Racing with my S2000

Braking into the next chapter

2023-10-21T23:58:00.000-07:00

Another long break from the previous post, work has been hectic but thankfully my efforts seem to be bearing some real fruit ultimately allowing me to look into the brakes on the S2000. Since my first foray onto the track, I've been reliant on upgraded brake pads on the stock calipers. The clear favorite for me has been the Project Mu Racing 999 with it's excellent characteristics when hot and feel during threshold braking. I've managed to stave off brake pad & fluid during track with custom brake ducts channeled to both disc and caliper on each corner. This has worked tremendously with virtually no brake fade after many laps at a go, what seems like extended brake pad life, extended brake fluid life, little to no instance of brake disc cracking and apparent long life of the rear hubs which are prone to failing due to heat soak from the solid rear disc.

Ultimately when I chose to upgrade my wheels, the consideration to move to a big brake kit was key in my selection of the face of the wheel. The Enkei Racing GTC02 wheel has generous convex curved spokes which allow enough clearance for a big caliper despite a slightly higher offset than my previous GTC01. Some barrels are also narrower around the hub but the GTC02 has plenty of space for me to maximize the disc diameter.

Sourcing for a brake kit for the S2000 comes with a few considerations even after the wheel selection issue has been resolved.

A) There are no front and rear big brake kits sold jointly to ensure optimal brake balance is maintained. Rear big brake kits usually eliminate the handbrake which is not suitable for road going cars. This leads to people having to buy a brake kit for the front and trying to custom something for the rear as well as playing around with brake pad compounds in an attempt to optimize brake balance. Most rear brake kits consist of stock bigger rotors from other cars combined with an Mazda RX7 or RX8 brake caliper. Clearly this variable of brake balance is an important attribute to maintain as the S2000 has excellent stock brake balance for trail braking in my view.

B) Brake cooling even with a big brake kit can be an issue as evidenced by the experiences of a friend of mine who was on an Alcon big brake kit with 330mm discs experiencing fade on race pads just after 5 laps. The larger diameter discs of the big brake kit do help but even with much larger vanes than the OEM rotors, one can easily begin running into the upper limits of the heat capacity of the system.

Ducting then becomes a necessity to stave off brake fade over multiple laps but running the ducting then has its own issues of which I have had my fair share of negative experiences over the years. At full lock, there is the tendency to crush and rub the brake cooling hoses until they eventually fail which leads to dragging of pipes everywhere. Being rather low, the S2000 also would quickly end up having ducting get damage from items on the road or collect gravel during an off track excursion which ends up obstructing the funnels or getting lodged in the piping.

In this picture you can see the brake duct piping dangling from my car after being damaged in an off track excursion.

C) The S2000 in naturally aspirated form doesn't put out too much power so balancing the braking needs with weight is also a key consideration. Some brake upgrade kits use large OEM discs from other cars but both such calipers and discs are usually heavy which is to be avoided considering how adding unsprung weight is detrimental to both braking and acceleration.

All things considered, much like any part of setting up a car, performance is a balance of resources available as well as limitations. Considering all these factors, here are some of the outcomes I sought in my choice of brake kit:

i) To seek a brake setup that has been proven in competitive events for reliability and endurance. This helps me minimize the risk of brake failure which is highly dangerous for obvious reasons. In this department, I also want to reduce the reliance of unnecessarily complicated ducting which I've had come loose far too many times. Getting brake ducting components which have come loose stuck in my brakes would not be my idea of a good time.

ii) To look for a brake kit that has good brake balance balancing the changes made to braking power. This will allow me to exploit the strength of the S2000 in its cornering ability in areas like trail braking.

iii) To consider the availability of replacement parts for service life. A slightly overlooked point has been how easily available spares are and with the age of the S2000, it's become more front of mind. Certain brands start off at a cheaper price point but longer term users of these brands now face a potential issue of lack of supply of replacement parts due to supply chain disruptions or even the winding up of the brand itself.

iv) Having used my previous brake setup which allowed me 10-15 laps of fade free performance, I've thoroughly appreciated how more fuss free seat time helped me get improve. I definitely am looking to find a brake kit that can keep me on the track for a similar amount of time without succumbing to the heat buildup. This attribute is something I would be willing to sacrifice some amount of reduced outright performance for.

With these points in my mind, the Sakebomb Garage AP Racing Competition Brake System https://www.sakebombgarage.com/ap-competition-brake-system-s2000/ and the Competition Rear Brake System https://www.sakebombgarage.com/sbg-competition-rear-brake-system-s2000-rear-rx8-caliper-retrofit-kit/ ticked every box in my book.

Here's how the front looks

Pics of the rears

Friend of mine from Japan helped me get these used RX8 calipers which are in great condition at a solid price!

Availability of replacement brake pads is pretty important to me so when I saw I could get the D50 radial depth pads from Endless, which I can source fairly easily from Japan, it was a great point of reassurance.

I chose the N35S / CC43 pads which came recommended by a friend who has run these.

The performance upside realized from this entire braking setup would be:

1) An unsprung weight saving of about 1 kg per side up front.

2) From feedback from a bunch of users, no need to run any ducting front or rear if I'm just running the usual roughly 30 min runs that I make. This massive heat capacity increase benefits fluid, pad and disc lifespan as well as the performance of all these areas. From a safety aspect, this is pretty much priceless.

3) Great reliability of a proven brake system in both caliper & disc performance. Cracking discs or stuck calipers would probably be a thing of the past.

4) Readily available spares for all components of the brake system from disc, to caliper hardware and brake pads. Spares are also reasonably priced and upsizing of the components means the replacement cycle is not so frequent.

My car is currently in the midst of the full refresh of performance and I'm eagerly awaiting the completion of the entire car to experience the new lease of life it's been given. Upgrading the braking system was pretty much essential to being able to extract as much of the full performance potential of my S2000 as I can and has been long overdue.

Thrilled to move to the next chapter of performance!

Thoughts about my tyres and wheels

2021-04-13T08:02:00.003-07:00

Ever since I made my change to the Advan A052, I've been searching about for a good baseline pressure to run and I thought it might be good to summarize some of my thoughts about what I've come across relating to setting up a tyre for my use.

Tyres are after all probably the most complex part of the car and changes in technology have clearly dramatically changed our view on what works the best. One example of this shift in acceptance in how we view tyres might be seen in cyclist tyres where for some time it was accepted that a thinner tyre with a higher pressure would result in a lower rolling resistance and thus be quicker but now a wider tyre on a properly sized wheel would actually be proven to be quicker.

Wheel Width:

Clearly tyre performance must taken in consideration with the wheels they will be run on. Here's a summary of steps I would take to choose the wheel I will need to run:

a) Pick the tyre you want in the width you want

b) Check the tyre tread width

c) Look for a wheel that matches as closely for the specific tyre tread width

Clearly some compromise might need to be made with respect to the wheel that can clear your current (or planned) big brake kit and clearance within the wheel well.

Some wider wheels do end up rubbing against the inside of the arm at full lock and I found Rob Robinette's blog (check out https://robrobinette.com/S2000Alignment.htm ), which has a wealth of information regarding S2000 modification, highlighted these OE Ford steering rack spacers which could be fitted to the S2000 for limiting lock enough so it doesn't contact the arm at full lock.

Some of the helpful info from Rob Robinette's blog, read his blog directly for more detail

Picked up the items for myself through Amazon

Tyre Pressure:

This is a tricky topic so I'll relate a bit from where I come from to lead into the thought process.

Back when I was running the Hankook RS3 in square 255/40/17, the first tyre that in my opinion began the 200TW tyre "war", I was told that the go-fast pressures would be about 29-30 psi hot. When I mentioned how others ran about 34-35 psi hot, it was rubbished as being way off the mark and me reading too much of forum knowledge. 34-35 psi hot did eventually yield me great wear and good lap times much to the surprise of those who had written my setup off. Going lower to 32-33 psi hot didn't feel particularly good maybe due to the rather soft sidewalls.

Moving to the Achilles 123S in square 255/35/17, I began experimenting with slightly lower pressures based on the wear patterns I noticed from the use on the track. I eventually settled at about 33 psi hot which seemed to yield the best results, going lower to about 31-32 psi would tend to let the tyres rollover a bit too much.

Now moving to the A052, I started seeking a new baseline to begin my fine tuning as I had totally departed from the realm of 17 inch tyres. Unfortunately, even before COVID 19, there is no neighborhood track I can use to fine tune my settings so finding a baseline to begin from which is closest to optimal would be important. Taking a step back, I observed that my car had progressively shed some weight through lightweight seats and removal of the soft top which I now realise definitely did impact the optimal tyre pressure to run.

Currently my car would be about 1200kg fully loaded before the driver so I started looking around for comparable cars weighing about the same, having modest power output and being known for exemplary handling. I came across the series 3 Exige which had rather interesting factory specifications for the tyres used. The Exige owners have a choice between Pirelli P Zero Trofeo and the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 but both have very different recommended pressures namely 38 psi for the Pirelli and 32 psi for the Michelin.

Clearly the difference of the construction of the tyre is significant enough to warrant a large change in tyre pressure to be run. I would consider the construction of the carcass of the A052 in the lower profile sizing I am running to be much closer to that of the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 than the Pirelli. This information combined with some real world user input from old timer S2KI members who have actually used the A052, I got a reasonable range to start playing around with pressures. The car didn't handle too well using the same pressures as I had previous run on the RS3 or the street driving pressures I ran for the 123S which were a touch higher than the optimal hot pressures but a bit lower and there was a marked improvement in overall handling.

I'll still be messing around to find the best middle ground to run the tyres while I sort out some of the minor fender rubbing I'm still experiencing. Stay tuned for more updates :)

Credit to:

Rob Robinette for information and screenshots from his blog, go check it out! https://robrobinette.com/S2000Alignment.htm

Dyno results for the PracWorks Carbon Intake Manifold, a missed opportunity

2021-03-21T08:16:00.006-07:00

So the dyno is done and here are some noises to satisfy your VTEC urges (if I stood by any longer my eardrums would have burst lol)

I've been scratching my head on how to get these dyno numbers out in a way fair to everyone and I guess the best way is just to be brutally frank on the mistake I made which can be summed up in one statement:

A dyno comparison for the gains of the mods especially flow related stuff like an intake manifold should never be done on a STOCK THROTTLE BODY, STOCK EXHAUST WITH CATALYTIC CONVERTER AND STOCK HEADER.

Why? Because NO GAINS will be apparent.

Yeah I messed it up big time. Just think about this from a common sense perspective:

You introduce 5% more air, increase more fuel to match and allow 0% more exit volume.

I'm kicking myself for not thinking this out beforehand but I've got to live with my error.

That said, I do have positive results for the PracWorks item to report on, so read on and find out.

Before I show the dyno charts I need to preface with questions that will inevitably come:

Q1) Why don't you show the full numbers?

Ans: I'm not keen in getting distracted by the absolute numbers nor will the numbers be of practical use to anyone unless they are running EXACTLY the same setup as I am dyno tested under EXACTLY the same conditions. If you still want to know, you are welcome to look for me on FB or IG to ask about it.

Q2) What happened to the first benchmark run that I can compare with using the same free flowing exhaust?

Ans: The dyno database got corrupted and the file was lost. I cannot do an on screen comparison on the dyno software with the current run.

Q3) What dyno is it and is the dyno operator reliable?

Ans: It is a Mainline dyno and if you know dynos this is as reliable/repeatable as it gets. The operator is undoubtedly reliable as they do many different cars and have always been praised for consistency. The only "negative" is that this dyno is known to read low or a "heart breaker", not a concern to me as I am only looking for consistent results and the nett gains.

Red Line: Stock Exhaust, Stock TB with Catalytic Converter, Password JDM Air intake,

Carbon Intake Manifold

Blue Line: Stock Exhaust, Stock TB with Catalytic Converter, Password JDM Air intake,

Stock Intake Manifold

Horsepower

Observation:

a) Loss in power & torque from midrange from 3000rpm - An expected result from a larger manifold volume.

b) Slight bump in Mid range but negligible difference until maybe 7500 rpm - Restriction in exhaust flow caps all gains

Swapped out the stock exhaust for a free flowing exhaust and did some comparisons with the Password JDM intake, 3 inch short ram pipe without velocity stack and 3.5 inch short ram pipe with velocity stack.

Red Line: Free flowing Exhaust, Stock TB without Catalytic Converter, Carbon Intake Manifold,

Password JDM Air intake

Blue Line: Free flowing Exhaust, Stock TB without Catalytic Converter, Carbon Intake Manifold, 3.5 inch short air ram with 4 inch velocity stack

Horsepower

Observation:

a) 3.5 inch short air ram outperforms across the powerband but especially from 6000rpm - High cam loves the bigger air flow. Peak gains of about 3-5 whp

b) Curve shows no sign of flattening even past 7000rpm - Much more airflow to exploit at higher rpm

Red Line: Free flowing Exhaust, Stock TB without Catalytic Converter, Carbon Intake Manifold

3.5 inch short air ram with 4 inch velocity stack

Blue Line: Free flowing Exhaust, Stock TB without Catalytic Converter, Carbon Intake Manifold, 3 inch short air ram with no velocity stack

Horsepower

Observation:

a) 3.5 inch outperforms around 6500 rpm for a bit - probably more airflow to optimize but maybe getting choked beyond 7500 somewhat

With these preliminary results I settled on a longer 3.5 inch intake piping with 4 inch velocity stack cleaned up into a compartment.

So you might be asking: Hey wait a minute, does this mean the PracWorks Carbon intake manifold does not make gains?

Ans: This manifold ABSOLUTELY makes gains.

Although the dyno file of the first run with free flowing exhaust plus stock intake manifold was lost, I still kept a picture of it thankfully and orange graph below is a snap shot I took off the dyno. I extrapolated the numbers for a comparison that is imperfect but the best effort I can muster.

Blue Line: Free flowing Exhaust, Stock TB without Catalytic Converter,

Carbon Intake Manifold, 3.5 inch short air ram with 4 inch velocity stack

Orange Line: Free flowing Exhaust, Stock TB without Catalytic Converter

Stock Intake Manifold, 4 inch very long silicon pipe for max flow

Horsepower

Observation:

a) The power curve steepens significantly after 6000 rpm - Although I don't have a exact overlay, the steepening suggests mid range gains.

b) The peak power of the orange line was achieved with maximum airflow possible > 8300 rpm. The peak power of the blue line was measured at around 8100 rpm and compared to the orange line at the same 8100 rpm was around 11 WHP higher with >6% higher peak torque . The only other variable to cause some possible variation is the orange line having the 4 inch long pipe (proven to make about 3-5 whp over the Password JDM) and the blue line having the 3.5 inch pipe with velocity stack (also probably making 3-5 whp over the Password JDM) so they pretty much cancel each other out in this comparison.

I will fully admit that this comparison wasn't perfect but I am after all, just an enthusiast with limited time to hang around running different setups on the dyno for the perfect comparison. With the limitations, the best I can share is my thoughts on how this setup might work for your own rides as each of our setups are probably running different compression ratios, head ports, piston designs, combustion chamber shapes, cams, ecu tunes and many other factors so it's expected that such results are probably not exactly repeatable in your own rides.

I've already set out to get supporting modifications to do this intake manifold and engine setup some justice to unlock as much of its potential as I can muster. Please keep a look out for my next update which I expect to be soon and if you have further questions on this post you can always chat me up on Instagram or Facebook.

Enkei Racing GTC02 plus Advan A052 test fit on my S2000, you never know if you don't try...

2021-03-09T07:11:00.004-08:00

It fits. Well... kind of!

So how did we get here? I rolled up to YHI HQ in my Achilles 123S shod Enkei GTC01 and took some pics to have a sense of how much different the change would be.

So contrary to what many might think, my choice was made on the basis of the TYRE FIRST.

Yes, the tyre choice is number 1 in the overall scheme of things simply because it is probably the most complex piece of engineering on the car which pretty much determines the result when the literal rubber hits the road. You get the tyre first, get the wheel that suits it and then make it work.

Do reference this article by Billy Johnson which states what the priorities should be:

How to PROPERLY select and size TIRES for PERFORMANCE

Advan A052 is probably the quickest tyre out there so being able to secure a regular source of tyres through YHI was the key point. Testing overseas has proven it to be potentially quicker than the RE71R (this depends very much on the overall setup) with equal if not higher wear rates so it was critical for me to get the entire setup done correctly. This performance edge comes about in my view due to the relatively grippier compound and lower weight of the tyre.

So that's how much more grip I am looking to optimize

Have I made a mistake going too wide? That's something that can't be easily answered and the only real answer to that lies in the performance results I achieve. I know from past experience that I was on the wrong path and the subject of jeers when I fitted a big front splitter, a big rear wing, squared tyre fitment, running higher than the common wisdom of tyre pressures and the list goes on. Somehow the very novel experiments I am called out for eventually became the de facto standard setup.

How could this be? Well. the answer is simply that nothing that I was doing was actually novel but setups that were already proven to work and were widely adopted. This case of tyre choice is a bit different in that there is still some debate out there due to the scarcity of people running this setup on an naturally aspirated S2000. In this area, I've really had to thank the kindness of the people I've chatted with on social media who so openly shared without any agenda save to help a fellow owner achieve success. With their input, I was able to balance the conditions of the kind of track, event, power and weight to make a choice of a starting point regarding tyre choice.

All in all, although I have some degree of confidence that this setup is going to work, the experimentation with size will continue because that's really the only way to tell.

So what are the drawbacks of this setup?

a) Fitment is challenging, I'll let the pics explain.

Barely clears the splitter

Tight fitment in the front wheel well at full lock even with 2 steering rack spacers

Some rubbing on the rear tyres over bumps in the road despite a not overly low ride height and stiff suspension

b) The overall wheel and tyre weight is heavier. It is encouraging though that the penalty is relatively small in my view despite the large increase in tyre width. I think the trade off is reasonable

GTC01 weight

GTC02 weight

I did have a custom brake duct on one side that rubbed pretty hard on the wheel and have to be removed but these are all things that I think can't be avoided with customized setups so I'm taking in my stride. I'm looking forward to visiting the local body work legend to get the fenders tweaked as necessary, put on my louvers, mount my splitter and adjust the brake duct as necessary (some of it has been messed up over the years). Hope I can get to that soon!

Thanks to:

YHI Singapore for helping get the install done right despite the hiccups

Desmond for helping me ferry the wheels back and forth, thanks bro!

Billy Johnson and MotoIQ for use of their writeup

First look at the Enkei Racing GTC02 wheel, new grip setup in progress...

2021-03-03T18:47:00.002-08:00

Yes, there's something new under the cover!

I've spent more than 13 years on my S2000 and through that time, I've been running these wheels on the track:

Stock wheels from Day 1

Enkei RPF1 which I used for about

Back in 2014, as I sought a stronger wheel for long term use, I made the switch from RPF1 to the Racing GTC01 which I still use until today

My current Racing GTC01

The Racing GTC01 has served me remarkably well and despite being heavier than the RPF1 by about 2-3 kg due to wider width plus more rigid construction, which could be felt through the steering, has taken all my track abuse without hardly anything to show for it. I've always prioritized wheel strength for the following reasons:

a) At Sepang Circuit, which is the track I frequent, there is sometimes a need to hop curbs to get the best line

b) The peak G forces achieved by the tyres increase with development of tyre technology and thus the corresponding the load on the wheel increases so from a reliability standpoint a more robustly construction wheel would provide long term use

c) A more rigid wheel would possibly lessen the need for increases in camber angle to compensate for the deformation of the wheel. Any additional negative camber increases for such compensations are not ideal for tyre lifespan or the overall track performance.

With the help of YHI Singapore, I managed to source the latest iteration of the Racing GTC series: the Enkei Racing GTC02 in Hyper Silver. This wheel was seen at the 2020 Tokyo AutoSalon Enkei Booth and has been making its rounds in roadshows in Japan.

Official launch on Facebook in August 2019

Here is my video wheel reveal

Ken Nomura having fun at the Tokyo Auto Salon Booth

Promotional roadshow in Japan to highlight the wheel have been ongoing

Here is my own video reveal of the wheel

The key reasons for the choice of this wheel would be:

a) robust construction for strength and rigidity to a higher limit than the current wheel I run

You can see how beefy the spokes are and the evenly dispersed split spoke design helps ensure load is not concentrated at only a few points

The thick flange at the rim edge helps hold the tyre in place through high load events

b) Lightweight construction

This wheel will be much wider than the current wheel I run but weighs about the same, around 10kg. This means there is no weight penalty to running this wider wheel which allows me to run a wider tyre size.

Here you can see a close up of the lightening done on the spokes

These dimples machined out of the block reduce weight and improve heat dissipation from the wheel to avoid additional heat being transferred to the hubs. Such heat buildup is often not considered but can lead to premature failures of hubs. The centre bore also looks to have a reduced amount of material in the lugnut area.

The back face of the wheel has also had some shaving of the spoke done with material removed from the centre hub

c) Big brake kit clearance

The barrel of the wheel is generously formed and allows for clearance of large calipers should I wish to upgrade my brakes down the line

The curvature of the spoke and where it ends on the wheel face helps the brake caliper face fitment

d) Excellent quality and design which is what Enkei is known for

The greyish portion is where the edge of the tyre sits and Enkei has put anti-slip paint to prevent slip between tyre and wheel which happens more than many realise. Patented M.A.T process to form the Enkei wheels has also evolved to M.A.T Dura II for added strength.

This part is just pure Japanese craftmanship character, guess Mr Suzuki signed off that this wheel met his inspection standard!

e) Price point of the wheel

The Enkei Racing GTC02 has a retail price 60% that of a similar sized forged wheel. Wheels are a consumable over the long run such as when an off the track event happens, you can't avoid that big pothole at speed and long term use will slowly but surely bring the wheel ever so slightly out of round. Any wheel and tyre shop owner who levels with you will tell you that even forged wheels do deteriorate over time. In view of that, the Racing GTC02 is excellent value for money.

I'm really looking forward to bring my grip setup to the next level with this new wheel and YHI Singapore was a great help to help order this wheel in. I'll be approaching them as well for tyre choice, as I'd like to pair this high performance wheel with a top tyre to prep for what looks to be an exciting evolution for my S2000. Stay tuned for the next update with fitment pics and tyre selection!

I would like to specially thank again YHI Singapore for helping me source this wheel in the specific fitment I was looking for.

PracWorks Carbon intake manifold review first impressions

2021-02-27T20:09:00.005-08:00

It's been a while since I got some work done on the car and although the handling part of my setup probably makes the biggest difference, I've always hoped to improve the naturally aspirated performance of the engine. Unfortunately, being a relatively low production car with a bespoke platform, the costs of R&D to produce products for the S2000 for all motor power would be much higher which results in the offerings of products being either limited or not delivering much results for the money.

It's well known that many exhausts and exhaust manifolds routinely lose power or make low single digit gains when tested on the S2000, so most owners tend to just buy them for weight savings. The offerings on the intake side of things include the usual bored out or bigger throttle bodies, intake systems and individual throttle bodies (ITB) but none of these make significant gains in power on the F22C. ITB's cost big money and require a standalone ECU which brings the bill pretty close to 5 digit while generally being more effort to maintain from a tuning standpoint. Intake systems and throttle body mods don't make much gains even after tuning and most owners say they are happy with just a few hp gain (if any!).

This is how my engine bay has pretty much always looked

That massive hunk of carbon is the Password JDM carbon intake and when tuned it did get some small gains so I pretty much left the intake side of things like this for many years since I did not want to get CEL issues or stuck throttle plates from a throttle body mod. I ruled out ITB as well due to the high cost and the maintenance required. A reasonably priced off the shelf intake manifold solution did not exist since the options that were available were mostly unsuitable for NA setups causing performance loss at the mid range which would be bad news for track performance.

I then came across the PracWorks Carbon intake manifold for the K series which seemed to deliver excellent gains at a reasonable price point.

I reached out to PracWorks Carbon and started discussing on the possibility of a such an item being made available for the S2000. After some back and forth on dimensions, design, potential interest level and protoyping, PracWorks Carbon delivered this quality item to me for fitment on my ride!

Here's my video review that I did

The finish of the product and quality looks amazing in person and my iphone camera resolution does not do it justice. The pre-preg carbon fibre and billet machining are top notch quality so far the looks and quality its already worth every cent a showpiece. However, this has not been made as a pretty paperweight and here's why:

Looking into the inside of the plenum you find velocity stacks on the runners to increase airflow speed

The quality finish on inside of the runners and the tapering of the runners towards the head all help to keep airspeed up

The massive plenum is 6 litres in volume a welcome upgrade as the stock S2000 intake manifold is restrictive and limits power. When I placed a 1.5 litre drink bottle for a size comparison, you can see how the plenum absolutely dwarfs the bottle.

Can't wait to get the result of tuning this on the dyno which will happen pretty soon so keep a look out for me reporting back with the gains I hopefully am able to realize. Wish me luck!

Update:

I did some comparison to the stock intake manifold:

Weight: Both stock and PracWorks intake manifold weigh in around 4.5kg.

Runner lengths : stock manifold is about 15.5 cm or about 6 inches, PracWorks is about 12.5 cm or about 5 inches so the PracWorks is about 1 inch shorter than stock

Had a few queries from pre DBW S2000 owners on the IAC fitment and PracWorks kindly shared how the IAC is fitted to this manifold

Thanks to:

PracWorks Carbon for taking a chance for S2000 production

Photo Credit:

matcanyon

Inevitable evolution for my S2000

2019-09-05T23:52:00.001-07:00

The S2000 is already about 10 years past the last date of production and despite model year updates, it has by and large has been similar to its launch back in 1999 which puts it about 20 years old in terms of technology. Current day competitors like the Toyota/Subaru/Scion GT86/BRZ/FR-S and the ND model Mazda Miata MX5 have updated technology incorporated into their construction and this has reflected in their superior performance numbers despite having lower absolute engine output.

Is the S2000 due for a new lease of life? Probably but I won't be selling my S2000 for any upcoming newer models considering I've already spent a fair bit of time and money on the car as it is and prices of cars in Singapore are the highest in the entire world! The following areas have been pretty much the same since I began upgrading my ride since way back in 2011:

1. Suspension: I got myself a set of Tein Super Racing coilovers which had only been used for a couple of months and have been running them for daily and track since then. I've serviced them roughly every 18 months at an authorized Tein dealer to keep them running in good condition.

2. Cooling: I've been running my Koyo aluminum radiator and Greddy oil cooler even before tuning my ride. A pretty lasting setup that has endured debris from highway and even the odd unscheduled excursion into the gravel at the track.

With these considerations in mind I got my hands on these two items that I felt would be a welcome update to my current setup staying true to my focus on highlighting the strengths of the S2000 namely, its outstanding handling and the rock solid reliability of the car.

My new SakeBomb Garage (SBG) custom long stroke Ohlins DFV with Swift springs

CSF dual pass radiator

I made my decisions based on the following areas I determined might yield some benefits that I could enjoy over the years without too massive a cost:

A) Rear suspension stroke:

Performance upgrades for coilovers would commonly run out of stroke and bottom out on compression unless they ran very stiff spring rates or damping. The lack of droop travel was also an issue that has come up pretty often but was never really addressed in most of the aftermarket options available.

My experience with this facet of the shortcoming on the circuit I usually run at was that at points where I needed to run over the curbing , the car would not be particularly stable mid corner which tended to delay the point I could get on the loud pedal. The only way to get around this would be to stay on the tarmac but I didn't feel I could continue sidestepping the issue and would rather address the problem directly.

Modifications to the circuit I usually ply resulted in a large change in elevation for the corner leading onto the front pit straight. From my layman point of view, this penalizes suspension setups which aren't able to have sufficient droop travel to pick a line that allows the driver to get to full throttle at the earliest point and thus lose a whole bunch of acceleration momentum on the long pit straight. This is especially a problem for a car like the S2000 which isn't great in the acceleration department and has a very peaky torque curve.

With that in mind, I opted for the long stroke version of the Ohlins DFV by SBG to maximize bump and droop travel while taking the opportunity to upgrade to floating top hats and spherical bearings. The great thing about getting this kit outside of the hardware would be the consultation done with SBG to identify key areas of performance one seeks from their setup. Being an enthusiast, time and expertise is always in short supply so this is a welcome value add to a modification.

Pic of the floating top hat

Swift springs catered to my requirements

Billet lower mount to get that longer stroke

Suspension consultation form to ensure the setup matches the usage

Heading to the track on this suspension, I immediately noticed an immediacy in response especially over uneven sections like curbing and the car seemed much more planted when I had wheels over the curbing. The car seemed much more stable post curbing allowing me to get on the throttle confidently. Although my track session o try them out was cut short, the difference in handling was abundantly clear compared to my previous setup. Heath and his team are super responsive and helpful even for aftersales service which is pretty confidence inspiring for me as an overseas customer.

B) Enhanced cooling requirements

I thought it prudent to get the cooling sorted since I had been running a Koyo down-flow radiator for quite some years and cross flow or dual pass radiators were now delivering increased cooling so I thought it would be time to get this added longevity mod done.

CSF has been well known the market for their performance radiators and through RockStar Garage, I purchased the S2000 specific setup with 12 and 10 inch Spal Fans. This setup comes with an aluminium shroud to enhance flow through the core.

Fresh and shiny out of the box

Back view with Spal fans and shroud

Comparison with the outgoing Koyo

In it goes! Plenty of clearance

I'm looking forward to the proving of this radiator on the track though the quality of the kit was pretty impressive so I have no doubts this would be a great insurance policy against the searing temperatures of the Sepang circuit.

A word of appreciation to SakeBomb Garage and RockStar Garage for the great pricing and customer service!

Thanks to:

LTM Performance for the trusted support for all the work done to my ride

The trusted partner that is LTM Performance supporting me trackday after trackday after trackday

2018-08-22T07:00:00.002-07:00

Many a time in discussing the results of motorsports endeavor, there is great focus on the driver and the machine including parts used to achieve improvements in performance. Most of the time, the less glamorous but equally vital maintenance support goes unacknowledged when this is positively critical for long term care to keep the driver in the running over the years.

Since in Singapore virtually no one has the space to work on their own car, my work schedule definitely rules out wrenching on the car myself, I needed to look for a workshop that could support me in installation and servicing needs. I was already acquainted some years earlier with the head mechanic of the workshop Alvin and was subsequently introduced to Edmund who owned the business. We shared alot of common viewpoints and I'm truly grateful to his trust in me to run the decals of LTM Performance as a showcase of the capability of the business to support cars prepped for the racetrack.

Visiting their website at LTM.sg , we see their history from as far back as the 60's and their continued success until today is a testament to their experience and repute in the industry. The entire span of car related services are available spanning car performance enhancement, servicing / repairs, accident claims, spray painting, car purchase/sale and even car leasing. They have recently said their farewell to the iconic workshop at Sin Ming Industrial Estate Sector C and are currently housed at 176 Sin Ming Drive #03-06/09/10.

I managed to get some pics of the old workshop just before they completed the move and I was kind of sad to see it go seeing how it had become a familiar haunt of sorts for me.

Here is my ride in front of another S2000 awaiting our turn for some TLC

Some of the cars being worked on Continental, Japanese and even GTRs get work done here.

Even a Thai registered plate Silvia track car gets it work done here

Some of the past magazine features and history of their racing exploits

Showcase of the turbos on sale, something to whet the turbo car owners appetite!

Workshops in Singapore have had to deal with rising labour costs, rising rents and dwindling demand in areas such as modifications. LTM has taken these in their stride with the diversification of the business into areas such as spray painting and commercial vehicle maintenance housed in the the flatted Sin Ming locations.

Commercial vehicle workshop in the new building at Sin Ming Auto City

The spray painting workshop is situated at Sin Ming AutoCare building, right alongside the main LTM workshop

All prepped for the paint job

Spanking clean facility to get the paint job done perfectly

The main workshop for their car maintenance and operations also at the 3rd floor of Sin Ming AutoCare like their spray painting shop

Cosy waiting area while you wait for collection of your car

Yet another track car being worked on, this one being a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution deliciously covered in classic Advan Racing livery. If i'm not mistaken this belongs to the owner of VP Racing , racing fuels and additives company, locally

The performance arm of LTM, obviously titled LTM Performance, focuses on maintenance and enhancement of cars much like mine and the vast experience the mechanics hired have in this line has been of great value to on my motorsports journey. I attended the Nakama R and Super GG trackdays to test out my new Ohlins DFV long stroke suspension which had been setup by SakeBomb Garage. I'll share a bit more on how I came across this setup and how it has worked for me in a following post but here is a snap of the suspension set as a whole.

Here are some pics of me making my runs during that those trackdays where there was a lovely variety of machines blasting away through the corners

You know Malaysian motorsports scene is vibrant when Ron Celestine of SpeedHunters is also trackside and I'm pretty pleased he got a snap of my ride

In the first trackday the car felt sluggish and only felt worse at the next trackday where I began to experience a fair bit of backfire or misfire. The oil levels had fallen perilously low which led me to cut short the track time I could muster. These symptoms were truly worrying and I immediately sent my car in to LTM once I got back from the track.

Their checks confirmed the compression seemed a bit on the low side although still within acceptable ranges but revealed my coil and plugs were drenched with oil (my entire catch can was full!) as the pic below shows

Some searches on S2000 International Forums (S2KI) revealed that engine oil apparently was not drained fast enough when it is on the baffle plate in the valve cover and thus gets sucked into the vents and into the intake manifold side of the engine especially when successive hard cornering is done. RAIN H8R on S2KI suggests to drill drain holes in the baffle plate allowing it to drain quicker back to the oil pan and road racing S2000 owners have had their oil consumption issues resolved when they followed his guide.

Here is the link to his thread on the valve cover modifications : RAIN H8R V/C MOD. DIY S2K Smoke Screen Fix w/valve cover modification

Here is the link to his video on the modifications:

Honda S2000 Smokescreen cure with the RAIN H8R mod

Here are his suggested spots to drill drain holes for the AP2

The mechanics at LTM Performance used this example and did the modification for me as per the pics below, following the guide that RAIN H8R had detailed.

Testing at the API Racing trackday, no issues with excessive oil consumption thereafter!

I later decided to upgrade my radiator to a CSF Dual Pass radiator to enhance cooling efficiency on the track which I will expand on later in a separate post along with the coilover upgrade but some months down the line had issues with high coolant temperatures at idle or low speed. LTM Performance once again came to the rescue by narrowing down the problem to a malfunctioning fan which was spinning far too slowly and needed to be replaced.

Here is the video of their testing which shows clearly the poorly performing fan

It's tough enough figuring out as an enthusiast the various chassis specific related enhancements or fixes required so the support that LTM Performance has given as my trusted workshop has been absolutely vital to my upkeep of my ride. There not many S2000s on our shores or even in the region and as such I have needed to many a time consult forums in the USA to get more information and have LTM act on it as best they can. At all times, they have gone out of their way to accommodate and keep my vehicle in the best of shape so I am proud to run their livery as a testament to their excellence in keeping my S2000 ready to race!

Big smiles from the boss Edmund and here's to many more years of racing with the strong support of LTM Performance!

Thanks to my partners in motorsports:

LTM Performance

Achilles Radial

Thian Seng Motors

Ardeca Lubricants Singapore

Photo and Tech information Credits:

Ad.Am Photography

aziemphotography

Tune Photography

#SYAZ_ONE Photography

Ron Celestine of SpeedHunters

RAIN H8R from S2KI for valve cover modification information and photos

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9tro

New beginnings, thoughts for 2017 and what lies ahead in 2018

2018-01-01T07:40:00.002-08:00

I faced significant challenges in 2017 for my setup just as I did in 2016 however on a totally different magnitude and I'm not sure I would have done what I did should I had known the ramifications. Juggling my personal life and career was already tough with the car in its previous incarnation but the plans I had to transform the car necessitated sleepless nights and constant monitoring. This was clearly required much more of my attention and time so I am relieved I am past that stage.

Probably a good idea to get a tune done after so many years!

In summary, a rebuild of the worn and torn parts of the car was done, most of the car's performance was given a new lease of life in order to give me the best possible start to the goals I had set myself for the years ahead.

And what a start it was!

I had spent what seemed like an eternity away from the track and has totally lost touch with braking / acceleration points and but the support from my partnering companies had given me the ability to be able to hustle in just one hot lap that eventually counted for the win at MegaLap Round 2 2017.

A massive delay at the checkpoints, a Malaysian police stop that almost resulted in a fine (no idea how I wriggled out of that one haha!) and slow traffic conditions meant I arrived at the track way later than I had expected. The blur of action that ensued when I eventually reached Sepang Circuit involved setting my car's pressures and suspension for the track, registering for the event, getting safety equipment on and clearing the car before my class was due to run. MegaLap is one of the supporting events in the MSF Racing program which was crafted by Adian Yein and the organisation is absolutely top notch with the best emphasis on track safety and class regulation that other organisers can only hope to replicate so I was in good hands despite my travel issues.

Queuing up is a Singaporean obsession

Sitting in the car with a flustered mind, I had hardly a moment to reflect before the marshals of MegaLap began waving participants into the lineup. More than a year's absence meant plenty of the memory that helped me around the track was lost, I had to quickly pick up the new character of the new setup which would be a challenge for a relatively slow learner like myself and above all I had to manage a winning lap while staying out of traffic or trouble.

After a warm up lap to heat the tyres, I tried to get going but much to my embarrassment ended up doing a nice 180 at the exit of T15 at the end of my first hot lap thereby wasting the entire lap. It became apparent how rusty I was as I began to relearn the track while avoiding overenthusiastic competitors sharing the track with me who had managed to spin in front of me.

Snapped by a friend who had come to spectate, nicely timed shot Ken!

The car felt good but the water and oil temperatures started to climb higher than I had expected them and with my limited experience of this new setup, I had no choice but to limit the revs I could use to err on the side of caution. The blazing hot ambient and track temperatures could be a reason this was so but there was no real way for me isolate that is the sole reason. The Qstarz LapTimer showed me I had done a 2:38 and although this was not a great time, I had hoped the second session for my class would allow me cooler temperatures so I could eke out a better timing.

Live timing site was able to give real time updates

After some food I decided to take a walk to check out the cars competing in MegaLap as one of the big attractions for me as a particpant has always been the diversity of rides competing in their individual classes. Malaysian enthusiasts are a friendly bunch and I saw more than a few familiar friendly faces while being engaged with conversation with a few curious folks checking out my car.

Chilling the pits while resting

This Ex WTAC Evo looked insane!

NA RWD Street Class competition

Other classes were very diverse and there were plenty of other gems outside the track

Soon enough it was time for round 2 my allotted runs for my class and I got taught a lesson for my utter lack of preparation by way of a stumble due to the lack of fuel! In my haste, I was not able to get a full tank of fuel before getting to the track and this meant that I was running less than half tank by the time I was heading out for my second hot lap. The first sign of this came at the upslope at Turn 9 when the engine stumbled and I slowed down to try to see if it was anything else like the engine pulling ignition from knock. I tried to string together a lap more gently but it soon became a bit more common and I decided to err on the side of caution and end my run early. The cooler weather did not significantly alter the trouble I was having in terms of managing rising engine temperature so I would have to be content with the best laptime of the first run.

In the office busy busy

Overall standings looked like this

After getting back to Singapore, there was some soul searching to be done if I wanted to break my own personal records and hit the targets I had set for myself in the coming year. Outside of the poor prep which had cost me dearly as my pressures and damping settings were NOT right, these points stood out as what I needed to address:

1. Seat time was a priority. I really needed to get the hours down to get comfortable driving at the new limits.

2. A back to basics plan to identify my new brake and acceleration points would be critical and I intend to seek some form of coaching to unlearn my poor habits.

3. Resolving the issue of heat so I could consistently lean on the engine without being forced to limit revs which is less than ideal. This is on the way to be worked on and should be done before my next event.

4. Some areas in the handling departments were a step in the wrong direction owing to my over reliance on the conventional wisdom but its clear now how flawed that has been. If I had trusted my own feel for how far the balance was changed, I might have done way better.

OEM paint looking nice and shiny in the sun, great pic by BecauseRC.com

I am absolutely astounded by the support I have received in my journey in 2017 from my main supporting partners who have believed in me and kept their trust in me through this long arduous evolution that I have undergone. During conversations at the year end, we realigned our goals and I'm thrilled to say we have a superb 2018 to look forward to. This win is for all of you!

Some might question what exactly the vision for 2018 holds and here's a little sneak peek into what lies ahead for my dear readers. New partnerships to raise my setup to a vastly improved envelope of performance in my quest to reset the limits of what we think is possible for the S chassis, a thorough look at what I as a driver require to operate or maintain the car and plenty more racing in store so keep me on your favorites tab!

Thanks to the following who made this possible:
Achilles Radial for the strong support
LTM Performance for all work done on the car to prep it for the track
Thian Seng Motors for all OEM Honda parts keeping my ride going
Ardeca Lubricants Singapore for the Pure Sports engine oil keeping the engine well protected
MegaLap for the fantastic event, fantastic work by Adian and his team plus use of the pics
BecauseRC for the use of the pic

If it's broke, fix it! Repairs and maintenance for my S2000

2017-10-04T08:47:00.004-07:00

As they say time flies when you are having fun so it has been with more than 9 years of ownership of my 2007 Laguna Blue Pearl Honda S2000 AP2. It has been my trusty steed for numerous drives and track days which have been years of what might be as close to motoring nirvana that I can practically experience. Obviously with all the hard driving the car has gone through, the inevitable wear and tear has eventually necessitated a refresh of some parts to keep the car running the way it should.

Based on a recommended service schedule available at Honda Owners Maintenance Minder , the items I would need to look at for the mileage I cover and age would probably be like:

Replace engine oil and filter.
Inspect front and rear brakes.
Check tire inflation and condition.
Inspect tie rod ends, steering gear box and boots.
Inspect suspension components.
Inspect driveshaft boots.
Replace air cleaner element.
Check parking brake adjustment.
Replace rear differential fluid.
Lubricate all hinges, locks, and latches with multi-purpose grease.
Inspect brake hoses and lines (including ABS).
Check all fluid levels, condition of fluids, and check for leaks.
Inspect exhaust system.
Inspect fuel lines and connections.
Check all lights.
Inspect the underbody

Admittedly this list falls way short of items that would need replacement based on the track usage of the car. The most startling change I noticed would be in the handling where a noticeable amount of sluggishness seemed to be felt getting the car round corners. Narrowing this down to the compliance bushes, I had them looked at and here is what two of them looked like.

In the end, I opted to have the full set of bushes replaced so that I could refresh the handling and hopefully back the lively and communicative handling feel that was the true draw of a driver's car like the S2000. The condition of the rubber bushes were pretty much an affirmation of the sloppy handling being due to the sagging and cracked bushings over a long time of abuse.

Here is what got swopped out, although some of the OEM bushes might have been lost along the way

During the end 2015 time attack event, the vibrations on full acceleration continued to persist after and after checking out a couple of references, I narrowed the issue down to possible CV cup pitting. This stems from a different wear spot formed from the motion of the axle joint on a lowered car and the CV joint begins to pop in and out of the wear spot causing a vibration. Although I don't typically like band aid solutions, I felt one that seemed to fix the issue for the meantime at an inexpensive was to get a Exedium Racing Axle Half Shaft Spacer in order to space out the wear spot and I was happy to be rid of the vibrations this simple fix.

Love getting parts by courier!

Here is the Blox Spacer fitted nice and snug

Unfortunately my power steering also started to throw an error code which caused my power steering to intermittently cut off and on. Sorting this with the help of Thian Seng Motors, my trusted OEM parts supplier, the problem was traced to a faulty power steering module which I replaced and is pictured below.

Check out the module circled in red

I had already noticed from the previous dyno day for fellow S2000s that my power seemed to be even lower than fairly stock condition S2000s even with a less restrictive exhaust system. This started to concern me as the top speeds I managed on the straight, which used to be fairly consistent among stock condition S2000s, were steadily dropping. The top speed records attached below show how the speeds no longer were able to be sustained above 190 kmh Vmax. On the long straight like Sepang Circuit, the main reason for a certain top speed would probably centre around using available horsepower to overcome the aerodynamic drag so if my speed kept dropping , it might signal some loss of power somewhere.

The clearly lower top speeds definitely pointed to a lack of grunt in the motor and this concerned me greatly since the top speed on the straight only tells part of the story. The F22C is a peaky motor and it develops most of its torque and horsepower high up in the upper ranges of the powerband. By clearly losing so much top speed, it basically means any of my full acceleration moments are probably way slower throughout the entire track. Being around 5 kmh slower than my fastest maximum front straight top speed leads me to the disappointing conclusion that my motor is getting visibly tired after these many years of hard track work. I guess this isn't surprising since back in 2013 I had already had some indication that compression numbers tended to hint to one of the cylinders generating less compression than the others by a significant margin.

One fault code that seems to pop up more than most, not that it is common to have a fault code pop up of course, would be the P2138 reading which has the note "TPS/PPS/D,E Volt Correlation". It's a problem with DBW models and you get the first warning signs when the throttle starts to give a non linear response then eventually the check engine light will flash leading to the car running in "limp" mode. With the help of folks on the S2KI forum, the problem was traced to a faulty Accelerator Pedal Position Sensor ( Honda Part Number 37971-PZX-003 ) which needed to be replaced.

Here is how the sensor looks like

There aren't all that many problems with the S2000 over the years based on what I can tell and different model years tended to have slightly different issues but nothing really major which says alot about the level of quality this car was built with. The AP1 has a plastic rear window which would blur out over time, a buzzy clutch, maybe a weak pressure plate that might not take heavy launching , a clutch slave that dies a premature death with track work, some higher oil consumption and a rattling timing chain tensioner. The AP2 has a rattly timing chain tensioner for higher mileage vehicles, once in a while you might get the sensor mentioned above acting up and the same clutch slave issue. Overall, it can be considered fuss free perhaps because it does away with many frivolous additions thus keeping maintenance issues to a minimum thus keeping the driver out of the workshop and on the road to enjoy the car the way it was made to be enjoyed, through the driving!

It's coming to 10 years of ownership from the very first day I drove it out from the dealer's shop and I'm eagerly looking forward for many more years of enjoyment from this car! I hope this writeup proves useful for owners to address issues they face and maybe help those potential buyers to make that decision to buy one to keep just as I am doing.

Here's my sincere thanks to those who helped me maintain my ride over the years:

LTM Performance for the maintenance work on the car

Thian Seng Motors for the genuine OEM parts that I needed to keep the car running great

Stay tuned for more exciting updates coming really soon!

Update:

Since we are talking about the journey of a car that's coming to a fair bit of time with me, I thought it would be a good reference to have my readers get a sense of how my car has evolved over time and the various iterations of how the car looked through the years. I've compiled some pics of the cars and put them in a thread in the Singapore Honda Club so please go there and have a look at the string of photos that I have put in chronological order :)

Here is the link: Photo timeline of how my S2000 has evolved

What happens off the track? Check out the Singapore (and Malaysian!) car culture and scene through the eyes of an S2000 owner...

2016-06-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

So its been sort of an "off season" period for me while my car gets a bit of odds and ends sorted after the last De Garage track day held at Sepang. I've never been to a wholly Malaysian run track event and this event turned out to be pretty crazy with literal door to door type racing even when I was simply trying to get a bit of seat time. Needless to say I definitely erred on the safe side and opted to let the more aggressive drivers by especially since the track was rather damp.

Check out some pics of the turnout below with rare cars like a Nissan Pulsar Gti-R showing up :)

Conditions weren't great as evidenced from the spray off the track...

My friend Neo turned up in his spanking new Toyota 86 stripped out track toy which was prepped by Kenny Lee

We can really see from the crazy variety and number of JDM rides, how the folks in Malaysia really love their Japanese rides despite the ever dwindling availability of new sport models from the manufacturers.

This brought a bit of flashback to the JDM Teh Tarik 3.0 session held in KL that 2 other drivers and I braved torrential rain to attend which gave me a hint as to the amazing fellowship and bonds that JDM rides were able to create among the Malaysian enthusiasts.

Sorry for the dark pictures but the lights had somehow gone out and it was raining throughout the time I was there so do forgive the poorer quality of pics. I hope this gives a feel of what a fun night it turned out to be thanks to the warm welcome by the Malaysian car owners!

The three merry Honda adventurers!

Here are the Malaysian rides, no idea what was the actual turnout but it seemed to us that it could well be roughly 300-400 cars :)

More Supra love! Bryan Chin has a widebody beast of a Supra :O

Spotting the older GTRs is always special

This FD RX7 got plenty of love from the crowd...

Thanks Bee of RaceNotRice.com for inviting me!

Getting back from that trip led me to wonder if our local scene could ever muster that kind of strength of turnout and as it turned out, the opportunity for the Singapore scene to step up and represent came just barely 6 months later in terms of the SIN Underground meet, an "underground" style meet that welcomed cars of every style and make to come forth and be showcased. The organiser was Three Angles Production helmed by Simon and Chris and when they came to me asking if I could invite a few friends, I knew it was time to make some calls and I set to work!

Here is the all important sticker that determined if each car could gain parking entry to the specified area of where the participant cars would be allowed in.

I lost count of the number of people I sent messages individually to invite to this event and I faced questions of every kind imaginable They included how this event was probably going to be killed by the authorities, how it would ever be able to attract all but a small crowd due to the dying scene and tons of others doubts that I just frankly tossed aside and soldiered on with sheer grit.

So what was the result you might ask? Get a load of these videos I took personally you needed any further convincing how insane the turnout was!

The estimates of turnout just blew my mind! I personally handed out 760 stickers and I couldn't get my hands on enough because the demand was constantly increasing with respective groups continually asking for 50 to 100 more stickers every other day. The support was mind blowing and it never even abated through the night with cars queuing up for more than 2 hours to get into the venue as seen in this video here...

Check out the slick shots done by the photographers showcasing their talent... (I'm unabashedly biased so I'll showcase the S2000s first haha!)

Need more JDM love in your life? Check out this wicked video on the JDM rides present here!

Here is my video on a walkaround of that absolutely massive crowd of people and rides...

There are way too many pics and videos to cover this entire event because the overall attendance was a mind blowing >1000 cars! Bikes and vans were in attendance but even excluding them the estimate was of about 1500 cars showing up. Here is a quick sample from my friend Dion and my newly found JDM pal all the way from Germany Ron Ronsen with the handle Fast Emotion Pictures both snapping the best of the crowd...

Click on their links to see more pics!

Here's a special shout out to my fellow S2000 brother Alib who came all the way past the checkpoint from Johor Bahru to bring his fellow R34 Skyline & Supra friends to attend... Loved having you guys join us!

There is no way this kind of massive turnout combined with the relative lack of disruption by rowdy individuals or authorities could be viewed as anything but a huge success. I'm utterly humbled by the trust shared by the enthusiast community that heeded my call when approached by the men from Three Angles (I knew it would be awesome from the start like I said it would!) and this will definitely build on better and bigger over the coming years. This heralds a new era and a breath of revival in the automotive enthusiast community that has be sorely lacking and I'm so amazed to be part of it...

I'll leave you with what I consider my favourite picture which to me totally captures the feels...

Here's my sincere thank you to the following for their trust and credits for their media work:

Three Angles Productions - for hosting such an epic event

JDM Life Singapore - superb effort to keep the JDM love alive

Dionysus Yeo - raw talent with the camera bro

Ron Ronsen - totally love your pics!

Perotography - official media for the De Garage trackday

RaceNotRice.com - for the invite to the JDM TT 3.0 meet, when is the next one???

Dice Photography - for braving the rain to take a shot in the dark of my ride

Zen & Alib - for the S2000 pics of our group

Roaring VTEC's at LTM Performance Dyno day, S2000s galore!

2016-03-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

Over the past year, a local group of S2000 owners that I hang around with have grown in numbers and while brainstorming on new ideas for an event together, I came up with the suggestion of a dynamometer test day to test the respective power our machines might make with conditions kept relatively similar. This would be able to allow us to benchmark our power outputs with a constant reference point so we could check back every so often on how much power increase our upcoming modifications might deliver.

Speaking to the good people of Lim Tan Motor / LTM Performance, we came to a special agreed price of only 88 SGD (including GST) for the dyno run which happened to be an auspicious number that tied in nicely with this being the last week of the Lunar New Year celebrations. The run was to be done at their Mustang Dyno which was situated just 2 doors away from their main performance workshop office at Block 9 Sin Ming

Do check out the previous write up done by 9tro on the launch of their dyno facility here:

9tro: Mustang Dynamometer Now Available at LTM

We had originally intended to get an all S2000 attendance for the dyno runs but as some of our group members were tied up with other commitments, Matthew with his Euro R managed to snag the final available slot for this one time special offer. Still awesome with a full VTEC attendance in my view!

Alvin arrived first bright and early so his sleek matte S2000 wasted no time to putting down the power to the rollers in the cool morning, check out his chart and dyno run below...

Soon enough, the rest of the S2000 family started falling in to take their places in chalking up power runs and we soon had a string of beautiful Hondas filling the air with the aural symphony of VTEC howls, just the thing to start the weekend with! Eugene followed up next with his uber clean stock ride putting down a smooth as silk curve that flowed nicely in torque numbers. Stay tuned for more upgrades cos he's definitely looking forward to improving that curve for more output...

Our comrade in VTEC, Matthew with his fiery red Euro R then joined the fray to get a sense of how much his front wheel drive motor could put out at the wheels. I have no idea how much Matthew managed to garner in his dyno run but considering the lower power loss of the front wheel drive configuration and the fantastic potential of the K20A, I would not be surprised if he had the most powerful readings for the day!

The experienced trio of Alvin and Ah Sao of LTM Performance joined with Andrew of BMS Tuning allowed the runs to be conducted with clockwork efficiency while being able glean some information on how the runs were conducted and the relevant conditions that might contribute to how the readings would experience variation . It also helped point to areas that might need improvement such as torque dips before the VTEC and jagged output readings which definitely would detract from overall performance on the road or race track.

I managed to get my run sorted and you can see the excellent tuning done by my friend Neo to have the power curve rising all the way to the RPM peak even while maintaining the reliability required for multiple hot laps at Sepang Circuit. I'm not too fussed about the absolute output as my car was cold from sitting at LTM for the previous few days and my tyre pressures were immensely under inflated. What I really appreciate is that the torque curve is very flat which is really helps when you want a smooth pull out of corners, try to spot where my VTEC kicks in? :)

Alfred got his clean white ride to put a whopping amount of power down to the ground and the curve shows there is even more on the table to be optimized. This is probably the highest reading S2000 we have for this dyno session so congratulations Alfred!

The speedy work by the trio running the dyno allowed Nicholas to hop into the gap between cars for a quick dyno run before his flight with mere hours to go!

With looks to rival the aggressive fascia of Nicholas' ride, Gabriel brought his J's body kitted ride down for a blast on the rollers, so this is for the J's Racing fan boys here...

With Andrew at the helm and the watchful eye of Ah Sao as the car dismounted the ramp leading up the dyno, the integrity of the bodykit was never at risk.

Yet more J's Racing Goodness was up for eye balling as Zen's Moonrock S2000 with striking red highlights rolled up to post great numbers for what was mostly a fairly straightforward bolt on mod setup.

As you can clearly see, even with the nice numbers garnered, there was still room for tuning improvement to fatten up the torque delivery.

One of my favourite parts of the dyno day is the fellowship that we enjoyed on that day chatting and mingling with one another while trading pointers on our experiences with the S. With the tiny population of car enthusiasts dwindling by the years, I think these are golden opportunities to experience what small automotive community camaraderie we still have.

Alvin squeezed in before some work commitments to get his shot at the dyno and got a decent set of numbers for his lovely custom body kitted ride..

Kelvin was due for his run later in the day as his work schedule didn't allow him to bring forward his dyno session so we proceeded for a couple of group shots which were snapped by a familiar name in the automotive photographer scene, Krado Low. As expected, the quality of the shots were outstanding so check them out below for your dose of S2000 love!

Bringing the day to a close, Kelvin with his clean as a whistle yellow S2000 shared this little collage of his car pics on the dyno combined with his dyno chart which holds plenty of promise considering he has mostly done basic bolt on modifications without a tune.

The most important point is that we thoroughly enjoyed the dyno day session and would like to thank Lim Tan Motor Performance namely Edmund and Alvin for allowing us to be able to have this event run so smoothly and at such a special offer pricing in view of their strong support for the enthusiasts just like you and me. We truly appreciate the bonding we had over this event and look forward to more such events for the local automotive enthusiast community!

Thank you to the following once again for helping make this event possible:

LTM Performance

BMS Tuning

Picture and video credits:

Krado Low

Eugene Cheng

Kelvin Lee

Quality assurance of the parts you fit to your ride, A layman look at the effects of ISO/TS16949:2009 certification to the End Consumer by an Anonymous Automotive Industry Insider

2016-02-27T06:31:00.000-08:00

I'm very pleased to bring to you a new article that was written by a person who I shall name as the "Anonymous Automotive Industry Insider" who was keen to contribute to the aspect of educating the general motoring public on the importance of quality assurance on the parts we fit to our beloved ride. Both for the reasons of ensuring safety and efficiency, the consideration of the quality ensured by the manufacturer proven via achievement of certification is something I believe we should pay more attention to with the advent of a flood of cheaply mass produced items available on the market. Read on to learn the thoughts of your friendly automotive industry insider!

Title: A layman look at the effects of ISO/TS16949:2009 certification to the End Consumer

ISO/TS16949:2009 is one of the most important certificates that defines if an automotive component manufacturer's quality system meets the requirement of the global standard. It is probably the most popular certification sought after by ambitious manufacturers if they intend to carve a niche for their brand. To many laymen end consumers, this certification is mere jargon and seems to be nothing more than an ostentatious award that doesn’t translate into actual effects that can be felt. Contradictory to this common belief, this certification serves as an important backbone to ensure product quality.

What is the ISO/TS16949:2009?

ISO/TS 16949:2009, in conjunction with ISO 9001:2008, defines the quality management system requirements for the design and development, production and, when relevant, installation and service of automotive-related products. ISO/TS 16949:2009 is applicable to sites of the organization where customer-specified parts, for production and/or service, are manufactured. Supporting functions, whether on-site or remote (such as design centres, corporate headquarters and distribution centres), form part of the site audit as they support the site, but cannot obtain stand-alone certification to ISO/TS 16949:2009. ISO/TS 16949:2009 can be applied throughout the automotive supply chain.

Source: http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=52844

Component manufacturers in automotive industry will normally upload their certification achieved online for potential customers to be able to view. The IATF (International Automotive Task Force)number will be printed on the certificate and their validity can be verified via the IATF website certificate validity check.

BREMBO is a world renowned brake specialist needing no introduction as a company with a solid reputation on engineering and quality. They have been diligently keeping up with the management of their quality system ensuring the parts delivered to your hands comply to their engineering specifications. Here is a picture of one of the kits they create:

Source: http://www.brembo.com/en/car/sporting-use/gt-braking-systems

Here is a picture of the ISO/TS16949:2009 certification of the plant in Curno (BU Performance):

Source: http://www.brembo.com/en/company/about/quality-and-environment/quality-certification

IATF Number: 0217930 (Validity Check: http://www.iatf-customerportal.org/ )

To analyze how the achievement of this certification affects us as end users, here are some of the requirements and some of its related description:

ISO/TS 16949:2009 7.1 Planning of Product Realization

It is a requirement for component manufacturers to plan and develop the processes required for a product to materialize. This planning must be consistent with the existing processes of the quality management system. The objectives and requirements of the product in conjunction to the processes and resources must be met. The product must also be checked according to factory engineering requirements and tested according to customer stipulated conditions to ascertain conformity in all circumstances. All these findings must also be recorded as evidence for future reference which is always needed. These can be defined inside the PPAP (Product Part Approval Process) which is a complex structure of requirements documented covering engineering, statistical, legal, logistics and customer requirements.

ISO/TS 16949:2009 6.2.2 Competence, training and awareness

The company achieving this certification must ensure their staff are properly trained to the required competence to ensure they are able to perform their specified job. In this way, staff will have the compentency to run the machines, read the work instructions, understand the specifications and the effects of their duties to produce your brake parts.

ISO/TS 16949:2009 7.6 Control of Monitoring and measuring Equipment

The machinery used for production and measurement must be maintained and calibrated with records so that they will continue to produce accurate readings. These machines must also be protected from damages and safeguarded from unauthorized adjustments that will invalidate their readings. Faulty or inaccurate measuring equipment can lead to products that are unable to conform to specifications leading to risk to user safety or product fit and function compromise.

ISO/TS 16949:2009 8.5.2 Corrective Action

In the case of a nonconformity, the part maker has to take appropriate actions to review the nonconformity which can come in any form and to address the customer complaint by finding out the cause, ensuring it does not recur, reviewing the corrective actions and recording them. This is extremely important as unforeseen circumstances might take place leading to a deviation from the intended plans and actions. Certified part makers are required to respond instead of sweeping it under the carpet. Corrective actions can be carried out for example using the 8-D (Eight Disciplines Problem Solving) concept which is a method developed at Ford Motor company used to engage and find resolution for problems faced.

More on the 8-D concept here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Disciplines_Problem_Solving

The whole of the ISO/TS 16949:2009 is a complex set of requirements so only certified auditors are able to carry out system audits based on it. The full document can be purchased via the following link http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail?csnumber=52844

The ISO/TS 16949:2009 will contribute to the consistency of products that reach your hands that meet all possible requirements defined by the factory in production. In short, if you are buying brake pads, you will get the part that can be installed without problems or risking health through unapproved elements within the composition of materials. The brake pads will also work according to the application it has been designed for and will not burst into pieces unless you exceed the defined circumstances the pads were designed for. The brake balance will work according to your vehicle design and under the correct circumstances drivers should not lose control of your vehicle through braking.

Therefore it is important to source for safety parts like your brakes, suspension, tyres and steering from sources that are ISO/TS 16949:2009 compliant as non compliant manufacturers might not have the necessary system to ensure the product works as intended or simply does not fail under normal operating circumstances.

Written by your friendly Anonymous Automotive Industry Insider.

In the necessarily detailed explanation by the contributor we see the emphasis on ensuring quality which has in fact a direct implication on us regular enthusiasts especially those such as myself who do visit the race track to test our machines and enjoy the driving experience. In the case of brakes, I can't think of anything possibly as bad as a brake failure when diving into the first corner of the long straight at Sepang Circuit!

It is of great assurance to note that Achilles Radial has secured the ISO/TS16949 to give the assurance of quality for the tyres manufactured and here is the picture from their website on this:

I'm hoping this slight departure from the usual article is as educational for you as it is for me and do check to see if your next potential purchase does indeed have the necessary certifications to give you the assurance that the quality is up to your expectations. Happy driving!

Thanks to:
The Anonymous Automotive Industry Insider for his sharing of his technical insight
Aie Mins of Peratography for his picture
AD.AM photography for his picture

Source and picture credit:
Brembo.com
AchillesRadial.com
IATFGlobalOversight.org

Grassroots motorsports in 2015, plenty more in 2016...

2016-02-06T21:19:00.000-08:00

Grassroots motorsports is a term that get tossed around pretty often and is commonly used to refer to motorsport activities which are accessible to the common man to build an interest in the general public for motorsports. Some events are handled with a greater emphasis on safety but others could probably benefit from a greater focus on risk management. Most Singapore motorsport enthusiasts usually cite how few activities are present but there are actually a fair number of options available.

Following my first ever gymkana / autocross style event namely the Grassroots Autotest organised by AutoMoment which you can read in more detail here: http://www.automoment.com.sg/first-time-experiencing-grassroots-autotest/ , I decided to attend another event on the 25th of October which would mark my virgin attempt at the Melaka International Motorsports Circuit or MIMC in short form which was held by the good folks of DriveRite http://www.driverite.sg/ . Having heard how tight and twisty the MIMC track was, I was wondering if my settings were optimized to being able to rotate well at the track.

Making my way down with two Scirocco drivers Eugene and Jason, we reached the circuit early after a smooth drive down the North South Highway to be welcomed by the serene quiet of the circuit.

Spirits were high, lifted by the bevy of cars attending the event and the camaderie in the pits was a joy to witness as the newcomers, such as myself, were extended a warm welcome by the more seasoned participants.

Here's a peek of the number and variety of rides attending the event

We soon convened in the briefing room for a rundown of the event proper where we were acquainted with the circuit, the event schedule including which classes each of us might be categorized under and relevant safety rules we had to adhere to.

Before each of us was let out on the track for our practice runs, we had to pass through a tent where a scrutineering check was done to ensure our cars were fit to get onto the circuit to do some laps. A Qstarz laptimer was also affixed during the check in order to ensure our lap times were logged for the basis of ranking and scoring. I was impressed by the emphasis on safety as that was a critical element in ensuring the success of the event.

Blessed by clear skies, it was soon enough that the event proper kicked off! We were allowed solo practice runs for us to familiarize ourselves with the track after which we had an opportunity to clock our fastest laps for individual ranking. Then followed a semi chase type format where 3 cars were allowed on the track with a conservative gap given between each to give a slight taste of the rush that wheel to wheel driving delivered.

After a trial run at the circuit, I soon found out that the challenge of the circuit was to be to ensure your car could be agile enough to quickly respond to constant changes of direction at low to medium speeds. As this track was built as a go kart track, the speeds that a road car could achieve are not very high but the infield section where the corners are tight and follow one after other challenge the driver to constantly keep the rotation in check until the earliest opportunity to straighten out for the higher speed straightaway.

From modern continental hot hatches to retro JDM 90's legends to humble family saloons, check out the awesome variety of rides taking part!

Probably my favourite pic of my car during this event, perfect timing by Dion allowed him to get a snap of my car taking off with a touch of wheelspin on my solo run

Here's a video by Dion during one of my runs. The white puffs toward the apex are from the substance used to clear an oil spill which necessitated caution

Motorsport is usually a male dominated sport but diversity was present here as the lady participants here pounded the track with their machines with gusto!

During midday, additional entertainment was in store with a couple of purpose built track machines available for taxi rides along with lovely race queens strutting around the pits for photo opportunities

I enjoyed myself very much and was happy to walk away with a podium position despite the obvious lack of familiarity of the track. Although my car did seem more suited for wide open tracks in its setup, I was able to put into practice a fair bit of my car control skills and had fun trying to keep sideways during the tight twisty infield section (perhaps sliding a bit more than I should!)

Here's a video of the summary of events that were organized by the DriveRite team in 2015

Both the efforts by AutoMoment ( www.automoment.com.sg ) and DriveRite to bring the motorsports to the man on the street were even picked by the online media as evidenced by this Yahoo news article Grassroots motorsports gaining popularity in Singapore.

I'm really glad to see the options for local motorsport expanding so rapidly so car enthusiasts can really get to enjoy their rides safely in such events. I'm looking forward to more participation in 2016 so see you there too!

Here's a shoutout to those who helped make this possible:

DriveRite

Achilles Radial

Ardeca Lubricants Singapore

Whiteline SEA

Thian Seng Motors

Lim Tan Motor

Photo credits:

Dionysus Yeo aka Dion

Automoment

W3R Photography

Rev Magazine

Put to the test.... Grassroots Autotest for Grassroots motorsports at your doorstep !

2016-01-02T07:44:00.000-08:00

Do check out the full link here for the writeup I did for AutoMoment for my first time experience at Grassroots Autotest http://www.automoment.com.sg/first-time-experiencing-grassroots-autotest/

Norman was invited by Automoment to try out the Grassroots Autotest Round 2 earlier this year and check out what he has to say about this unique motorsports event!

Text by : Norman De Souza (http://racings2000.blogspot.sg)

Post April TimeToAttack earlier this year, work concerns came to the fore and I didn’t have much time to set my car up before taking part in the 25 May Uber Garage Track day where I managed to slice of a second of timing to clock in the 2:38 range. Despite a spin and relatively bald tyres over a massive 41 lap endurance style stint, the lap times kept dropping the longer I pushed the car. I did, however, notice that I seemed to be getting far more oversteer than I was used to. Little did I know this was to be the symptom of a whole lot of trouble…

The whine in the car from the gearbox got louder and louder while an on throttle shudder began to work and I finally decided to drop my car off at LTM Performance for them to look through the issue. The diagnosis was not good…

A cracked and chipped final drive combined with an LSD which wasn’t locking properly meant big time trouble for me. No one I knew had a used OEM LSD and 4.44 final drive to sell so I missed quite a few track days. I did manage to however take part in my very first gymkhana/autocross style competition organized by the good people of Automoment, the now well known Grassroots Autotest. This event would require negotiating tight corners and donuts which was not the sort of event my car would be actually set up for but I decided to give it a shot to enjoy a day of local grassroots motorsport.

This event poster shows the various courses which were used during the event so you can see how tricky such a course might be.

The skills required in the Autotest would focus more on low speed car control with more focus on how to use the weight transfer of the car to aid turning which is a great skill to learn as it has application on the race track albeit at higher speeds. Being quick with the steering wheel and handbrake would also be vital to keeping speed up and keeping the car pointed the right way. Being a quick learner to the ever changing cone course setup would also be critical as the course was all new to the participants and there was limited time to practice.

The first session consisted of practice sessions during which my friend Dion managed to capture a short video of me trying to manage my way around the cones. As you can probably tell, my driving was very conservative!

To be perfectly honest, low speed car control is not my strong suit and its been a while since I’ve had the time to practice donuts or handbrake turns and the like especially in close quarters to curbs and fences. I still enjoyed the camaraderie among enthusiasts present and got introduced to many new friends. I got to know Chris Chong who I found to be friendly and generous with his knowledge of gymkhana style driving. Check out his awesome skills caught on video here

After practice sessions, we broke out into paired runs and then finally shoot outs between competitors in the same class, mine being Class C which were for the new entrants to this event. Although I didn’t place anywhere near competitive drivers, I really enjoyed the event and wouldn’t rule out tweaking my setup to suit the event conditions. Many of the drivers had specific wheel / tyre setups , alignment settings and even tyre pressures to help them turn better so you can see how seriously they took this event. Here’s to looking forward to my next run at Grassroots Autotest!

For more information on Grassroots Autotest, check out their website (www.automoment.com.sg/autotest) or follow them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GrassrootsAutoTest) for the latest updates! And check out some of the pictures of the participants who added plenty of colour and excitement with their good looking rides.

- See more at: http://www.automoment.com.sg/first-time-experiencing-grassroots-autotest/#sthash.R997NCwp.dpuf

Broken and battered but I'll never quit... TimeToAttack 2015 Finale with my S2000

2015-10-21T08:48:00.002-07:00

Broken.

Yup, the LSD and final drive were toast. I guess the ear shattering whine and shudder felt on throttle should have been clear enough symptoms screaming at me over the exhaust drone. Having hope beyond hope kept me thinking something would work out (cheaply even!) but, as how things always are, nothing worked out and I had to use my old longer final drive to replace the existing shorter ratio.

Here you can see the chipped off section of the final drive and the copious amount of metal shavings

The end result was more sluggish acceleration and what seemed to be an eternity of recovery of a drop between the gear shifts. The CV joints were also shot and I had to get the a drive shaft shop to do a temporary fix otherwise they were deliver a massive vibration throughout the RPM range. Oh yes did I forget to mention the LSD was kaput too? Applying 50% throttle at the apex during the 25 May Uber Garage Sepang track day resulted in the immediate breaking out of the tail forcing me to maintain a 4 wheel drift in order to achieve a 2:38.8 best lap time. This LSD failure proved a much harder issue to solve since nobody seemed to have a spare OEM one to sell until a friend came to my rescue by digging up a used one stored under his bed.

Update: In my discussions with various enthusiasts, I did come across opinions on why I experienced such a failure and it was presented to me that I may have mistook my driving error for a failure of the fairly robust OEM LSD. The contention was that if the OEM LSD was to fail, the car would likely be rendered immobile and there was no way I could continue driving with it. I consulted with Ben Herne aka PuddyDad who is a well known member of the S2KI forum who specializes in building transmissions to find out how such a failure if possible might manifest itself.

He shared with me that the OEM LSD can fail or be broken much more easily than is expected and one would still be able to drive on it except the handling would be drastically altered. Should a test be done by inserting a stub axle and turning the insides of LSD result in no turning of the helical gear, the LSD does not work leading to both driven tyres turning at the same speed. This is similar to what the drift guys do by welding the differential or by drag racing spool differentials to achieve both wheels spinning at the same rate.

This would result in the inside wheel being forced to spin way quicker than it can through corner and ultimately spin leading to oversteer which is consistent with what I experienced. Such sharing shed light for me to identify exactly what issue I faced and I hope this information can help people diagnose and solve any potential LSD issues they face. It must be said that its people like Ben who, with their generous sharing of knowledge and know how, make the S2000 community probably the best community for enthusiasts out there. Ben, you Sir are awesome!

Here's the whole happy family together

Battered.

The drama did not end with the misadventure above! What unfolded next left me really dumbfounded as it would probably the farthest thing I would have thought of which could happen. Coming back one day to my car, I noticed the rubber lining on the edge of the Wasp Composites Race Splitter peeling off. Thinking that it might have just peeled off, I tried to nudge it back along the blade of the splitter but that's when I realized the splitter felt funny. Applying a little pressure on the top face of the splitter, I realized to my horror that it was now flexing greatly!

This splitter had been proven to withstand multiple beatings into gravel and was strong enough for me to stand on so how could it possibly be broken? Looking at the markings on the rubber lining, I came to the conclusion that I had been the victim of a hit and run while parked. Considering I was only weeks away from the 2015 TimeToAttack finals, I sought out the man behind the metal genius at Lye Designs and you can see below prototype aero he was able to fashion. Outstanding!

Despite the homebrew type origins this aerodynamic package appears to have, the details behind the construction have been honed by the input of various enthusiasts in the global forums I frequent who are experts in the area. I've been astounded by their generosity to help me out despite it being of zero commercial benefit to them except merely to help out a fellow enthusiast in need. The entire setup was put together with the hope of simultaneously reducing drag which generating more grip.

With the new setup hastily pieced together, I got down to a shakedown at the 25th September Traction Circle trackday at Sepang with an aim to get some data points to reference to help me prepare fully for the competition the following week. A WhiteLine beefy Anti Roll Bar was added in a bid to increase rear grip and balance what I had earlier felt to be excessive oversteer.

Here's the pic of the anti roll bar which is a solid XXmm thickness beast and 50% stiffer than the OEM S2000 anti roll bar.

Upon adding it, I immediately felt an increased directness to the steering and the nose seemed to be flatter in turning. I had now hopes that the updated setup with the addition of grip would be able to mitigate the multitude of changes and turn the tide of bad luck on the car to a winning advantage.

Things don't always turn out the way one expects it and so it was for my shakedown at Sepang where I realized I was running way too much tyre pressure resulting in the tyres being severly overinflated close to the 39 psi level. This made the car hairy to drive at high speed corners while wearing in the center part of the tread excessively. The longer ratios also needed me to recalibrate my entire system on which gear to use for which corners and that really messed up both shift and braking rhythm. The addition of the WhiteLine anti roll bar did add grip but transferred more load to the rear leading to a higher rear to front tyre pressure balance which threw the handling settings off greatly.

Check out some pics of the entrants during the trackday

I only had time to clock 8 laps of rather embarrassing lap times before it was time for Closed Circuit Trial which was basically a 5-7 lap run of cars from a rolling start. Since it was the first time since I had done anything like this, I tried to stay focused on the drive and not on competitors cars. Moving in to Turn 7 after the rolling start, I was down shifting but was distracted for a moment and grabbed the wrong gear which got the tail of the car out. Knowing there were plenty of cars close by, I chose the safest option and drove into the gravel which promptly rendered my car immobile.

A scene to a prior TimeToAttack season ensued which also saw me jump into the gravel (twice!) and there I was sitting on the tyre wall watching the cars drive by. After being towed back off the gravel and making my way back to the pits, I realized my Check Engine Light was on and since no one was able to clear the code, I resigned to making a drive back to Singapore ending the track day early. Thankfully, no major damage was incurred, with some leaking transmission seals being all the damage recorded. I later found out that I had also lost the transponder attached to my car which became yet another cost I had to fork out for which was kind of the icing on the cake in a nasty way!
It became obvious that I had clearly spent far too little time on vital preparations which made me rather worried about how competitive I could expect to be at TimeToAttack the upcoming week.

Closed Circuit Trial action!

Soon enough, the final preparations were done and it was time to make my 3AM drive up to Sepang for TimeToAttack 2015 Final round with barely enough sleep as usual! My long time friend Tommy joined me to check out the event and I was very glad to have some company on the long drive up. After the drivers' briefing, I got to prepping my car and decided to make the best of what I could do with the hope that I could improve on the horrendous timing at the previous week's track day.

Even the carpark was a sight to behold at this epic event!

Parked in the pits slapping on the mandated stickers

Here's the crowd on the parade lap

Here are some of the pics of how awesome TimeToAttack was and the main draw was the HKS 1000+ GTR piloted by none other than the famous Nobuteru Taniguchi!

Massive speed in this video!

Entering the pits after my 25 min run with the StreetTyre Naturally Aspirated competitors, I was horrified to find I had clocked a dismal 2:42 which placed me 5th or 6th among the competition. The odds were stacked and I was already feeling the strain of lack of sleep. Knowing that I had little choice, I retreated to the media centre after lunch and napped to regain some precious energy. Waking to the buzz of my phone alarm, I noticed the track outside seemed a little damp and Tommy updated me that there actually had been a passing rain shower! That piece of news almost certainly meant that lap times might be slower than the dry morning session which made my heart sink.

Here's the automotive beauty filling the track and pits after my first run

Walking to the pit lane to inspect the track, I noticed that the track did seem to be drying up pretty fast so I composed myself and prepared to get back on the track to see if I could somehow surmount the odds. After warming up the tyres, I stayed focused and concentrated on getting my shifts right at every corner to maximize the powerband even if it meant bouncing off the rev limiter for a tiny bit. I hammered out lap after lap in the enclosed cockpit with no air conditioning and windows fully up for a full 8 laps keeping as calm as possible even through traffic. As I ended my session, I knew I had probably gone faster but was it enough?

Taking a walk with Tommy with Starbucks drinks in hand to check out the activities at various pits and the immense variety of cars on display, I accepted I had probably done the best I could and prayed for the best. As the time sheets were pasted on the wall at Pit 16, a quick glance showed me I had done a best time 2:40.5 which after tallying the 1st run rankings had helped squeeze past 4 competitors to clinch 3rd fastest time and a podium by only 0.3 seconds! Although it was slightly bitter sweet knowing I had really not done a very good time but I was grateful to podium despite the crazy issues I had been facing over the past 6 months.

Threading my way past fellow Street Tyre class competitors

And its a wrap, so its chilling with hazards on the cool down lap

Here I am in the standings for my second podium of 2015!

It has been a crazy Time To Attack season for me in 2015 and I can only pray that 2016 will be better as I aim to come back with all the issues solved for a better shot at the title. As the title goes, I'll never quit so see you at the track!

I would like to individually thank the partners who have made the difference to help keep me running despite the challenges faced!

Achilles Motorsport- The monster grip and communicative feedback of the 123S were instrumental in keeping me competitive throughout.

Ardeca Lubricants Singapore - The Ardeca Pure Sport engine oil held superbly in pressures and temperatures despite being constantly overheated by my 8000+ rpm abuse

Lye Designs - Coming through for me to build me nothing less than an aerodynamic weapon in such a short time was a lifesaver

WhiteLine - Running the anti roll bar clearly delivered an advantage which made the difference when precious milliseconds are the difference between a win and a loss

Thian Seng Motors - My OEM Honda supplier since day 1 of ownership, the speed of their support and knowledge really came through which I was sourcing repair items on super short notice especially since S2000 items are rarely (if ever) stocked

LTM Performance - For the work on the car at short notice, their constant attention helped me through the problems I faced due to wear and tear

Here's the haul for 2015 TimeToAttack season and here's looking forward to more in store for 2016!

Special thanks to:
ZeroToHundred for the epic event , photos and video (go to www.timetoattack.net for more action!)

Photo credits to:
Mat Canyon
Because RC
Adam Photography
Raedi Yusof
Mcclubz
Hei Snap
Automotive Trinity
Awesomepowered.com
Neil S Media
Torqueshots
Dion

ZeroToHundred TimeToAttack 2015 Round 1:. Stay calm and carry on battling...

2015-05-18T07:33:00.001-07:00

Apprehension.

That's probably as close a word I can get to describing how I felt on thoughts on attending ZeroToHundred TimeToAttack Round 1 on 12th April. The car was unable to make it for a shakedown in the Traction Circle Club track day the week before due to shock repairs on the suspicion of a leak. I had mistakenly assumed I had a spare set of brakepads but had to wing it with the existing 50% or less left on the existing set. I only had a one hour session at Johor Circuit to test the new alignment which proved to definitely too short a time to really suss out anything concrete. A new livery done by Project de Creation was on mere days before the actual event which meant I was pretty much back to back in terms of my schedule for sorting out the car.

Still in the Project de Creation workshop just days before!

The lack of preparation reminded me most worryingly of the virtual disaster that November 2013 TimeToAttack proved to be in terms of results. What was different this time around was that expectations on performance had now been heightened simply because of the outpouring of support from the partners who were looking to see me do well.

Here are some pretty shots done by Royston Chong of AutoMoment of the finished livery

It was in this state of controlled pressure that I made the long drive up to Sepang with my friend Wayn who offered to come along to help out. You see, I'm not some hotshot race driver with a whole team who gets to fly up the night before in order to be absolutely fresh with a car fully prepped and good to go. I just run what I bring up that morning after a 4 hour long cross border commute, get under the car to adjust all the bits myself and make notes or changes however best I can to suit the conditions. In that respect, grassroots enthusiasts all over the globe can understand how I felt because that's how things are for us every single event!

Stopping by scrutineering to confirm my entry for Street Tyres Naturally Aspirated Rear Wheel Drive class, I had the warmest of greetings from Tom and Angeline of ZeroToHundred, Allen Aznan of MatCanyon and Nazli Haffiz of Awesomepowered. Allen took the time to get in a couple of shots of my ride for a feature he was thinking to do. You can check out his thoughts on my ride at the link here: Back to Basics | Norman's Driver-Oriented S2000.

Here are some of the shots he got in of my ride

Parking the car into the pits I came across some familiar cars including Steve Toh's red Honda S2000, Zebedee Tay's now widebody Toyota Altezza Mohd Riduwan's shiny blue Civic Type R.

Here some shots of the parade lap with the explosion of colour and variety as what you can expect from a typical awesome turnout for TimeToAttack.

Despite a bit of first session drama with a Evo from Singapore somehow catching fire, the track sessions for all the rest of classes went on smoothly without much interruption. Looking at how the runs were structured, I noted how carefully the classes were planned to ensure reasonable numbers on the track at every outing slot which is testament to the excellent planning by the ZeroToHundred crew. I would be running in the Street NA run which included both Street NA FF and Street NA RWD cars and we had roughly 20 cars that would be out on the tracks so definitely it was a chance to clock a good time.

Soon enough, I got to prepping the car and out I went on the tracks for my allotted first session in the blistering >60 Deg C track temperatures. As I tried to wrestle my way forward through traffic on my out lap, I committed too deeply into Turn 11 and felt the car on the still probably underinflated tyres plow deeper and deeper toward exit gravel! Resisting the instinctive reaction to slam on the brakes knowing that I would probably be stuck if I did so, I maintained throttle while keeping my steering absolutely straight as I charged right into and bounced out of the gravel trap. To my relief as I wobbled along the straight, I felt that the car seemed to be still in decent shape so I soldiered on to try clock my best lap. I was hoping I did not have brake duct wiring dragging behind me in a long line like in Apr 2013 TimeToAttack!

Remember this from that 2013 TimeToAttack? I was sure hoping I didn't repeat that!

Still didn't get away unscathed and was left with a dangling brake duct -_-"

The lack of preparation showed as I struggled with a rusty sense of the track, having not been to Sepang in almost a year since May 2014 9tro'us Track day. My braking points and throttle points were rushed, lacking the smoothness that would earn me precious time savings. Potentially worst of all, my tyre pressures were utterly off the mark with far too high pressures at the rear which forced me into countersteering to manage the slide all the way from apex throttle application point to the track out. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that it wouldn't be the quickest way around a corner but I knew I didn't have much choice so I would have to just wing it. Thankfully, the excellent feedback delivered by the Achilles 123S delivered all the feel I needed to keep the rear break out in check in an ever so slight drift, perhaps this was the drift DNA inherent in the tyre showing its prowess!

Getting back to the pits at the end of the run, I found that other than the broken rear brake duct and some scratches on the underside of the splitter, the car was generally alright. It was a huge relief that the splitter had not exploded like a lesser material have from such a high speed impact in the deep gravel! My timing however was pretty lousy having only managed a best lap time in the 2:42 range. I had still managed to place 3rd fastest but I knew how precarious that position might be since my timing was definitely way too slow.

Checking the car out in the pits post Run 1

Car resting in the pits while the driver grabbed lunch

Steve Toh had grabbed 1st while Zebedee's car piloted by William Chong had managed to take 2nd. Sitting in the pits with Steve, Zebedee and William, we chatted for a bit and it struck me that it was probably the calmest I had felt in any track day or time trial event. It was this sense of calm that followed me as I assessed that problem with the pressures and what to do for the second round. Checking the condition of my tyres 123S which looked to be holding up rather well, I clamped the broken duct to a fixed point on the chassis and took the opportunity to take a walk down the pits to have a look at the bevy of beautiful rides that every TimeToAttack inevitably draws. From exotic supercars all the way down to vintage muscle, it seemed that gathering of automotive awesomeness just went on pit after pit after pit....

Here's a video I took of that pit walk, do pardon the iPhone quality!

Pics of automotive enthusiast eye candy galore

Checking out the condition of the clouds above, there was a hint that rain clouds might appear but a strong wind pushed the clouds away and that meant that the second run would be dry with a substantially cooler track. This meant that the times in Run 1 would likely be superseded with quicker times in Round 2 so I needed to be at my level best if I wanted to at least retain my positioning. An unfortunate retirement by Zebedee's Altezza meant it was anyone's guess who 2nd and 3rd positioning would go to should their times clocked exceed the Altezza's 2:41 in Run 1. Knowing that it was very likely that peak pressures would now be significantly lower than in Run 1, I decided to keep the pressures the way they were in order to try to see if the oversteer balance would be somehow right itself assuming cooler temperatures kept the rear tyres more grippy.

Here are some of the pics of the track action showing mean machines in action trying their best to dominate their respective classes

Here's me doing engaged in some wheel to wheel action while trying to pass

Queuing up behind the cars in my class eager to be released onto the track, I felt composed in an almost surreal fashion and was determined to do my best in a bid to finish well. When the lights turned green, I cleared the pit lane and was into Turn 1. Maintaining 70-80% of my usual pace in order to heat up the tyres properly, I then began the first of my hot laps. Knowing that my alignment had already been messed up by the gravel incident, I braked slightly early for T1 but could feel understeer building on turn in which I later found to be due to a terribly low caster angle. The nagging understeer continued throughout and began to rear its ugly head at the critical Turn 5 and 6 that I usually did rather decently at. I kept my cool and managed at as best as I could by trying to turn in early and using the tail happy nature of the current setup to edge out the exit in the 4 wheel slide fashion.

Here is a video of my quickest lap showing the slide I had to constantly correct due to the sub optimal pressure combined with wretched state of alignment even though in many corners I was only putting down 50% throttle. The deadly double whammy of poor setting caused me to suffer from both understeer and oversteer which made me lose tons of time.

After a bit of slowdown, I noticed a red car entering my rearview mirror and it was Steve who was on his fast lap. You can see his video below as he catches up to me.

Curious how the view was from my car? Check out my video of the same Turn 15 where you can me having the correct the slide even though I was only part throttle out from the corner!

In no time at all, it was time to pit again as Run 2 came to an end. I noted how nicely the 123S had held up under the abuse and it was most certainly delivered a huge contribution to the result with predictable progressive grip to a very high limit. The Wasp Composites splitter strength allowed me to get through a gravel trap that would most certainly have destroyed any lesser material while maintaining rigidity to deliver high speed grip through the high value high speed corners. Ardeca Pure Sport 5W40 was held pressures resolutely high even as temperatures climbed inevitably due to the heat, giving me the whole hearted confidence to go pedal to the metal. Support from these partners had really given me an excellent platform to hopefully snag some results so it was rather nail biting not knowing my lap timing even as the prize giving ceremony began to commence since Street NA was the last category to get their track runs.

Why did I not have access to how quick my lap time was you might ask? I might have forgotten to mention that I had realized I had lost my Racelogic Performance Box only the night before along with my helmet and gloves! I had to make do with no gloves and a borrowed ill fitting helmet so it was not particularly comfortable during the competitive runs.

As the results began being announced I stood rapt with attention as they announced the 3rd place winner to be Zebedee who had someone stand in to collect his trophy. Could I have managed to squeeze my way into 2nd or was I displaced by someone with a quicker time? The worry turned to relief as the presenter announced my name for 2nd place with a 2:39 timing! Although a timing I considered to be definitely much slower than what I expected myself to be capable to achieve, I knew that this was probably as good as result as I could have hoped for all things considered and was very grateful for that!

Here's me accepting the trophy for my 2nd placing

Group pic for all podium finishers for the Street NA RWD class

Making the long drive home with Wayn for company, I mused on what the result could have been should certain outcomes have turned out differently. It then struck me that well, as it was in life, sometimes things are the way things are in racing. Sometimes the best laid plans are tossed into the drain during the critical moments and sometimes the most haphazard of preparations result in outcomes far exceeding your expectations. I'm truly grateful to have validated the faith and support of all those who held high hopes of my success and for 2015, what's left is to stay calm and carry on battling...

Thanks to the following partners for their strong support:
Achilles Motorsports
Wasp Composites
Ardeca Lubricants Singapore
YHI Singapore
Counterspace Garage
Wayn Wong for the trackside support

Photo/Video Credits to the following:
ZeroToHundred.com
MatCanyon
Raedi Yusof
Project de Creation
Steve Toh
Royston Chong of AutoMoment
Hazwan Nazjims of TrafficOnlineMag.com
hayashi86.com
Mcclubz
RaceNotRice.com
Because Race Car
9tro
Praveent Chelvam of HyperTune

Trial by torture... Ardeca Lubricants on the track and street!

2015-04-10T07:28:00.001-07:00

It's commonly said that if the "heart" of the car is its engine, the 'lifeblood' of the engine must be the engine oil. This saying definitely highlights how crucial the performance of the engine oil is viewed to impact the overall performance of the car. On a car doing track duty in a super hot track like Sepang Circuit, the level of abuse the engine oil takes in the engine is many times higher and thus the choice of engine oil is very important to both wring out maximum performance whilst ensuring protection for the engine.

When I first got my S2000, I mostly relied on the regular dealers to give me necessary advice on when to change my oils and what oils to use. After a particularly shocking incident, I then began to realize that I would need to do the necessary research if I wanted to ensure my engine oil choice would be optimal for my usage for peak performance at the track. These were the factors I looked out for:

1. The right viscosity

I was taken aback on how many people and experienced mechanics, despite the huge resources available online which were even sometimes provided by the oil principals themselves, seemed to makepoor choices were made in this area. To put things very simply, the engine manufacturers (Honda in my case) had already determined how thick or thin an oil would be in accordance with tolerances in the engine. Challenging that design by using oil of a viscosity significantly higher would be absolutely taking unnecessary risks in my view.

2. The amount of protection

Engine oil manufacturers usually supply a technical data sheet with many specifications informing consumer on how the oil will act at high or low temperatures and even indicators of potentially how long the protection will extend.

A simple Google search would be able to give you information on how to decipher the technical terms in layman understanding. When you overlay the information you have on the engine oil with what information is provided by the oil manufacturer, its easy to make an informed choice for the oil suiting your needs. Sub optimal engine oil choices exist but why would I want to spend money on an oil that doesn't protect as well or has protection that is half that of peers?

3. Price

This seems like a no brainer but what I did find out was that there were many brands that seemed to demand a premium for performance claims. In some cases, the premium was easily 30-40% more than a similarly well respected peer brand. Why the discrepancy? It seemed plausible that much of the premium came from the aggressive marketing of the premium brand when actually the oil was made by less well regarded brand with a slightly modified additive package then packaged and rebranded as a premium product.

In many cases, these premium products tended to be very skimpy with details (most don't provide technical data sheets which is a big hint) and rely on quoting XYZ celebrity or big money marketing campaigns to cement their repute and thus inference of quality. As a self funded enthusiast, I look clearly for an oil that has good value for money since I do end up changing oil rather regularly so such premium products hold no lustre for me no matter how sexy the advertising is.

For many years, I ran my car on the Motul 300V which has a stellar reputation in all the areas mentioned above except maybe for the price point as it did command a premium. Am I satisfied to pay that premium? Sure! Running my engine for 160,000 kms on Motul, including the punishing track mileage I put the oil through, is the clearest testament to the superb quality of the oil.

Have a look at the technical data sheet for the Motul 300V Power 5W40 here which is a oil principals provide to aid in choosing the right oil spec for each person's ride. These results were garnered from a test of a sample of virgin (unused) oil.

While it may be confusing for those who are not well versed in the technical terms, the following results stood out for me:

Viscosity at 100°C (212°F) ASTM D445 13.6 mm²/s

This points to the thickness of the oil at a specified temperate which gives one an idea of how much protection the engine may have from the oil when the engine is heated up. Having a number too low means the chance of the oil not lubricating enough and allowing friction wear is higher. Having a number too high means the oil is very "thick" and may make the engine feel sluggish.

TBN ASTM D2896 8.25 mg KOH/g

TBN stands for Total Base Number which is a way to measure how much reserve alkalinity is available provided by the additive package since through combustion and other areas, acidity is introduced to the engine. Having a higher number is good since it pretty much means you can keep using this oil (except if the oil is contaminated by say particles of sand which somehow sneaked past your air filter) even beyond your usual rule of thumb oil change intervals.

There is, however, probably no better way to figure out how well the oil performs than by doing a periodic engine oil analysis. This involves taking a sample of the used oil from an oil change and sending it to a lab where it is put through a series of tests. This will then tell us indicatively how much life the oil has and how well the oil has protected. Sending the Motul sample I had used to Blackstone Oil Laboratory, I then came back with results suggesting that even 15,000 km oil change intervals might be appropriate! This, of course, flys in the face of the conventional wisdom to change your engine oil every 5,000 km or be prepared for catastrophe.

After using Motul for so long, I came across a Belgian brand called Ardeca Lubricants. Interestingly, the very specifications that had made me perk up were similarly displayed in the Pure Sport 5W40 product. Best of all, the product was clearly much more reasonably priced.

Here is the technical data sheet of the Pure Sport 5W40 to compare some data

Let's take a look at the same numbers I highlighted for the Motul 300V Power 5W40 versus the Ardeca Lubricants Pure Sports 5W40

Viscosity at 100°C ASTM D445 13.85 mm2/s

The Ardeca oil in fact runs very slightly thicker than the Motul when the engine is hot so in my mind, there isn't much of a significant difference in this department.

Total Base Number ASTM D 2896 7.4 mg KOH/g

The additive package in the Ardeca oil may be slightly less than that of the Motul oil but let's take that into perspective and delve a bit deeper into the analysis. In the interest of ensuring peak performance for the engine oil, the general enthusiast isn't probably looking at comparing 20,000 oil change intervals between the both oils. 10,000 to 15,000 kms is probably the limit that most would consider to be reasonable and in this scenario, the difference in TBN is probably not realistically going to make much of a significance. The savings possible then from a cheaper oil are now apparent.

Virgin oil samples are, however, probably not as convincing as trial by fire on the track so off to the tracks we go! I decided to run the oils for about 10,000 kms and managed to squeeze in some trackdays in that mileage:

9tro'Us 2014 Sepang Trackday

Giving taxi rides was the order of the day (Photo by 9tro)

Giving taxi rides sideways after doing landscaping at Sepang was the Special of the Day (Photo by Raedi Yusof)

PG Trackies Johor Circuit 3rd April Trackday

Which blue would you pick? NA or Turbo?

Late to the line up meant I got stuck way at the back of the pack

Traffic jam at Turn 1!

PG Trackies Johor Circuit 12 Sept Trackday

Lining up for the Normally Aspirated 5 Lap CCT

Caught just before the finish line as I bagged 1st place (Photo by Shot By Royston)

Group pic for the winners of the CCT with the winning NA and Turbo cars

Once I was done with the oils, I changed them out and send the oils off for the good folks at Ardeca Lubricants Singapore to have the oils tested by BlackStone Oils. Why was an oil test necessary? Here is a link by the good people of Blackstone explaining why oil analysis is important and useful but in short, testing the oils in the laboratory is the only objective and data verified way of truly knowing how the oil has performed and how much lifespan we can expect from it.

Blackstone Laboratories - What is oil analysis?

I was a bit apprehensive about the test numbers as I had unwittingly run too much octane booster over the few events and this caused the oil temperatures to remain much higher than I would liked them to. Would this mistake result in a contamination of the sample such that it would compromise the performance overall additive package and reduce the useable lifespan?A sample of unused or virgin oil was sent along with the sample that had been run in my F22C engine and this was for the purposes of ensuring we know how the oil profile looked like fresh out of the bottle compared to its post usage profile.

Here is the report on the virgin sample of Pure Sport

Here is the report on the used sample of Pure Sport

In brief, the results were truly confidence inspiring with the report stating that I could look forward to try a 15,000 km oil change interval as compared to the current 12,000 km done even with the abuse of 3 track days. Apart from fuel contamination by the overly rich mixture caused by excess octane booster and additives from the octane booster, these are probably the kind of results you can see from premium oil peers. The key results that struck me were that the oil doesn't seem to have sheared down much from the original state which is probably due to its ester core base.

It is very interesting to note that the traditional wisdom to have oils changed out after 5,000 or 10,000 km is likely to be much too early. This objective testing allows me to use the oil wholly reassured that I'm keeping my engine well protected throughout my track sessions and focus on driving to the limit.

The quality in the Ardeca Lubricants lineup of products extends to the rest of its product range and what better way to showcase this than to do another "torture" test on their range of regular oils. For this test, I used my Honda Jazz family runabout to absolutely try to test the limits of longevity since it would be representative of the typical family runabout and usage environment. The car in question was a 2006 model with a manual gearbox and had already seen more than 200,000 km of mileage of road use. In went Ardeca Syntec 5w40 and 30,000 kms of grocery getting, school runs and ferrying of the family took place before I got the oils changed out for fresh oil.

Here is the virgin sample of Syntec

Here are the results of the 30,000 km run

Daily driving might be considered quite abusive to engine oil since the engine tends to operate a lot of the time not fully warmed up and stop and go traffic with its lack of steady operation combined with higher fuel mixture taking its toll on the lubricant lifestyle. It's often mentioned that oil change intervals should be around 15,000 to 20,000 km for a family car or every half yearly for optimum performance and protection.

In this case, I used a year's worth of 30,000 km of mileage to truly push the limits and yet the oil has performed very well being limited to a large degree by dirt which I believe is the result of a dirty air filter. Owing it to this being a non ester core oil, it was expected that the oil would shear down which is seen in the TBN dropping to about 2.5. I had expected a recommendation to reduce oil change intervals to 20,000 to 25,000 km but looks like even 30,000 km seems fine for this oil as suggested by the good people of Blackstone.

In conclusion, despite the low profile of the brand, I am absolutely confident to run with Ardeca Lubricants Pure Sport in my S2000 for my 2015 season of racing owing to the superb results of the torture test I ran the oil through. I'm happy to rock the Ardeca Lubricants decals and have embarked on partnering with Ardeca Lubricants Singapore to do further testing on the Pure Sport product which I look to do further updates on while potentially expanding the range of products covered. Thumbs up for a brand that delivers stellar quality which can stand the most rigorous standards of trial!

Shout out to those who made this possible:

Ardeca Lubricants Singapore

Achilles Radial

Wasp Composites

YHI Singapore

Counterspace Garage

Media credits to:

Jerry & Kelvin for their PG Trackies pics

Shot by Royston for his pictures

Rev Magazine for lovely shots

Technical info credits:

Motul & Ardeca Lubricants for their technical data sheets

Achilles 123S testing... Track racing trial and testing!

2015-04-05T21:53:00.000-07:00

The Achilles 123S is a tyre that has gone unnoticed by many in Singapore and Malaysia which is surprising since the older version of Achilles 123 was the official tyre for the Sepang 1000km Race in 2009 and this tyre has even been run by the winning car in the Formula Drift event in Singapore in 2012. This lack of notice is even more surprising since they are currently being run on the leading Formula Drift car piloted by Daigo Saito who dominated Formula Drift US Irwindale in October 2014.

Check out this cinematic clip of Daigo with Achilles Radial team!

Seeing how much promise the tyre has to deliver high performance at a surprisingly affordable price, I decided to try them out to see if they would actually be able to match up to the current top reference tyres in my mind: namely, the Advan Neova AD08 and Hankook Ventus RS3. The Advan AD08 delivered super sharp response with great progressive grip rain or shine with a relatively moderate fall off in grip over the heat cycle while the Hankook RS3, although cheaper, was super sticky when fresh but tended to be a bit lacking in feel, be rather tricky to drive in the wet and had a fairly steep drop off after a few heat cycles. Where would the Achilles 123S end up in comparison to these 2 great tyres?

Here's some shots of the super aggressive tread pattern of the tyre

Although I could not get my hands onto a 255/40/17 Hankook RS3 which has an advertised tread width of 9.6 inches for comparison, I got the next best thing to compare with which was a 255/35/18 AD08 which has an advertised tread width of 9.9 inches so its clear to see the 123S, despite being slightly narrower runs very wide indeed!

When you don't have a ruler on hand, the key comes in handy to measure tread depth! This is about a 5mm tread depth which is optimal for out of the box racing use.

Referring to the Achilles 123S page here, we can see the major benefits touted:

1. Twin Centre Grooves Design
2. Rounded tread design
3. Rim Guard Protection
4. Solid Centre Rib
5. Highly strengthened block and strong tyre shoulder design

The combination of all these attributes are meant to deliver a tyre that excels on the street and track racing performance. Considering the reasonable price and the multi year warranty that is extended on the tyre, most buyers of these tyres should be pretty comfortable knowing that choosing this tyre won't overshoot their budget or compromise on safety. Track enthusiasts like myself, however, would really focus on the both daily driveability and the ability to achieve good track timings when running these tires. So after a few weeks of driving the tyre around on the street, it was off to the track!

Heading down to the 9tro'us Track Day , I got a good feel of how the 123S would perform in the scorching hot weather on that day and even managed to get some data on the performance of the tyre via my RaceLogic Performance Box which gives me the grip numbers via a G force readout. Let's break down the numbers into a performance department comparison versus a currently well regarded tyre for tracking namely the Hankook RS3 Z222 by making reference to the average G forces generated over a series of runs done.

A) Straight line braking on the front and back straights:
In terms of heavy braking from high speed, both RS3 Z222 and 123S perform at a very high level and exceed 1 G of brake force and there is not much gap in terms of grip potential between them both.

B) Low speed corners:
The grip difference seems to favor the RS3 yet the 123S is only separated by a mere 0.1 G meaning this difference is really slight and might only be truly apparently driving when you are seeking that additional couple of tenths of a second.

C) Mid to higher speed corners
Considering that the aerodynamic effects dominate at these speeds compared to mechanical effects, it was relatively more easy to get stable results to spot a difference as spikes in readings tended to be slightly less. Once again, the difference was similarly slight but there was a clear consistent bias to RS3 Z222 having a higher grip.

Overall despite me having mechanical issues which resulted in my lap times being rather below expectation, I was able to get some valuable feel of how the tyre performed. Firstly, the feel and response of the tyre were at a very high level and definitely close to the excellence of the Advan AD08 leading me to be very confident to push the limits as I had very good feedback through the steering. Secondly, the tyres were sticky and maintained their grip well despite the blistering hot conditions during which many tyres would have succumbed to. Thirdly, the outright grip was very close to the super stickiness of the Hankook RS3 as validated from the data generated. Even my friend Gerald Tan who races at a pretty high level commented on how nicely the tyres seemed to perform!

Here is a video link of how exciting the track day was! Can you find my car in there? ;)

In between this and the next track day, I did a fair bit of daily driving which gave me a chance to experience the tyre on day to day driving use. During the dry weather driving, the noise generated from the tyre was on the high side but for an enthusiast driver like myself, the noise was really nothing new and pretty much in line with what most tyres of this category would be like. For the wet weather, due to the shallower tread depth, one had to be cautious not to get into deep puddles as aquaplaning would occur. Even so, the tyre was very communicative throughout and would "remind" me how close to aquaplaning I might be getting close to. Definitely a tyre that I had no problem living with for daily driving use.

The next trackday I attended was the (12 Sept PG) where with the help of the tyres, I managed to snag 1st Place in the Normally Aspirated CCT challenge! I had a leaky exhaust manifold to contend with which slowed me down a little and my settings for alignment and damping were off the mark leading to me being lacking in confidence (the walls are pretty close at Johor Circuit so I'm not afraid to say I have good reason to be really conservative!) but despite that made some improvement to my personal best.

Here are some pictures of all the fun I had at the event! Grassroots motorsports at its finest...

After the track day, the tyre was fairly worn but in a rather even manner as you can see from the pics below:

I did, however, have an issue on the final few laps of the CCT which caused me to have unstable handling when applying or backing of the throttle. I found out that the tyre had developed a bulge which you can see from the pics and video below.

Watching this video u can see where the block bulges as the tyre rotates

These two pics show a close up static shot of the bulge

The development of such bulges does not mean that the tyre is in any way lacking in quality as tracking the tyre with high camber like I do puts huge stress on the car especially since I tend to run about maybe 20 hot laps or more at a go even on a worn set so from time to time, such faults appear. I had used another set of 123S all the way down past the tread marker bars and no such bulge had developed so I'm actually very confident in the tyre quality and construction.

I've taken pains to deliver a fair and transparent review of what the strengths and weaknesses of the Achilles 123S and I hope this has been informative to those who want to pick a tyre and are presented with this choice. I strongly recommend this tyre to any of my friends especially those who enjoy going to the race track as it's balance of both excellent performance and great affordability make it a powerful proposition so I have no reservations in doing so. Do look forward to see me use this tyre more often at the next track events and maybe even competitions!

Credit to the following for their strong support:

Achilles Radial

Ardeca Lubricants Singapore

Wasp Composites

YHI Singapore

Counterspace Garage

Media credits to:

AutoMoment / Shot by Royston for the pictures

Rev Magazine for their coverage of the PG Trackie event

Aaron Hia for his pictures

BROOKSFILMS for the video of Daigo

525 Studios and 9tro for the video of the 9tro'us 2014 trackday

Enkei GTC 01 Hyper Black track test review

2014-12-14T17:17:00.000-08:00

Late in 2013, I explored the option of switching to a wider wheel in the hope to realise more grip from the slight stretch on tyres that many spoke about. After some discussion with S2000 racing drivers, I was told that the gains would probably be much less dramatic than what I hoped they might be but I should consider having a wheel that was both durable and rigid if I planned to continue racing in the events that I regularly partake in. That got me interested in the concept of wheel rigidity and I began searching online which resulted in me coming across this article by Option Magazine below:

In short, the article aimed to emphasize that to some extent, putting up with a bit more weight in the wheel but compensating with much higher wheel rigidity might make a positive performance difference. This piqued my curiosity and I considered how I could enhance my setup in this way. The Enkei RPF1 that I used was pretty strong for the light weight wheels that they were and it felt great to have a light weight wheel with excellent steering response which made the car feel nimble. I did, however, receive feedback that going to wider wheel width in the RPF1 design might increase the chances of more easily damaging the wheel barrel during hard driving. With that point of concern in my mind, I decided that along with going wider in wheel width, I'd have to also go to a stronger wheel and specifically, a wheel that is much stiffer.

But what exactly is stiffness and what would a switch to the stiffer wheel achieve?

Stiffness, as defined on Wikipedia, is the extent that an object resists deformation in response to an applied force. This is not to be confused with strength which indicates the difficulty for an object to break. So having a strong wheel may still result in a wheel that deforms at the application of a force, in this case the forces under cornering and braking, but returns to its original shape thereafter.

Forged wheels would be great as they delivered high material tensile strength and yield strength allowing the wheel to return to its original shape when stretched better than a cast wheel but were prohibitively expensive. Cast wheels by Enkei deliver motorsport grade strength while maintaining reasonable cost so I focused my attention on Enkei's line up to find the stiffest wheel I could get which would be within my budget. After a bit of reading up, I decided to go with the Enkei GTC 01 in Hyper Black for a couple of very compelling reasons:

1. The GTC 01 employs MAT DURA Flow-Forming process that has technology derived from Super GT to allow the wheels to attain competition strength and rigidity.

2. Anti Slip paint on the bead reduces the chance of tire slippage and distortion during the stress of the racing situation.

3. The wheel is heavier than the Enkei RPF1 I was currently running but still relatively reasonable in terms of how much weight is added and to trade off some weight for better performance potential plus enhanced durability is a good compromise in my book.

4. Pricing was very reasonable and I got excellent support from Isaac Tan of YHI Corp on technical aspects of the wheel such as offsets and clearance.

5. What a beautifully designed wheel in a brilliant colour! Those massively curved outward spokes could accommodate some serious big brake kits...*hint* lol!

Here are some pictures of the wheel:

Check out that twin valve setup that was derived from the need to purge air from one valve while filling of nitrogen; a sign of it's motorsports DNA.

Finally they are fitted!

Initial impression of the wheel were that the weight was definitely noticeable as the steering effort required had increased. Fuel consumption and power delivered to the ground did not see any dramatic changes thankfully. Due to wider wheel stance and the increased width, I did have to get a bit of fender adjustment done to prevent rubbing of tyres on the bodywork.

Soon enough it was time to hit the track and so it was that the spanking new wheels made their track debut in the Nov 2013 Time To Attack.

Unfortunately, I was not able to perform at my best during the November 2013 Time To Attack but I came away with some pretty good feedback on the tyres. I ran with the same size 255/40/17 Hankook RS3 tyres on RPF1 and with the GTC 01, the generally numb feeling RS3 were now giving me a lot more feedback through the steering. It could possibly be due to the slightly wider wheel width employed but since that increase was only 0.5 inch, I wouldn't attribute that much improvement to such a small change.

The only way to get more understanding of how the wheel helped me would be to...do more track work! And so I did at PG Trackies outing to Johor Circuit...

And more at the 9tro'us Track day at Sepang Circuit...

Oh yes drifting does help validate the increased feedback available LOL!

Although I didn't post any record shattering times at Johor Circuit or Sepang Circuit due to engine and suspension problems, one thing that remained apparent is that the wheels provided plenty of excellent feedback which was critical at braking and cornering. This allowed me to confidently push closer and closer to the limits available with the reassurance that the wheels would not fail at the limit while providing vital "talk" through the steering to let me know what was going on at the contact patch.

Here's a huge thumbs up to Enkei!

More pics of the car with the GTC 01s at the recent 9tro'us Arena

Let me leave you with a sweet pic by Isaac who snapped a shot while I popped into YHI Advanti Centre for a tyre rotation...

Credits to:

YHI Corp for their support

Isaac Tan for his pic and technical help

Option Magazine for the use of their article
Alan Tay for his picture at PG and 9tro'us Arena

Raedi Yusof for his pic of my drift

Wayn Wong for his pics at Time To Attack

Allen Aznan for his pic at Time To Attack

9tro for the awesome 9tro'us Track Day and 9tro'us Arena events and photos

Grassroots motorsports at Johor Circuit @ Pasir Gudang, back after years of absence!

2014-05-21T01:03:00.003-07:00

Seeing how the start of the year had been way too busy for me to catch some seat time at the track, i decided to take the opportunity to tag on to the PG Trackies track day at Johor Circuit at Pasir Gudang. Many of my long time car buddies were attending this weekday track and with the low traffic expected, I was pretty sure this would be a really fun event!

With the excellent turnout, here's a pic of the pits with all the cars being prepped and enthusiasts raring to go...

In some ways, Johor Circuit has always been to me the spiritual home of grassroots motorsports for Singaporean trackies. I fondly remember my first outings here with my S2000 and even the joyrides given by experienced trackies in their cars (once in an Integra Type R and another being a passenger to a drift lap by Denis Lian in his Evolution 7). With the cosy pit setup, the trackies always mingle around and I never fail to make new friends at every outing to Johor Circuit.

Here is my ride all prepped in the pits.

Qstarz dataloggers were available for rent to help do real time logging of lap times

With a quick safety brief done by the committee members of PG trackies, I began to prep my car for the track and lowered the pressures on my year old Achilles 123S. Considering how the rough track surface of Johor Circuit literally demolishes tyres, the reasonable pricing of 123S combined with the excellent grip of the tyre provides a powerful incentive for me to use this as my daily driver cum track day tyre.

Have a look at my Achilles 123S before the tyre shredding laps, looking good for a year's worth of road usage plus a Sepang track session no?

As it has been more than 4 years since my last visit to Johor Circuit, I was honestly quite lost on the circuit and had to spend some time figuring out which gear to use, what speeds to enter and when to brake. Compounding those complexities was the fact that my suspension was now extremely stiff and had a short stroke which meant I was constantly skipping and hopping through the undulations and extremely bumpy surface. That extra torture on the tyres meant that the tyre pressure ran about 4 psi higher than I realized and I only realized the lack of grip later about two thirds of the way through the session when i got down to checking my tyre pressure. I had assumed the tyre pressure would be similar to what I faced at Sepang but I guess I shouldn't have taken that for granted!

Here are are some of the awesome rides at Pasir Gudang and shots of my car :)

My unfamiliarity of the track constantly caused me to be in the wrong gear for many of the elevations of the circuit and for a low torque car like mine, that was critical for me to achieve good lap times. Knowing that the runoff area for the circuit was actually very small meant that I definitely took far less liberties than I usually did in terms of cornering abilities. There were two casualities for that track day and both ended up rather beaten up after wall collisions which reminded me to moderate my driving and stick to a more conservative pace than I would have liked in the interest of safety. At the end of the day, the most important was for me to get some proper practice time behind to wheel to keep current with my car's handling behaviour.

More pics of the cars at full attack on the track!

After the open track session ended, it was time for the Turbo cars to line up for their Turbo class CCT (Closed Circuit Trial). The attendance was a full Subaru WRX line up which made for a bellowing boxer beat from start to finish!

Here's two Turbo class CCT clip, hear that boxer roar!

Turbo Class CCT Video Link
Turbo Class CCT Video Link 2

It was an all Subaru battle!

Towards the end of the session, I decided to join the NA (Normally Aspirated) CCT for a bit of wheel to wheel racing over 5 laps. The other participants included a Honda Civic Type R, a Suzuki Ignis Sport, a Subaru TS and a Civic EK4. Coming late to the lineup, I lined up last but decided to do a rocket start launch to try to sneak my way in between the participants.

Check out this video for the battle that ensued...

NA CCT Video Link

NA CCT Video Link 2

NA CCT pics!

I ended up with 2nd place for the CCT behind the Honda Civic Type R helmed by my friend Isaac but it was all good clean fun and I could tell there were some issues with my car besides the lack of track familiarity. For starters, I could have softened my suspension to match the track better as the hopping around really delayed me being able to put the throttle down early. My alignment seemed to be off leading to instability on elevations mixed with cornering which I later found to be poorly done alignment by the earlier alignment shop which made my camber settings off and toe settings uneven by more than 2 degrees! I was also noticing a lack of power in the engine as on the straights I felt the engine straining really hard to catch up to Isaac even though I was trying to draft him (I later realized where the issue lay but thats for my next blog post so stay tuned!).

Notwithstanding all the challenges, I really enjoyed the trackday and would like to thank PG Trackies for making it happen and doing the hard work organising the event. The friendship and fellowship in the PG Trackies group extends outside of the track so I'd give a huge thumbs up to this totally inclusive group that brings together the love of the cars to all members.

Here's a video with a overview of the whole day for your enjoyment and I look forward to my next outing to Johor Circuit! :)

One huge happy tracking family...

See you all again at the track! :)

Credits to:
PG Trackies for this event
Alan Tay for his pics
Jon Bai for his video of Turbo CCT
Bryan for his video of Turbo CCT
Keith Ng for his video of NA CCT
Jason 'Zender"for his video of NA CCT
Jerry and Kelvin for their pics
AJ Adeel for video of PG Trackies outing to Johor Circuit overview

Sobering thoughts for November 2013 Time To Attack and hopes for 2014

2014-02-10T06:11:00.003-08:00

I must apologize for the long delay after the end of 2013 time attack season. This arose from two main factors which were the outcome of the November Time To Attack event which required a serious rethink of where I was heading and my hands being absolutely full at work. Better late than never they say so here's the run down on the November 2013 Time To Attack!

My setup remained virtually unchanged from the May event and I had high hopes namely stemming from the fact that analyzing my data for the May runs showed I had significantly improved my times and was very likely already much quicker than my personal best. The reason I had only posted a 2:39 flat came from the fact that in the fastest run I had, which was probably the only one without traffic, I had to both have my line heavily compromised in the entry of Turn 15 by another car alongside and was virtually blocked to the point of almost going off the track by another car. This video taken by the chasing Honda Civic Type R shows the block around the 8:30 mark.

The block wasn't the only factor that I faced that contributed to the poor timing. I had a nagging heating issue whereby the oil and water temperature would climb rapidly and I was forced to limit myself to 7800-7900 rpm each shift to keep the temperature down but even so did see oil temps rising closer to the 120 deg C level before I had to cool down. I even had to upshift slightly earlier than I would have liked and that put me quite a bit off my usual rhythm. The other issue which I felt was that the clutch delay valve seemed to keep slipping my clutch so that I would get some slip when under full throttle so I need to shift very gradually and transition smoothly to avoid getting the slip. The suspension seemed to be rolling more but I put it down to me being too used to the stiffness of the damping.

I didn't want to linger too long on those issues as I felt I might be able to drive around them so I focused on trying to get the car ready for the next round event in November and soon it was time to get down to the track. Here is the car in full livery in the pits awaiting my turn!

Notice a change in my car? Well I had managed to secure a set of Enkei Racing GTC 01 wheels to replace my Enkei RPF1s through a friend in YHI who went through flaming hoops to hook me up! The change in the wheel specifications meant I also had to run my car slightly higher to avoid fender issues and that's why the car seems to stand a bit higher. Not so visible changes are that Mike from CounterSpace Garage got me an outstanding deal for Project Mu 999 pads which he advised would be the right pads for me to have the braking power I needed and would likely not crumble on me like what Ferodo DS 1.11 pads disappointingly did twice even after extensive brake ducting.

Here's how my previous set was destroyed :(

The runs for this Time to Attack were slightly changed as there was both a daylight run and a night run which was a big curve ball for me as I had never driven Sepang before in the night. To add on to the concerns I had, the day run was seemed to be very wet and the competition looked increasingly stiff! Here are some of the pictures of other competitors in the same Normally Aspirated Rear Wheel Drive Street Tyre Class (credits to Sng Wei Jie of 9tro for his pics below):

Don't think for a second that the automotive eye candy was only restricted to the track as the parking around the pits of the spectators was equally gorgeous ;) Check out some more pics byWayn...

Soon it was time for me to hit the track and here are some pictures taken by a couple of excellent photographers I know, namely Aaron of Shini Automotive Photography and Allen of MatCanyon:

Here are more maximum attack pictures through traffic and nasty weather! (Do pardon the poor resolution as the camera battery gave up unexpectedly forcing Wayn to rely on his camera phone)

The track was cold and wet and unsurprisingly, times were rather slow across the board but I began realizing that my times were a fair bit off the pace. I attributed them to my lack of seat time at the track as I had gone to the track only 2-3 times in 2013 prior to this time attack event but was pretty disappointed. As night began to fall and the track began to dry, I eagerly hoped to make up the shortfall in placing by driving harder on the dry track.

Here's a pic showing the glowing rotors at night after heavy braking

Frustratingly, the placement of my ERP reader combined with the night conditions and my lack of track time (especially to do night racing) showed as my times were only in the 2:40s while other cars were racing ahead nicely in the high 2:30s. I was very disappointed and began to question where the real issue lay with the poor result garnered. Even heel toe shifting had somehow become a bit of a concern since the shifts were no longer as smooth as previously which led me to wonder if it was me or the car.

Distracted by the year end work issues and festivities, I put the poor performance aside for a bit but took the leave period I had to mull on why I had performed as poorly as I had done. Undeniably, the lack of track experience was telling and I couldn't rely on modifications to cover that up especially since the rest of the field was now increasingly more heavily modified. Yet the issues on overheating, clutch delay valve and suspension softness were a mystery and I set about trying to figure these out.

Doing a compression test on the engine, I was relieved to find that the engine seemed pretty healthy with the exception of a necessity to change out spark plugs. So where was this overheating coming from? After some wild goose chasing, I finally realized that the ducting panels to force the airflow coming through the front bumper to go through the radiator had been removed with the installation of the splitter and so I reconfigured the ducting to ensure the air cooled the radiator instead of spilling off the top and sides of it. One issue down, two more to go!

More than 160,000 kms on the stock engine (never rebuilt!) and my overall compression looked like this ;)

The clutch delay valve was irritating as I began to feel it even when I was daily driving until it dawned on me that the reason why the slip was happening was may have been that it was clutch that had been slipping all this while instead of it being anything to do with the clutch delay valve! My heel and toe shifting had been affected as the clutch would slip on the shifts and much later that the usual rhythm I was used to and thus unsettle the car during the trail braking entry which slowed me down significantly. Doing some research online showed that the clutch tended to have its life span reduced significantly with tracking and power modifications so I would not get the 100,000 km life span that I had previously enjoyed with my stock car setup. I ordered an ACT clutch and flywheel set at the recommendation of Mike at CounterSpace Garage while had been proven to be very lasting for my setup and usage.

While chatting with Mike on the clutch order, I spoke to him about the softness in the suspension I had experienced and he told me that from his experience, it was very likely that my suspension was well overdue for a rebuild. I considered the length of time I had owned the suspension for and the beating he had taken and realized that I had overlooked that fact so I arranged for the suspension to be rebuilt at a Tein dealer.

Thumbs up to Mike from CounterSpace Garage for the awesome support, proud to be repping :)

Pretty confident I had addressed the mechanical issues, I sat down with Gerald Tan who I knew to be an excellent driver and sought to get some tips on my driving lines. Unsurprisingly, there were a ton of mistakes in line that I had made and Gerald gave me an idea where I could begin altering my driving lines to try to get more time. Considering Gerald identified 12 out of 15 corners which I needed signficant improvement, I'd say there is a lot of time to be gained! I also conceded that my seat time on the track was far too little which resulted me being really rusty on the track and unable to adapt to external changes.

Looking at the all the issues I faced the November 2013, I felt really gutted knowing I had only prepped my car at the bare minimum and had tried to cut corners in terms of maintenance due to budget and time considerations while hoping my driving would be able to compensate by out driving the issues. This was in stark comparison to the rest of the field who had done all out preparations and modifications to ensure their run was the best. In a way, I had sabotaged myself in both technical and driving departments and I felt quite disappointed in myself for not being clearheaded enough to discern where the issues lay so I could apply the required fixes. At this level (and with every session it gets increasingly higher!), it was foolhardy of me to think that this kind of minimal prep would be sufficient to get lucky at the track and I guess it was a lesson that I learnt the hard way.

All in all, 2013 was a roller coaster ride of emotions for me in terms of racing which helped me build my perspective and experience in what I required to do well. For 2014, I have set aside more time to build my track experience with the blessing of my family and I have great expectations for myself this year. I am also in the process of building relationships with various product distributors and have some partnerships in the works this year so it is shaping up to be a very exciting year indeed!

Keep your eyes peeled for the latest developments and happy tracking to all!

Credits to:

Crower Duwan for his Youtube video ( http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=UUYgLc_kwKXI1bHZvQXMyR-w )

Aaron Hia of Shini Automotive Photography for his photos ( /www.facebook.com/ShiniPhotography )

Allen Aznan of MatCanyon for his photos ( matcanyon.blogspot.com/ )

Calvin Seak of CalvinSeak.com for his photos ( calvinseak.com/ )
Wayn Wong for help in the pits and his photos
Sng Wei Jie of 9tro ( www.9tro.com )
Wayn Wong for the picture edits
Joel of Driven Performance for a sweet deal on consumable items ( http://www.drivencrazy.com.sg )
Mike of Counterspace Garage for the hook up deals and awesome tech help
YHI for the Enkei wheels

Racetrack action Indonesian style... Checking out the Indonesian Series of Motorsport IV at Sentul

2014-02-03T05:36:00.000-08:00

In a slight departure from how I usually like to appreciate action at the race track, I took up an invitation to fly down to Sentul International Circuit (also SIC?) in Bogor, Indonesia to spectate the Indonesian Series of Motorsport IV. The highlight of the event would be Ferrari 430 Challenge cars specially purchased and modified by Kessel for a gentlemen series one make category race which I was raring to check out. Making the flight down the earlier night, I got a lift from my host in his classic Mercedes down to the circuit and once we entered the paddocks, had my senses inundated with a fury of noise and colour from the cars thronging the circuit.

Here were the Ferraris I had come to see which were lined up as pretty as can be:

Gotta love that exhaust note!

The European Touring Car category for 3000cc included the Porsche 911s competing alongside some BMW E36s.

Here they are lined up on the grid

Roaring by at full throttle...

A bevy of wildly modified classic Volkswagen Beetles were a unique class to watch racing

Hiding in a corner were some very retro cars which had their own series of retro competition which included even the venerable E200 W124 series fitted with full on straight pipes

Here's a done up E200 W124 with Weber carbs

One of the spec car classes would be the Honda Jazz class cars which had all cars virtually identical to create a level playing field to separate the wheat from the chaff in terms of driving talent

Walking the grid with eye candy in the form of grid girls :)

Awesome rolling start!

Here's the sweet Ferrari exhaust note at race pace flyby!

The sense I got at the event was quite unlike what I was used to Sepang International Circuit high profile events like Zero To Hundred Time To Attack but instead reminded me more of the grassroots type atmosphere that one would get when attending Johor Circuit events. Pits were pretty open for people to gain access too and families could even bring their kids to walk around the pits to get up and close to the race cars. There was a relaxed air to the event and with road side type stalls set up behind the pits, one had only to stroll across to carpark to enjoy some rawon (Indonesian beef stew) or ayam penyet (Indonesian fried chicken) in between races. You could be sharing a table for lunch with a 430 Challenge racer or even with a race queen at any point in time, such was the coziness of the event.

Interesting lineup of retro cars prepped for racing

Hopefully I can come by for another round of this event in 2014 and will leave you with this pic of this beautiful thoroughbred to savour...

S2000 Subframe Bolt Check and maintenance post on s2ki.com

2013-08-25T18:25:00.002-07:00

As I was working out the issues of my alignment that I faced during my last time attack competition, I found out some interesting information on the S2000 subframe bolts and required maintenance. I compiled my thoughts into a thread and here it is on s2ki.com. Happy reading!

http://www.s2ki.com/home/2013/08/24/subframe-bolts-have-you-checked-yours/

Our member c32b was solving some of his alignment gremlins when he stumbled across some hardly ever broached matters regarding the S2000′s subframe bolt maintenance.

The strangely disappearing range of caster was the first sign, worsening to me only being to manage to eke out 5.25 deg of caster on my race prep alignment. Eyeballing the joints and bushings didn’t give me any hint that they might be worn either. Having a camber setting that was maxed out on one corner while being the minimum on the other only served to continue to leave me stumped.

To heck with it, I thought since I only had less caster than before but still had the camber numbers I wanted. A good driver should be able to drive around that in my mind so I soldiered on for my time attack event. In the end, that I missed first by mere tenths of a second which left me wondering if had I sorted out the issue, might I have taken top honors?

Caster doesn’t seem a big deal to a daily driven ride since a lower caster reading might make the steering lighter and easier to turn. To be perfectly honest, I felt some difference with the lower caster but nothing I thought would be all that significant on the circuit. As I found out rather rudely, things feel different when cornering at 90-100mph. There was no real noticeable response change on braking and on the straights but when I got to the longer higher speed sweepers, that’s when I began to notice a discernible change in the attitude of car. I would turn in with the rear end loaded with throttle to keep it nice and stable. Most of the times for one of the fastest sweepers, I would approach wide and tuck the car in at the end with a slight breath off the throttle to get a wider arc for the following sweeper.

A gentle breathe off the throttle would get the tail to progressively tighten the line and set up my entry. With the reduced caster, suddenly things felt like I was steering “from above the wheels” like a shopping cart would and made the feedback rather vague. Towards the end of the first sweeper, I was just about to tuck the tail in when the tail suddenly inched round, forcing me to get off throttle earlier than I wanted. This limited my time on the throttle thus costing me precious time that might been decisive.

This continued every corner and frustrated me to no end as I felt it lost me grip and time. After the event, I did check out the chassis with two workshops but no one noticed anything bent or worn out. Mike Kang of CounterSpace Garage, who’s been advising me with his excellent knowledge of the S chassis, threw up a couple of ideas in the air and I decided to take a bet on fitting Spoon SubFrame Rigid Collars to attempt to cut the free play in the subframe bolt area.

Here’s a youtube video by Spoon with an overview of the Rigid Collars:

Spoon Rigid Collar Kit

The parts weren’t expensive (about $200 USD which includes collars for front and rear) and labour provided by the Spoon dealer locally, DWA Lubricants, was reasonable. Stephanie of DWA helped me order the parts and within a week had the parts ready for the installation. Jayson, the in-house mechanic of DWA, had done a stint with Spoon in Japan and handled the install for me. He was surprised to see how well my five and a half year old car had weathered the years and pointed out the usual weak points of the S that he’d observed over the years. He told me that the subframe bolts, especially the front ones, tended to need replacement depending on the mileage of the car. This was borne out by service manuals suggesting some form of replacement. Checking the front bolts revealed some of the bolts had become very tough to remove which Jayson did say it was common to have a stuck bolt which could break off. I decided to get new bolts, which were quite inexpensive, so my install of the Spoon Collars would proceed smoothly without interruption should the bolts snap.

Pulling out the bolts carefully, Jayson took pains to try not to break them which would complicate labour significantly. You can see below the flattening of the thread on the upper half of the bolt thread approaching the unthreaded section which caused the tightness of the bolts.

Commenting on how rust-free the bolts were upon extraction, Jayson said generally the undercarriage seemed to be in reasonable shape. Even the commonly known prone to damage suspension arms seemed to be faring fine and Jayson fitted the collars without much further fuss. I took the opportunity to get Jayson to tighten all the subframe bolts since it was known that the bolts might loosen over time up to even a third of their original spec.

Here’s a thread to remind why and how to check the bolts including specs that should be applied to adequately tighten them up. Some of the thread participants also found that their subframe bolts had somehow come loose.

Check Your Subframe Bolts

Here are torque specs for the subframe bolts on the front:

Here are torque specs for the subframe bolts on the rear:

I did find some tightening required for the bolts all around and asked Jayson if it was necessary to change out the rear subframe bolts but he said that usually the rear bolts didn’t pose much of an issue. Getting a new alignment was necessary after the installation of the collars and I immediately gained back more than half the caster that I had lost which was proof enough to me that the slack in the subframe bolt gaps was the culprit. Cutting the slack out with the collars did the trick and I had avoided a potentially costly exercise. I had thought the issue was old bushings which would cost me a four-digit figure to replace, chasing a non-existent problem.

Billman250, a member who regularly shares technical and maintenance advice on the forums, commented that he likes the idea of the collars, in that your alignment will be consistent when doing subframe services like a clutch job. The issue with subframe bolts is outside weather makes its way to the front bolts via the open frame rails. He also mentioned that rain and such gets onto the bolt threads above the welded nut-sert which, once it rusts, makes it unable to be properly torqued. The right front tends to have this problem happen most commonly. To properly tighten the bolts, we need to remove them all one at a time, wire wheel the threads, apply anti-seize, and reinstall. By doing this tightening procedure one bolt at a time, you will preserve your current alignment. However, as marcucci adds, it may be ideal if your budget allows to replace the bolt entirely.

Here’s hoping this helps remind all you long term owners of the S to check on this commonly overlooked but critical part of the undercarriage. I can’t say definitely that I felt any difference in the chassis after the collars but it was good to know I had the alignment settings I needed back on the car to keep it driving the way I wanted it to.

Back to Attack-ing 2013!

2013-06-19T00:18:00.000-07:00

2013 was a flurry of activity for me and for the first 3 months of the year there was absolutely zero chance for me to get anywhere near any serious driving on the track. Work and family concerns kept me on my toes so it was a kind of a relief to note that Round 1 of ZeroToHundred Time To Attack at Sepang International Circuit was slated to be held on the 19th of May as that would give me adequate time to prep myself and my car for it.

I decided to focus on Time To Attack as opposed to try to compete in both MegaLap and Time To Attack as I did last year for the simple reason that MegaLap had categories that gave me far less chance to win some silverware. The category I would be classified under permitted virtually every kind of car up to 4WD (4 wheel drive) Turbo cars ( including Mitsubishi Evo's and WRX's) so I would be up against the dominant FWD (front wheel drive) Civic Type R's which were both being helmed by top notch drivers and packing plenty of modifications including big power upgrades.

Seeing how my 150,000 km leaky stock engine wouldn't probably be too competitive there, I decided to continue competing in Street (only street tyres allowed) NA (normally aspirated) RWD (rear wheel drive) in Time To Attack and play to a slightly more level field.

My setup would remain virtually the same as what I used for 2012 meaning only bolt on modifications for power upgrades on my stock engine with a ECU tune to match and handling modifications such as aerodynamic parts rounded upwith suspension items like coilover suspension. The only tweak made to the car would be the replacement of my APR splitter with a splitter made by Wasp Composites as recommended by my friend Mike Kang of CounterSpace Garage.

The chassis mounted APR splitter did deliver some downforce when used at higher speeds but the lack of grip I had through Turns 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13 due to the higher speeds I was carrying was fairly telling as I could not step on the throttle mid-corner lest I induced understeer. My alignment settings didn't seem to be the issue as at lower speeds the car would respond well but I would experience noticeable understeer once I exceeded cornering speeds above 100+ km/h.

I decided to approach Bryan of Wasp Composites to build a splitter for me in dimensions that would keep my car street legal and despite him being a one man show, he managed to wrangle a splitter for me in time for me to use in my track day prior to the actual time attack.

The splitter before mounting.

Here it is mounted.

This is how the underside looks like. Note the various attachment points as it is important to spread the loading on the bolts evenly lest too much pressure is exerted on a few bolts which might lead them to fail early.

Here is a load testing using yours truly. This splitter is crazy strong!

The first time I got to test out this splitter was at the Nova Track Day on the 27th of April. Despite factors such as pretty heavy traffic, a partially wet track and my year old heat cycled out Hankook RS3 tyres, I still managed to eke out at 2:40 flat timing which was just 1.7 secs off my personal best timing. I wasn't very pleased with that as it was worrying that I could not exceed my personal best but further analysis of the line showed that I had significant improvement with the addition of the splitter.

Had fun with on the wet track with this very sporting Malaysian FD2R owned by Mario Lee

In the first half of the track day, I had increased my wing angle of attack in an attempt to balance what I believed to be much increased front end grip afforded by the addition of the Wasp splitter combined with the wet conditions afoot. This proved to be a huge mistake as what happened was I generated plenty of understeer and was unable to get on the throttle to maximize my corner exit speeds.

You can see the steeper angle on the wing on my car here.

As the track dried slightly towards the second half of the track day, I backed off my wing angle to my original settings in a bid to battle the understeer and thats when the setup really came alive! I now had massively responsive steering at virtually any speed and as my confidence grew, began pushing harder in the last half hour of the track day. I was now able to almost go 15-20 km/h faster than my previous cornering speeds in the sweepers and in one of the last few laps of the day was chasing down a Nissan R35 GTR by hauling him in every time a high speed corner appeared. This lap coincided with my fastest lap of the day and jumping into high committment corners like Turn 12 with a light breathe on the throttle was now pretty confidence inspiring as the car rotated nicely in a progressive fashion.

Let me focus for a moment on the key points that I believe a splitter should deliver:

1. Stiff construction: A flexing splitter will sag from the high downforce caused in the higher speed sections of the track and cause drag thus negating significant reduction in the downforce created. In the end, the addition of the splitter is primarily to generate front grip but there is no point if the splitter material is far too weak to resist flex when subjected to the downforce at speed. This is especially important since the front edge of the splitter extends outward in front of the car so it would bend under the downforce if the material did not have adequate strength to able to handle the load.

The Wasp splitter is a extremely strong and here is a test video by Bryan showing that.

http://youtu.be/aWRSzlWLeQA

2. Proper mounting: The mounting of a splitter should first be chassis linked as opposed to attached to the bumper as the downforce generated might even force the splitter to rip off the bumper. The linkage to the chassis also means the forces are directly acting on the chassis thus giving the most direct change in handling. I constructed a mounting strong enough to withstand the increased downforce the car would experience at high speed with a frame mounted inside my bumper and a spread of mounting points to distribute the load each bolt would take.

Here is a picture of how the frame looks like.

3. Drag considerations: This is an admittedly difficult area to comment on as it is rather complex but a properly fitted splitter setup delivering good front end grip should not have significant increase in drag resulting in lower high speeds on the track. My first run on the the splitter showed that my maximum speeds on the straight remained virtually the same as they were before as when I was on earlier smaller splitter setup and tallying with someone on the Honda OEM Type S aero kit also showed me doing roughly the front straight speeds.

4. Durability: The Kevlar undercoat along with the clearcoat that Bryan uses to wrap around the splitter makes it very tough to withstand the abuse from stone chips and off track excursions. Having made two untimely off track excursions in a single event yet having the splitter look nothing like being any worse off, except for some dirt, is solid proof of the durability of the product.

Here is a shot of clearcoat still nice and clean before fitment.

After two very rapid excursions into the gravel, this is the barely noticeable damage on the splitter.

In all three considerations above, I'm pleased to note that the Wasp Composite Race splitter delivers as promised with Bryan's good customer service and a keen understanding of my needs despite being a virtual one man show. Thanks Bryan!

Sitting back and analysing the data after the Nova track day led me to believe that I was quicker in the high speed sweepers due to the added turning ability afforded by the addition of the splitter even as I suffered from worn bushings which limited my caster which should have offset the splitter benefits by some degree. Cautiously optimistic, I put on a set of new directionally vented Science Of Speed rotors together with a fresh set of Ferodo Racing DS 1.11 ceramic brake pads and prepared my car for Round 1 of Time To Attack 2013. I had also a fresh set of Hankook RS3's fitted as my year old tyres were probably already significantly hardened to a point that lap times would begin to fall.

Fresh tyres ready for the business...

Mike Kang from CounterSpace Garage was kind enough to hook me up with a limited edition set of gorgeous lug nuts. Thanks bro!

Making the long drive up with the company of my friend Wern Rune (WR) riding shotgun, we reached the track with some time to spare and prepped the car for the race with WR doing his best to help me with preparations such as tyre pressure release and damper settings. The crowd turnout for Time To Attack was as usual nothing short of totally awesome. From NSX's sprouting multiple aero bits to massively modified Nissan Silvias, the competition all around seemed way more fierce than it was last year. In the Street NA RWD class, my friend (and fellow competitor) Steve Toh in his chilli padi red AP1.5 S2000 and I were now again faced once again with a Toyota 86 sponsored by Wing Hin Motorsportsbut had additional competition in the shape of a Riyoz Racing MR2 and a Toyota Altezza which I believe was also supported by Riyoz Racing.

Before I knew it, it was time to get my gear on, say a quick prayer and prepare to exit the pit lane to clock our fastest laps together with all the other NA category competitors. A delay to my tyre shipment meant I was running my first laps on the waxy surface of my spanking new RS3's and I would have to be a little more cautious about the grip since I'd have less of it to begin with.

A packed pit with participants ready to storm the track, photo by N.A.Z. Photoworks

A pic taken by Traffic Online Magazine showing the traffic I had to manage.

Even more traffic here!

Here I am trying to slide the tyres around a bit to get the wax scrubbed off...

It seemed good for the first 2-3 laps as I carefully drove around the gradually grippier tyres to do 2:41 lap times but during the 4th out lap, disaster struck.

A Civic that I was catching up to on the exit of Turn 6 seemed to overspeed and began ploughing with massive understeer towards the rumble strips. Seeing how the angle of the steering was virtually turned to the maximum and he was about to spin right in front of me, I made the tough decision to go head on into the gravel to avoid T boning him and got stuck in the gravel trap. To say I absolutely disheartened would be an understatement as I knew how much the gravel would mess up my alignment settings along with me not being able to complete more laps but having to waste time waiting for a tow truck to come and extract me.

Just as my gravel ridden car was towed back to the pits, I realized I was now sans a right side rear brake duct due to the off track excursion. Frustrated and down, I contemplated heading home early as I knew that my car would probably not be as competitive due to the messed up alignment settings but my friend Mark Ong told me to try and clear the stones out with a quick drive and have a go in the second session of the day. Taking his advice, I drove out of the track to the main road and rid myself of as many stones I could with a bit of acceleration and braking. I had to also use a knife to pick out a stone stuck in my rear left caliper for safety lest it get stuck in my brakes. The run had me clocking a 2:41 which was only good enough for 4th position behind Steve Toh in 1st, Kenny Lee in 2nd and William Chong in 3rd.

Wiping up the car a bit, I composed myself for the second run and prayed a bit that the second lap would go a bit better than the first. Traffic was heavy and I had to force my way past competitors despite this not being wheel to wheel racing. This time I was faced with passing another Civic which I had quite a problem trying to make a clean pass. Thankfully some of the more experienced drivers, such as William Chong of the Riyoz Racing MRS which is definitely a competitive car helmed by a extremely competent driver as evidenced by the timings, allowed me to pass cleanly so both he & I did not have to worry about each other affecting one another's times. Thumbs up for great driver race craft!

Pic of me behind William Chong in his MRS at Turn 4

William graciously allowed me to pass cleanly only for me to run into even more traffic... sigh...

Driving more aggressively I began to see even higher speeds on the sweepers than what I noticed from my prior track day and was virtually able to use the sweepers as a passing point such was my improvement in the higher speed sections. Yet I realized the car tracked oddly and I knew I needed to be careful as the change in driving was likely due to the messed up alignment due to the gravel pit excursion as I had feared. I was now faced with an additional issue as for some reason my coolant temperatures were 5-8 degrees higher than what I normally had so I had to keep revs down to below 8000 to keep the temperature rise in check! Running with less power and noticeably less grip, I tried my utmost to keep speeds up to get my fastest times by relying more on placing myself well for the higher speed stuff where I seemed to have more grip.

It may have been a time attack but the traffic was no less than a regular high attendance track day, difference being everyone was giving it their 100% in driving ability. Here are some of the other cars I met on the track.

Photo by Perfourm, an online motorsport blog all the way from Indonesia, ZTH is going regional!

As it would have it, I would be twice as "lucky" as my first run group and caught up on the exit of Turn 6 to yet another Civic. I was side by side with him into Turn 7 and I tried to overspeed a little to gain the edge to lead him going into Turn 7. This led me to slightly oversteer in between Turn 7 and Turn 8 but somehow the rumble strips upset the tail of my car causing me to partially spin and dive straight into the gravel trap at the exit of Turn 8 leaving me stranded in the gravel yet again! Rather numb by now to the off track excursions, I just walked off to the tyre barrier and sat grumpily waiting for the tow truck to come yet again. On the way back to the pits, I realized with horror that my left rear brake duct was now missing in action and I had been dragging a tail of brake duct hosing all the way back to the pits!

You can just about spot the trailing brake ducting in this pic

More ducting again but still attacking!

iPhone pic by yours truly while perched on the tire wall awaiting a tow...

Both mortified and frustrated, I felt rather resigned to my fate and walked down to check my results at the usual pit wall where they were posted. Surprisingly, I had managed a time just 0.7 secs off my personal best and just 0.15 secs of the leading car which was my friend Steve Toh meaning I had managed to place 2nd with a 2:39 flat despite the odds! The competition was intense as evidenced by the timing gap from the 1st car to the 3th car in my category all falling within a 0.8 second range. The 3rd and 4th position fell to the Wing Hin Motorsport Toyota 86 driven by Kenny Lee and the Riyoz Racing MRS driven by William Chong respectively.

Here are the leader board standings in the Street NA Classes.

Pic from ZeroToHundred magazine for the NA RWD class winners with a nice summary of the podium finishers.

The close result had me rueing how close I was to win but I chalked the miss of 1st place down to both to my poor preparation to run in my fresh tyres beforehand and to plain bad luck at the mechanical issues faced combined with the off track incident. Divine help meant I had walked away from the gravel excursions without a scratch and my car was seemed fine despite the rock chipping off some paint and stripping me of my rear brake ducts. Exhausted but elated, I received my trophy knowing I was moving up the rankings of the Street NA RWD drivers on both sides of the Causeway and that the current setup had capabilities I was far from unlocking the maximum potential of.

Prize giving time! :)

Photo op with my friend Steve Toh, the winner of Street NA RWD

I got to know Steve from a Traction Circle trackday and we've been friends ever since. The laughs and banter we have at the track combined with our camaraderie despite being competitors is something I truly treasure. Here is us with our beloved cars :)

Taking a peek at the data showed me how much quicker I was through the critical corners of high speed sweepers I had a knack of being confident in and the speeds shown were even higher than my previous speeds I saw in my April track day. Despite the issues of heavy traffic, a caster problem which knocked off 1.5 degrees of the caster I should have got, not adequately scrubbing in my fresh tyres, a slightly vibrating brake pedal which forced me brake a touch earlier and the overheating issue which limited my revs to 7900, the timing achieved was reasonable but its interesting to note how much potentially quicker the car should have been with the gremlins sorted out. All in all, the data seemed to point that that I had probably easily a few seconds to knock off as long as the conditions were right leading me to hope I can up my driving to match the potential of my car to grab the win the next round as the setup i conceptualized seemed to be working the way I want it to.

Some silverware to start the season is a good start in my book and this looks to be a fruitful start to the 2013 time attack season for me! Let the Attack-ing begin....

Photo credits:

9tro

Traffic Online Magazine

Perfourm

N.A.Z. Photoworks

matcanyon

ZeroToHundred.com

Hei Snap

Joe Chao Photography

Shini Automotive Photography

Big thanks goes out to support and sponsorship from:

CounterSpace Garage

Wasp Composites

Alpha Performance Drive

Rev Magazine

S2KI

Wern Rune

Bruise Wayn aka Garage Defend Hammila ATTKD SPL (just kidding!)

Here are other links to coverage of this event:

http://www.timetoattack.net/2013/05/28/hall-of-fame-list-timetoattack-round-1-19-may-2013-sepang-circuit/

http://www.9tro.com/events/motorsports/zerotohundred-timetoattack-2013-round-1

http://www.perfourm.com/2212/zerotohundred-time-to-attack-round-1-2013.html

Here are more pics from the event....Enjoy!