up, and it turned out at least two other attendees (both Miata owners, I believe) happened to own Fiat Spiders like I do!

The S2000 delivered everything I could have asked of the car over the course of the day. It was a pretty short course with nearly every car running under 30 seconds by the end of the day. I started out with a 28.202 and finished the day improving to a 25.884. My times pretty steadily decreased over the course of the day with the exception of a couple runs, including one where I spun (with a Miata driver riding passenger— the shame!) in the slalom section and ended up at 34.5.

One of the rare times I got some good wheelspin on launch

I had a difficult time breaking the tires free on launches on the back half of the day. I was chirping them at launch early, but later it started delivering some weird behavior where the clutch seemed to slip at 4-6K until gripping; no problems with slipping otherwise once in gear. Apparently the heat of repeated launches can impact the clutch’s grip on launch; the generally accepted approach in the S2000 community seems to be 6K clutch drops, so I was likely not building up the revs quite enough. Hopefully I didn’t smoke a ton of life off the clutch disk! I’m already at 115K miles on the OEM clutch kit, so I’ll probably need a new one in the next 20K miles anyways. Some of the difficulty definitely came from the Pilot Sport 4S tires, which are grippy as hell and have pretty high limits for initially breaking traction.

First Turn! Took this one in first in every run...

Felt a lot flatter while I was in these turns!

By the end of the day I felt like I was handling the slalom pretty well...

Love the motion blur on this shot

Was I the fastest car out for the day? Far from it... the Exocet bottomed out in the low 21s I believe (I heard a 21.3) and the E30 from the first picture was down in the low 24s (24.3), the Golf R in the mid 24s, and several other cars looked very fast all day. The aforementioned vehicles were all running 200 TW tires, so I’m looking forward to seeing posted results in a couple of days to see how I stacked up against the other cars running street tires. Both of my friends had to settle for fewer runs than I got in, as Lotus had a doctors appointment back in the DC area, and Camaro took a brief break to grab some lunch, so there aren’t quite as many pictures of their cars. Both of their times were going down when they shut down; I was in a dead heat with Lotus when he left with both of our best times at 26.6 at the time, while Camaro got his time down into the 27s/8s after starting the day above 30.

Here’s some of the other shots my friend captured when he wasn’t driving:

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > InfinityAero 06/17/2019 at 12:00

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Awesome - looks like a great day. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > InfinityAero 06/17/2019 at 12:29

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Interesting to hear you say a clutch being needed at around 130k miles . I guess thats not totally unreasonable. But My last Miata had the clutch changed at 150k (it was optional, just to cure the infamous 6spd clutch judder), current Miata had the original clutch replaced around 220k, and my STi is at 165k on the original clutch (to be replaced in the near future though because my flywheel has been bad for the past 30k).

I absolutely love “ test and tune ” or “practice” days like you went to . That is actually the only autox that I really enjoy usually. Actual events are relatively pointless since ~$50 for maybe 3-5 minutes of seat time while still dedicating the whole day is awful to me. I’d rather just go canyon carving at that point, spend only a tank of gas, and be home by lunch time . Some regions do 60-70+ second courses with 8+ runs, then they are a bit more worth it. But that is usually not feasible with the number of attendants and venue space availa ble to most regions.

InfinityAero > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 06/17/2019 at 12:43

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I’m not really sure how long I should anticipate the clutch lasting, to be fair. I tend to think 100-140K mi is about average for most manuals. I use my car as my daily driver for a DMV commute, so I’m not optimistic on it lasting much longer than 150K mi; my clutch gets a lot of regular use in bumper to bumper traffic. It’s still handling torque just fine while it’s in gear so it’s probably fine and I’m just overthinking the symptoms of a clutch disk that’s been heat cycled through 20 hard launches in a day.

I’m planning on installing a turbo kit after I’ve got the car paid off, so my hope is it’ll last until then.

Agreed on the vast superiority of practice days, but I’ve still had fun at the regular ones I’ve gone to as well; just not “money’s worth” level fun. On the plus side it does present the opportunity to drive balls to the wall without repurcussions... I discovered a lot about how my car handles at the limit that I’d never have found out during a canyon run; spinning on an autocross track is fine, on a sweeper on Skyline Drive... not so much!

InfinityAero > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com 06/17/2019 at 12:45

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Best time I’ve had with clothes on since the Holi festival I went to back in March!

SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman > InfinityAero 06/17/2019 at 12:54

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Very cool. I autocross a lot, myself. it’s very fun

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > InfinityAero 06/17/2019 at 12:58

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Thats true, and by the time you install the turbo it would definitely be a good time to upgrade the clutch anyways.

And yup, I agree that I do generally love autocross still. Its a fun, low risk way to do some motorsports. I have just been lucky with cheap track days in socal and easy access to canyons daily where I can get my fix between events. And with a miata, its easy to stay within speed limits and still be riding the limits/edge of the car. Plus autox seems even more expensive out here due to the popularity, so its even less interesting to me. I have about the same drive to those events as I do to the track. Soooo its an easy decision to just focus on track events.

I am most likely doing a track day this friday, special price was just released as $104 for five 20 minute sessions at Buttonwillow. I just cant beat that. I have actually paid MORE for an autox event before!!!

InfinityAero > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 06/17/2019 at 14:41

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That’s crazy cheap for over an hour on a track, the track days in this area start around $250 for about half that amount of track time.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > InfinityAero 06/17/2019 at 15:08

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The majority of the events are closer to around $200 and for laguna next weekend Im paying $300. But I mean, its laguna seca so its worth every penny for that place. It was one of the things that surprised me most about moving out West. I was dreading shelling out $300+ for every track event basically and glad I didnt get my miata ready until after moving. The groups ive run with here seem to have a “self-tech” thing which is sketchy as hell. But it seems to work so far. 

InfinityAero > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 06/17/2019 at 16:00

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Totally worth it for Laguna Seca...

I could be wrong but I think I’d need a roll-bar to track the S2000... will need to look into it.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > InfinityAero 06/17/2019 at 16:07

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From just your pictures, it looks like your helmeted head intercepts the plane between the stock roll hoops and your windshield. So yeah it would fail any sort of broomstick test required for convertibles generally. Unless the s2k has some kind of popup mechanism? Even so, usually thats not allowed with most track groups. Idk if the stock hoops even qualify regardless anyways. If they do count , maybe a lower seat could suffice.

InfinityAero > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 06/17/2019 at 16:22

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Yeah I was pretty sure the stock hoops wouldn’t cut it— no pop-up mechanism. Unfortunately the S2000 track community isn’t quite as big as that of the Miata so roll bars tend to be a bit pricey; but it’s worth looking into as I get closer to having my car note paid off... likely would be a good idea safety wise anyways as track use could lead to a rollover; whereas I’m basically convinced it’s physically impossible on a flat paved surface like autocrossing.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > InfinityAero 06/17/2019 at 16:51

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Its gotta be POSSIBLE just incredibly unlikely. But yeah any s2k or Miata remaining on pavement is not going to roll, without hitting something or another vehicle of course. On track is another story due to the sandy/grass runoffs around the course and other drivers around. I dont really want to do any track stuff with open passing but even with point by restrictions you never know who might screw it up. I’ve seen plenty of cars go careening off into the dirt already. It wouldnt take much for that to end up way worse than just some dirt/scratches or messed up plastic bits. But even just street driving, I like knowing that my car is a little bit safer. Especially up in the mountains where the cliffs lead to some bad stuff. I will still probably die if I fall off of those cliffs without a full cage, but ya gotta make some compromises for street driving I guess.

InfinityAero > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 06/17/2019 at 19:08

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Well, after a commute home I’m pretty sure my clutch is glazed for launches. I tried revving it to 6k and dropping the clutch and it wouldn’t spin the tires. It still grips fine in every gear so I’m going to hold off on replacing it, living a burnout- free life. Apparently those 6k+ clutch drops are essential to protecting the clutch over repeated launches, torque to weight is too low to spin the tires with fewer revs leading to spinning and glazing with sticky tires.

It hammers home how the demands of track driving are far different than street, as you were mentioning. It’s hard to make a street car an effective track car, and vice versa. Once you go full race you’re compromising a lot for the street.

For now I think I’ll stick the with autocrossing with this car, and buy an E30 to completely rebuild into a race car if I ever get serious...

I miss canyon runs and mountain cliff roads, enjoy those for sure and don't take any risks and end up in the junkyards at the bottom! I used to love the Apache trail road over to Canyon Lake near Phoenix when I lived out west, about 10 miles of canyon run...

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > InfinityAero 06/17/2019 at 19:26

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For my first couple of months of living in Socal, I was canyon running every day twice a day for my commute. Now I dont have 200tw tires on either car (damn things wore out too fast and I aint got the money for that for commuting) so I take the highway one way usually and take a milder route the other way. Usually just get in one canyon run trip per week now. But its still pretty good to have access to all the time.

And 6k launches sound crazy to me haha. But I guess such is the s2k life. I never do launches, its just not worth the driveline stress to me for those extra couple of tenths it might yield. On the subaru any sort of launching is a pretty bad idea. But on the Miata, its just force of habit to not launch. Obviously for track days launching is irrelevant anyways since lap times are all rolling. 

InfinityAero > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 06/17/2019 at 19:58

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Pretty much everyone I watched there was generating at least a little wheelspin. I think the clutch may have just been nearing it’s end anyways, I’d like to get another DD to replace the miles I’m putting on it because those are no fun regardless with  a manual transmission. Your commute sounds better I'd trade any day for a canyon run. 

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > InfinityAero 06/17/2019 at 20:02

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its just long, my commute. Its generally around an hour. Taking the highway in the morning is a little bit faster (around 42 min) but its overall a bit taxing to drive that much. The canyons and pch and stuff make it palatable  but its still tough. Id rather a ten minute commute and then go driving for fun once a week instead. 

InfinityAero > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 06/17/2019 at 20:32

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I’ve got the worst of both worlds, an hour commute (40-60) and no great driving roads nearby :/

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > InfinityAero 06/17/2019 at 23:24

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Yucky. I miss my 15 minute commute back from living in NJ. I don’t miss that it took longer to get the ice off my windows every morning in the winter though. I guess you win some and you lose some!