The original goal for Bumblestook was to become a full on track car but she was my first rear wheel drive car and with the S2000's reputation for being a bit of a "jiggly butt" I didn't want to chance going to any track events without being very comfortable controlling her first. At this point I had already been regularly autocrossing for 5 years but mostly for fun doing local events and improving my driving. Naturally, autocross was where I was going to take this car to push the limits and understand how to drive her properly in a safe and controlled way. The plan was pretty simple...stick to autocross in 2010 and get back on the track in 2011. I had two weeks before the next autocross so I scrambled to get at least a few basic goodies installed. K&N FIPK intake for extra grunt, a bigger front sway bar to help keep the rear in check and since the car had stock wheels with 8 year old tires, some fresh 255 Z1 star specs all around on black 17x8.5 O.Z. Allegeritas (+59 offset). This was the beginning of the Bumblestook color scheme. The tires were a bit too wide on the stock alignment so the fenders got rolled and we just pushed the wheel in to get maximum negative camber up front. The 255s weren't a coincidence as the new Street Touring Roadster (STR) class in the SCCA was starting to get popular at this time and I felt that I could get the car STR legal and still be a good track car so I just went with the maximum tire size the class allowed. Of course, all the fluids and plugs were replaced and I put on Hawk HP+ pads all around because I'm crazy and like grabby dusty brakes. Again, no intention of being competitive here, I just wanted a class other than Street Modified to run in.
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| K&N FIPK Intake |
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| Whiteline 30mm front sway bar |
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| 255/40/17 Dunlop Z1 Star Spec on 17x8.5 OZ Allegerita all around |
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| Fender Roll |
Of course, me being me, I also required some creature comforts and visual mods to start setting the car apart so I replaced all the emblems with the black chrome version to stay with my theme and an Alpine iDA-X303 head unit with the modifry harness so I could hook up my iPhone to listen to music and still use the stock audio controls on the dash.
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| Black Chrome Emblem |
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| Black Chrome Emblem |
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| Alpine iDA-X303 Head Unit |
The two weeks went by quickly and I went to my first event in the car with the NY BMWCCA at Nassau Coliseum. It's too bad I didn't have the video working on my first run as I had Alan in my passenger seat "instructing" me as I giggled like a school girl all the way to the starting line worried about how many times I'd spin that run. I had pretty much dominated "G-class" (4-cylinder non-BMW) every year up until this point in my RSX so a 5th place finish was dismal but learning this car was far more important than winning local trophies. I spent 5 years manhandling the RSX to get it to turn but the S2000 was a completely different animal to drive and I had to unlearn all these bad driving habits. I learned two very important lessons that day...you need to drive it like the precision machine that it is (smooth inputs) in order to not find yourself facing the way you came from and more importantly that I had a long road ahead of me. This event was a rude awakening but I wasn't expecting anything less. My goal was to improve as a driver and running back to my FWD comfort zone wasn't going to happen. That's not my style. As the saying goes "you're not in Kansas anymore".
NY BMWCCA 5/22/2010
Excuse the music...I was going through "a phase"
It's pretty embarassing really so don't watch it. It's just here for reference.
