Up to this point, autocross was just something I did in between track days to keep improving my driving skills. That all changed with going to Nationals in 2012 so in 2013 I wanted to make Bumblestook a competitive car in a SCCA class so I could bring her to Nats and really focus on getting better at autox in general. I had already been looking into a BSP build after the S2000 was moved to BSP the year before but I was mostly just toying with the idea. This time, I went through the rule book and it appeared that a BSP build wouldn't be that much more work to get to while still having her be fully track worthy. It was supposed to be a simple build...remove the non-BSP legal parts, add Hoosiers and done. Personal life events pushed me over the edge and I went with "YOLO" let's do whatever we want to this year build so I handed the car off to JDV and Evans Tuning and the transformation began.
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05 S2000 F22C, AP2 tranny and driveshaft with about
50K miles shipped to the shop - 12/25/2012 |
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| New J's Racing offset camber joints - 12/27/2012 |
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| Dropped the car off at Evans Tuning to begin the transformation - 12/29/2012 |
I got in touch with Davgoat on S2ki who was parting S2000s and got an AP2 engine, tranny and driveshaft from an 05 S2000 that pretty much had the same mileage as my car at the time. My camber joints were heavily worn (probably from driving on the Cross Bronx more than anything) and so I ordered replacements then on a snowy day in late December 2012, I dropped her off at the shop. Since we had to pull the diff anyway, I picked up the set of Innovative 75A diff mounts from Noel. The diff had to get sent to S2kPuddydad to be rebuilt since my diff was not BSP legal. It had all cryo parts, the puddy reinforcements, a 4.1FD and AP1 input flanges. I had Puddydad put everything back to stock minus the OSGiken diff (first gen) that was already in there.
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| Innovative 75A Diff Mounts from Noel - 1/2/2013 |
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| Diff out ready to ship to S2kpuddydad - 1/3/2013 |
I got a PLM header through Brian Karwan at Karcepts and Evans Tuning sourced me the IQ3 Racepak datalogging dash to interface with my Haltech Pro-Plugin (remember, the car was still supposed to be a track car so this was mostly intended for that purpose).
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| PLM Header - 1/4/2013 |
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| Racepak IQ3 Dash - 1/4/2013 |
For the clutch, I went with a standard OEM clutch disk and throwout bearing matched to a ACT H021 pressure plate and Competition Clutch 11lb flywheel.
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| OEM friction disk and throwout bearing - 1/5/2013 |
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| ACT H021 Pressure Plate - 1/7/2013 |
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| Competition Clutch 11lb flywheel - 1/8/2013 |
The original F20C and tranny was pulled out in preparation for the "new to me" motor and tranny. Luckily this setup went onto a fellow autocross and is still enjoying some VTEC action.
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| Heartless - 1/5/2013 |
The F22C arrived and as shortly transplanted in. Jeff Evans had an idea to make more power by expanding the stock intake manifold so I let them have at it.
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| F22C in waiting for custom IM - 1/11/2013 |
The intake manifold was completed and mated to a 70mm Skunk2 TB.
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| Custom IM done and installed - 1/11/2013 |
In the meantime, I was receiving my new tires. There was some hype about the BFG R-1S over the winter and at their price point I thought I'd give it a try. The 275/35/18 BFG R1-S was actually wider than the 295 Hoosier A6.
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| 275/35/18 BFG R-1S - 1/22/2013 |
As far as body work was concerned, I wanted an AP2 bumper with CR lip so I picked those up and we also started to put all the interior back in.
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| CR Lip - 1/26/2013 |
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| AP2 Bumper - 1/26/2013 |
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| AP2 bumper and CR lip installed (unpainted) - 1/27/2013 |
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| Interior and soft top back in the car - 1/27/2013 |
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| Clutch and flywheel installed - 1/28/2013 |
To make sure I maximized my power, we ditched my old Greddy SE setup and Evans fabricated a custom 3" header back exhaust with resonator and Borla muffler.
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| Custom exhaust - 1/30/2013 |
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| Custom exhaust - 1/30/2013 |
The fully BSP compliant diff finally arrived and was ready to be installed.
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| AP2 diff housing with OS Giken diff - 1/31/2013 |
It was then time to get the car on the dyno where JDV and Evans spent some late nights trying out different intakes and setups.
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| Dyno/intake testing - 2/2/2013 |
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| She put down 243whp/172tq on one of the intake setups |
To get more tire fitment up front, JDV basically started pointing on the fender until we got as much clearance as we could...it wasn't pretty :D
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| Wavy, but flared front fenders - 2/2/2013 |
The electronics started to go in and the IQ3 powered on for the first time and the engine bay was buttoned up.
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| Racepak IQ3 datalogging dash fully working - 2/13/2013 |
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| Engine bay buttoned up - 2/14/2013 |
Then, on February 16, 2013, I picked her up and drove her for the first time. What a glorious feeling to have everything come together.
Bumblestook First Drive - Evans Tuning - Mt Bethel, PA
2/16/2013
The 18x11 with 8.5" backspacing CCW Classics arrived ready to get some tires mounted.
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| CCW Classic 18x11, APR hardware - 2/18/2013 |
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| CCW Classic 18x11, APR hardware - 2/18/2013 |
In the meantime, I dropped her off at D&G Auto Body in Mineola again. I asked them to smooth out the fenders and paint the bumper and they did a fantastic job!
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| AP1.2.CR conversion complete - 2/22/2013 |
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| Front fender-tastic - 2/22/2013 |
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| Fresh CR Bumper paint - 2/22/2013 |
I had ordered a set of black 17x9 RPF-1 wheels with Dunlop Z1 star spec tires over the winter to use as my street tire setup. I put those on and got the car aligned at Camber Toe in Lynbrook. Baseline alignment set to:
Front: -3.2 Camber, 0 Toe, 5.4 Caster
Rear: -2.6 Camber, 1/8" total toe in
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| First alignment of 2013 - 3/1/2013 |
I also got the BFGs mounted on the CCWs
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| BFG R-1S on CCW Classic - 3/2/2013 |
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| Fitment and clearance perfect with 15mm spacers up front - 3/2/2013 |
And of course we have to account for wet weather racing so a set of Hoosier H2Os were also ordered (245/40/17 mounted on my 17x9 TSW Nurburgrings)
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| Hoosier H2O - 3/5/2013 |
I was also noticing some sticking of the throttle body so we replaced that with a new one of the same kind the day before the first event.
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| Replacement TB - 3/16/2013 |
...and after months of building and testing she was ready for the first event...test and tune at Warminster with the Philly SCCA...but I think that's for a next post.
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