Hi there
Had the S2000 aligned over weekend, you will have to ignore the previous figures as the car never went on the ramp as it was as I had managed to get hold of a lot of used but never fitted Hardrace items from an abandoned track car project, so I had:
- Hardrace spherical bump steer correction tie rod ends
- Febi / Bilstein inner track rods
- Hardrace hard rubber upper front arms with camber adjust
- Hardrace spherical bump steer correction rear toe arms
- Hardrace anti-roll bar bushes and drop links front and rear which I fitted myself last weekend
Manage to get all the above for under £500 which made sense to me and my man maths.
So the garage of course just set about removing the old upper arms, original rear toe arms and tie rods, it all came apart ok apart from one rear toe arm being seized but heat sorted it out.
Inspection to all bushes and garage said they all looked fine, no rips, no cracking apart from some aging on the front compliance bushes and the bolts being seized.
So once the parts were fitted they went to do alignment and the front caster bolts were totally seized up but thankfully they were seized on +6 either side so within spec.
The rear camber bolts are also seized but they did manage to get them to give way a little and got them reasonably close:
Alignment sheet below:
I did all threads with anti-seize as did the garage as well.
They did a collect and drop off service in the end, so collected it Friday and dropped it back off today and then told me to drive it and let them know the changes but the garage owners father collected the car and when he gave it his son his comment was it drove a bit like a skate board lol, so when he brung it back he was like that drives a lot better now but let us know what you think.
I gave them my own settings which are dialled in above, except for rear camber which the target was 1:45 (degrees & minutes) but with them being seized it was hard to get them, of course the adjustable toe arms give a little of camber adjust etc.
As I am at stock ride height and have parts designed for a track/race car Hardrace advised to put all the washers on bottom which should make them match originals which they were correct and the garage commented that the toe arms front and rear were more or less parallel with the lower arms and around 10mm drop would perfect that, which is in future planning anyway. In my drive I am experiencing no bumpsteer, steering feels more direct and more feelsome now.
So the plan is now is to refresh the lower arm bushes front and rear so en-route is:
- Mugen front compliance bushes
- Spoon lower coilover lower arm bushes
- Spoon lower rear camber bushes.
So all I need is the front most bushes for the lower arms now I think and caster and camber bolts? Plus some coilovers which Ohlins DFV are favoured to get around 15mm drop.
Taken the car out for a drive and it turns in much better, ride feels more compliant also which is quite odd but welcome, car just feels sharper, more pointy and back end aint moving and braking hard from high speed seems far more stable, overall the alignment has made a great improvement and cannot wait to change wheels over with a set of F1AS5's fitted.
I kept the rear toe low as per Simon's advice as most people seem to dial in 20 minutes per side but AP2 needs less anyway due to different mounting points so went with 20 minutes total and car seems more go-kart in its response, turn in is better, once the car is totally finished I may further reduce the rear toe in more.
