A Stopping Place

Last week my new roommate/cousin/head crew chief - Hayden - moved in with me. He'll be living with me for the next year and a half or so, and I can't tell you how excited I am for him to be up here all the way from Tennessee.  You'll see him with me from time to time, maybe even occasionally at the track.  He'll be attending UTI here in Chicago, so I'm sure his skills and knowledge(not to mention his hookups on super nice tools) will come in handy.  Welcome to the Hood lil' cuz!  Thanks to him, I now have the newer OE calipers ready to install on the car along with new DMP brake lines from DeftMotion.

I also registered for an event at Road Atlanta March 9-11 in order to get some seat time before May's Global Time Attack (GTA) event there.  I'm searching for a best of 1:42.xxx this first trip down, with an ultimate goal of 1.39.xxx at the GTA event. 

My work schedule surrounding the March event is pretty hectic...it involves me getting back to Chicago from a three day stint in Charlotte, NC on Wednesday night the 7th, then hopping in the truck to head down to Atlanta.  I'll be running the car all weekend, then hopping back in the truck to start heading back to Chicago Sunday evening, dropping the car off, and making it to Cedar Rapids, IA.  Luckily, I'll have the company of my beautiful girlfriend, Jessica to keep me awake on the ride back to Chicago.

I can't wait for this event.  I'm still contemplating a front splitter and canards as they are allowed by the GTA rules for Street RWD.  Drew over at DeftMotion is also working on some partnerships with a few companies for the upcoming 2012 season.  Be on the lookout for updates! 

In other news...to all my midwest track friends, my awesome neighbor Paul and I started a forum about a month ago for all of you afflicted with the same addiction we do - tracking.  If you haven't registered yet, please do.  We'd love to have you over at TrackMidwest.  Here's my little schpiel about the site and why we created it:

Hi All,

My friend Paul and I have just started a new website dedicated to Track, AutoX, Drag and Drift events in the MidWest area. I've been wanting to do something like this since I moved up here. For me, the creation of this site is a special moment. You see - I moved here from Houston in July of 2011. I knew barely anyone. Those I did know before moving up were other s2000 owners (mainly thanks go Garrison's awesome job as a CO). Garrison - big thanks to you. Without you or the s2000 community here in the UMW, I would be lost. And I mean that.

In addition to my s2000 friends, I found a whole community of enthusiasts at the local autox and track events that befriended me immediately - they became my core group of friends and still remain so. Heck, member Allen here (whom i met at an s2000 forum dinner) invited me to a test and tune at Gingerman while I was in town for work before i even moved up here. It was at that same event that I met TomV. The two of them were some of my first friends here, and thankfully neither has become tired of me in the few months I've known them.

This site is my way to give back to the community - the one that greeted me with open arms and made me confident that I made the right decision moving to Chicago.

When I lived in Houston, we had a similar local forum that helped me tremendously. It is my hope that others can find the same friendships and knowledge with the help of this site. Track people are some of the nicest folks I know, and from what I've seen, I'm not the only one who thinks so.

If you'd like to check the site out, please do so. Let me know what you think. I'm open to suggestions. I'd also like to shout out to Brian Barrera for creating our current logo (Love you bro, no homo).

Thank you all for your support. You have all made me feel more at home in Chicago than I ever thought possible, especially in the short amount of time that I have lived here. For that I thank you all sincerely. It just wouldn't be the same without you.

That about does it for me.  I'm frantically managing my work/travel schedule with prepping the car, and so far it's working out quite well.  I've got a few other projects up my sleeve, though not too many with the car.  Anyone that knows me knows that I always have my hands in a couple different things at once.  Luckily, with everything besides work, I can take them all at my own pace.  Thanks for reading this far.  We'll see you guys around.

Rejuvination

Found a good deal on new low mileage subframes and everything attached to them for the car. 24k miles vs. 117k. New knuckles, control arms, and calipers too. Oh, don't forget motor mounts. Everything I need to refresh the car is now sitting in the garage. Time to get to work!

Stanced

Paul and I got around to officially installing my DMP coilovers tonight and adjusting the ride height somewhat. Since the car won't be driven until March and won't even hit an alignment rack for another two months, I decided to make it low low so I smile when I look in the garage.

Paul also built me a 3 inch turndown with a V-band flange that I'll be using to shorten the exhaust and make a straight pipe set up with. The turn down will be right in front of the axle. It'll sound like a swarm of angry bees for sure!

Rally S2k

Pic from Fluid Motor Unions track day last August.

Paul and I are setting up the new DMP coilovers tomorrow - and I am now officially sponsored by DeftMotion (http://www.DeftMotion.com) for the 2012 season.

We'll be running in TTC chasing the national title as well as running in a few Global Time Attack events. Be on the lookout!

and so the build begins

In order for you (and I) to understand just how much preparation went into the 2012 NASA season, we need to look at the car setup that I am throwing out to meet NASA TT rules/points requirements for TTC. For those of you that don't know, NASA TT is the most advanced HPDE group that NASA has. In some regions this group is run with the the HPDE 4 cars, in others (like the MidWest) it has it's own run group.

NASA TT assigns a car a certain base class. From there, each modification you do adds points. When you acumulate 20 points, you get bumped into the next class. Let's examine how my car sat this summer:

July 2011

2005 Honda S2000 Base Class +0 TTC

KWV3 Suspension (dampeners/springs) +9 +9

Berk 3" Header Back Single (exhaust/cat) +3 +12

Comptech Intake/Vented Hood +1 +13

Mugen Replica Hardtop (AeroMod) +5 +18

Cusco front Sway, no rear (sway mod) +2 +20 = TTB

255/40/17 Star Specs +2 +22 = TTB+2

A pretty simple setup, no doubt. Suspension, intake/exhaust/tires. Even with what little it had done to it, the car classed into TTB. The Suspension and the Hardtop accounted for 13 of those 22 points, so they had to go first.

My buddy Drew at DeftMotion was able to help me out with my coilover situation. He sent me a set of their DMP Souro coilovers. They are 16 way adjustible and don't have an external or piggyback resevoir (which is what caused the KWV3s to have such a high point value). I will be installing these in a few days, but probably won't be able to drive on them until next spring as it's getting mighty cold here in Chicago. I will post up my impressions of the coilovers once I have one though. I am expecting a lot of out them and I'm sure I won't be dissappointed.

I was also able to get my hands on a cheap OEM hardtop (+0). For the 2011 season (and most likely beyond), NASA is requiring OEM shaped hardtops if a hardtop is to be used without any points modifications. It's a good idea, but can be expensive for competitors (especially us S2000 drivers - our tops normally cost what a cheap track miata would).

I'll be going back to stock sway bars as well (at least in my current build). Saving me another two points. So all in all, by changing up the three things above (sways,coils,top), I am saving a total of 11 points.

I've decided to use 4 of those points towards a wing. The s2000 sure could benefit from more downforce in the rear, and from all reports, it's a very beneficial mod. I only was able to do one event with the wing (in the July 2011 configuration, which would be way overs in points (+6) into TTB. I was able to shave 2.7 seconds of my old previous best at Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, MI though. The time was a 1.46.002, which unofficially beat out the TTC record set by my friend Pat Reyes in the 08' S2000 CR (TTC +14 Base Class) on Hoosier R6s. His time was a very quick 1.46.029. I was on street tires, so I know more time is to be found, but if Pat gets rid of the CR and gets a normal S2000, I'm in for trouble.

Current 2012 Build

2005 Honda S2000 Base Class +0 TTC

DMP Souro Coilovers +5 +5

Berk 3" Header Back Single (exhaust/cat) +3 +8

Comptech Intake/Vented Hood +1 +9

OEM Hardtop +0 +9

Stock Sway Bars +0 +9

J's Racing Type 1 rear wing +4 +13

255/40/17 Star Specs +2 +2 +15

So, as you can see, I have 4 points to play with. I could use it a few different ways. The most common way would be to add some front camber joints:

Front Camber Joints +2 +17

This would leave me with 2 extra points. I could use these by running a smaller than base class Hoosier R6 tire:

-255/40/17 Star Specs -2 +15

Hoosier R6 +10 +25

225 sized R6 -7 +18

For now, this is what I am planning on doing. However, I could gain an extra 2 or 3 points back by going back to a stock exhuast and cat,gain another point back by going back to a stock intake and hood, and gain another two points back by using offest upper A-arm bushings for more camber instead of camber joints. All in all, if I did all three things, I could save 6 points back. If I did this, all I'd be doing would be taking points for the coils and the wing for a total of +9 and having 10 points to play with.

Anyways, I just thought I would explaing my though process. It helps me better understand what I am doing with the car and why. I am feeling slightly anxious because the car was set up perfect to compliment my driving style, and I had gotten pretty quick in it the way it was. I'm going to have go to into the 2012 season and relearn the car all over again. Oh well, it'll be an adventure for sure.