Here's the setup. Bought a Honda S2000, that DAY it got hit by two teenagers in a Chevy Suburban. Car is now fixed and it looks GREAT. (8,300 dollars in damages)

The ONLY problem I've found is that when you are cornering at a medium speed/load and you give a little more gas or a little less gas, the car will drift a little wide, or tuck in a little more tightly. In other words, you can easily steer it slightly with the throttle. This is not "drifting" driving, or track driving... I want to stress that you could do the type of cornering I'm talking about right in front of a cop and he wouldn't even blink. So we're talking medium side forces, medium speeds. This happens on left or right turns.

I've checked the tire pressures and they're all dead-on at 31 psi cold. The only problem I've found with the tires is that the front right says Bridgestone Potenza S-02 and the front left is a Bridgestone S-02 (no "potenza") and the sidewall design is a bit different. The tread appears the same. I'm not sure if this is just a difference between OEM Honda-specific S-02s and generic off the rack S-02s or if this is actually a different sidewall stiffness or tread compound. Both tires are the same size.

Ideas? The shop aligned it and said it was OK, but you never know. Tire issue? Alignment issue? Frame issue? Maybe all S2000s drive like that? I need to find someone with another S2000 locally to compare cars with.

Thanks for any ideas on this strange one...

Brian

 

Did they verify the frame was straight?

James

 

From what i have been hearing. The s2000 is a tail happy car. But maybe you can rotate the tires and see if it makes any difference. Dude i feel bad for your s2000

 

Can you swap the wheels to see if this changes?


-Ted

 

The frame was fine according to the shop that fixed it... I also looked at it (I know LOOKING doesn't tell you 100%) and the only visible damage was the very front of the frame where the radiator support is.

You can't rotate the tires because those cars run a staggered setup. I think the car is probably OK after talking to other S2000 owners... I think it just drives a little differently than I'm used to. This car is ridiculously easy to kick the tail out. You can do it EASY on dry pavement even with 225 wide tires out back and almost no torque. Hehe.

Brian

 

Did you get a print-out of your alignment settings? I would still suspect a problem. S2000s have pretty damn good grip, almost as much as a non R-model FD. If you can't verify alignment settings, I would get a good idea for specs from the S2k board and head to a GOOD alignment shop to get the car checked out. It should be less than a $100 for piece of mind and maybe improved handling.

 

All along I've been hearing that it's difficult to break the tail out with s2k until now. This has cleared away my misconception. I hope you figure out your problem. Either that or it's normal.

 

I'd also check to make sure that the tires on the car are all the same version SO-2. The off the shelf SO-2's don't have anywhere near the level of grip as that offered by the OEM Honda Spec SO-2. Most tire places don't know there is a difference in the tires.

 

shoot mycar does that Now...I step hard on the gas in the turn stays tucked in! let off the gas in a turn and feels like im about to loose the rearend! is that Normal