Friday, January 10, 2014

Long Term Test: 2007 Honda S2000 Post #3

Third Update
Current Miles: 63,263

A few months ago, my fiancee and I decided to celebrate her birthday by heading down to Oceanside, CA to celebrate with some friends. From where we are located, it is an hour and a half drive along the southbound 405 freeway, connecting to the southbound interstate 5 right along the coast. It is a beautiful, but long drive that I would normally have absolutely no problem handling it in my S2000. Of course, circumstances were quite different this time.

I had started feeling a little sick, although I shrugged it off, thinking it was probably allergy related, and we took off anyway. Of course, I was very wrong about what was happening to me. As we progressed further, the body aches began. About half an hour out from our friend's place, my body was in excruciating pain. Every bump we went over felt amplified five times, shooting pain up my spine and throughout my entire body. Unfortunately, my fiancee does not know how to drive a manual transmission, so I had to pretty much tough it out until we got to our friend's place. By the time we arrived, I was pretty much ready to fall over and sleep. There were definitely two lessons I learned that day: 1. I need to get around to teaching my fiancee how to drive manual, and 2. we should probably just drive my fiancee's Fit when I am sick since the S2000 is pretty rough on the body.

Since my last post, I have had to change my front brake pads and rotors. I had been using the StopTech Street Performance Pads for quite some time now. Being satisfied with the stopping power these pads offered, I decided to order another set. The brake rotors were a different story though. When I bought my car nearly four years ago, I was pretty sure the previous owner stuck to using all OEM parts. While Honda's parts are good, replacement parts can get pretty pricey. After taking my driving needs into consideration and doing some digging around, I ended up with the Centric Plain 120 Series Rotors. I will write a full review on both products in a separate post.

In my last post, I talked about the possibility of modifying my car to squeeze some more performance out of it. Truthfully, I am actually quite satisfied with the way my car performs. If anything, the only things I would do to my car at this point are a cold air intake, exhaust, and wider Eneki RPF1 wheels for the rear to accommodate 255 width tires. An adjustable suspension would be nice, but considering the plethora of speed bumps I live by, it would also prove to be a lousy idea. Besides, the factory suspension on the S2000 already performs well enough. I have made one small modification since the last post -- looking for a reusable air filter, I bought and installed the CT Engineering Reusable Foam Filter. CT Engineering claims the filter adds an additional three horsepower at the wheels. Without easy access to a dyno, I have no way of proving this, and three horsepower is negligible to the "butt dyno." The one thing I have noticed about this air filter is that it makes intake noise slightly louder once I have crossed over into the engine's VTEC range.

Since September 2011, I have been driving on a set of Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Spec tires. With the tread on my tires wearing thin, it is time for me to start looking at replacing these tires. I had originally bought these tires with the intention of taking my car to an autocross or track day. Considering that I never found the time for such activities, it seems pointless to equip my vehicle with such aggressive tires again. I have not yet decided on which tires to pick, but I will chronicle my search for the right set of tires, as well as offer some advice on picking the right set of tires in a separate post.

Until next time!

Click here to read post #2
Click here to read post #1

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