Impressed by Robert Thorne’s “Huge Dangerous Wolf,” the self-professed “quickest Honda S2000,” Alexander Moss and Andy Smedegard wished to construct a good quicker S2000. They now have one which rivals that well-known automobile. Meet SuperK, a Okay-swapped, DCT 2006 Honda S2000.
SuperK gained the 2020 King of the Mountains autocross occasion at UMI Motorsports Park. It took the 2020 Gridlife championship within the Avenue Mod class. And, it accomplished One Lap of America 3 times, with a fifth and two seconds.
The success got here as the results of their very own innovation and them looking out worldwide for corporations that would construct merchandise for his or her extremely custom-made, and distinctive, S2000.
“A whole lot of these corporations are studying how to do that, too,” Smedegard says of producers serving to construct elements for the mission. “It’s a collective group of all these folks attempting to determine this out.”
Regardless of the dearth of a longtime path to make SuperK quicker, Moss and Smedegard have methodically crafted their very own street to seek out pace.
“When it comes time to exchange one thing, it’s at all times been, ‘Let’s not be reactionary and purchase what everyone buys to repair this drawback,’” says Smedegard. “Let’s put some thought into it. If we’re changing the engine, let’s determine what’s one of the best engine to place in it.”
At Street America, they ran a 2:22.5. At Barber Motorsports Park, a 1:31. At GingerMan Raceway, a 1:31.7. The automotive turns heads as quick as its lap occasions.
“When it really works, it’s superior,” Moss says. “It’s such a rush.”
First Step, Re-Engine
Worldwide, Honda bought 110,673 models of the Honda S2000, from 1999 to 2009. It used an engine particular solely to that mannequin. The inventory F20C put out a hefty 237 horsepower at 8300 rpm, contemplating the engine displaces lower than two liters. The marginally bigger, 2.2-liter F22C1, the model that SuperK got here with, delivered 240 horsepower at 7800 rpm. Nonetheless, with comparatively few engines accessible in the marketplace, Smedegard prompt putting in a extra prevalent, better-supported Honda engine — the K24.
“It was a extra economical answer to exchange the motor within the S2000,” Smedegard says. “You should purchase a Okay collection engine for about $1000. The Okay collection additionally makes slightly extra usable energy, they make slightly extra midrange.”
Immediately, Smedegard operates a thriving race automotive preparation enterprise, ASMotorsports. However again in 2017, he wasn’t as skilled.
“The engine was the primary main modification we did to the automotive,” says Smedegard. “On the time we didn’t assume it was quite simple. It was a studying expertise for me. A whole lot of occasions we realized the exhausting means–I needed to redo many issues. I credit score the automotive to quite a lot of what I do know at the moment.”
Getting Issues to Talk–Half I
Each engines–the unique F22C1 and the brand new K24–got here from Honda, however that didn’t make the swap simple.
“We received the engine within the automotive and spent every week or so attempting to defeat the immobilizer points,” Moss says.
Newer Honda S2000s have extra immobilizing options that forestall adjustments past the OEM parameters. The difficulty revolved round them utilizing an ECU out of an Acura TSX and their Honda S2000 ignition key.
“The immobilizer is constructed into the important thing, which communicates to the engine ECU,” says Smedegard. “They should match. In any other case, you flip the important thing, the engine will crank, however it gained’t hearth because it gained’t activate the ignition coils.”
To treatment this, they used an ECU reflashed by KTuner, which disabled the immobilizer.
“That ECU wound up being a bust,” Smedegard says. “We had so many points with it. It might generally freeze up once we had been attempting to tune it. You even have quite a lot of limitations–generally emissions, generally safeties put into place, the place there’s no workaround. We ended up going with a full, standalone AEM Infinity ECU, the place you’ve gotten full management.”
The Mechanics of a Okay Swap
The subsequent challenge they encountered was with the Clutch Masters aluminum flywheel adapter for the Okay collection.
“We had flywheels backing out and generally coming off,” Smedegard says. “The answer we’ve got now took a while. We needed to work with them to supply a greater half. I pushed exhausting to get a chromoly flywheel made. Ever since we went with this new flywheel from Clutch Masters, we hadn’t had any points.”
Then, they encountered one other drawback.
“We had points with throttle our bodies falling aside, sensors failing and consumption manifolds cracking,” says Smedegard. “With the K24 having an extended stroke, it made quite a lot of harmonics, particularly the upper you rev it. Most locations that make consumption manifolds don’t set their manifolds to be braced again to the engine–you simply mount it to the mounting flange, and that’s it. We braced the consumption manifold, which enormously decreased quite a lot of the harmonics that the throttle physique sees and the sensors mounted on the consumption manifold.”
The Quest for Energy
With the inspiration in place, the duo now wished to push the boundaries on the facility band. This concerned some trial and error.
“We purchased a used, high-compression engine constructed by 4 Piston Racing, however it solely was 250 to 260 horsepower,” Smedegard says. “It was nonetheless quick, however not quick sufficient for our final objective of constructing this the quickest S2000.”
They then returned the inventory K24 again into the engine bay, with the addition of a Kraftwerks Rotrex supercharger.
“We needed to make our personal mount equipment, to mount the supercharger onto a Okay collection in a rear-wheel-drive automotive, which nobody had on the time,” Smedegard says. “The supercharger made good energy–like 400 horsepower–however it nonetheless wasn’t quick sufficient.”
Exit supercharger, enter the Garrett G25-660 turbo.
“The turbo made much more energy; much more usable energy, too,” Smedegard says. “We nonetheless haven’t pushed it to its true potential, with a much bigger turbo and extra enhance. We ran a complete season round 500 horsepower. Then, we began breaking transmissions and differentials. That’s when the DCT got here into play.”
Ship the Horses
“We had been in search of a greater transmission, however we weren’t a DCT particularly,” says Smedegard. “We simply wished a transmission that was dependable, might take the facility, and there weren’t actually many choices.”
Inside the confines of the foundations, Moss discovered the DCT (dual-clutch transmission) match their wants.
“We couldn’t go together with a race sequential or canine field transmission,” Moss says. “That is the place we egged one another on. I messaged Andy and mentioned, ‘Hey, do you need to do this DCT? This could be cool.’ He most likely blew me off, saying ‘Yeah, positive.’ So, I ordered it and it confirmed up at his store.”
Along with guidelines, they had been additionally restricted by the front-engine, rear-wheel-drive format of their automotive. That led them to the BMW M-DCT.
“There are 4 totally different variations of the transmission,” says Moss. “You will get a short-ratio or long-ratio transmission. The quick ratios had been within the 135, 335, E90, and M3. The lengthy ratios had been within the F80 M4,and F10 M5. You will get both of these transmissions with a BMW inline-6 or the V8 bellhousing. We are able to solely get the inline-6 housing to slot in the automotive. We’ve the lengthy ratio within the automotive now. It provides us a great unfold of ratios on the monitor and a great cruising rpm on the road for One Lap of America.”
Happily, it made for a comparatively inexpensive alternative.
“The BMW M-DCT transmissions was pretty available and low-cost, however now there’s an enormous craze in regards to the DCT-swap stuff,” Smedegard says. “What was a $1000 transmission is now $2500. That’s nonetheless comparatively low-cost within the grand scheme of all of it.”
Getting Issues to Talk–Half II
Putting in the transmission went comparatively easily.
“We needed to make a few of the adapter items,” says Smedegard. “We’ve to make use of a dual-mass flywheel. We wanted an adapter to go from this flywheel to enter the transmission on the enter shaft. We labored with an organization DomiWorks in Sweden.”
As with the engine, the DCT has its personal laptop, a TCU (transmission management unit).
“The largest impediment has been the transmission controller,” Smedegard says. “We’re operating a standalone TCU from HTG Tuning in Poland. We needed to take out the inner TCU and wire an exterior TCU. That is all nonetheless pretty new. It’s not one thing you should purchase off the shelf, throw on the automotive and drive. It’s very a lot a science mission, even for the corporate making the controller. Our wrestle is studying the way to tune a dual-clutch transmission.”
Then, the TCU wants to speak with the ECU.
“The transmission bases many issues off the engine,” says Smedegard. “Like on a downshift, you must carry the revs up. It has to ship a sign to the engine ECU: ‘Hey, rev up so I can downshift and we are able to make this occur easily collectively.’ Getting all this to work collectively has been difficult.”
The Huge Benefit to a DCT
In addition to sturdiness, the DCT gives different advantages.
“You may have lots higher gearing,” Smedegard says. “There are extra gears within the transmission, so you haven’t any drawback discovering the right gear.
“As a driver, you don’t have to fret about attempting to shift. You may depart your fingers on the wheel and also you solely have two pedals to your ft.”
Nonetheless, the chief benefit is the way it takes time without work the stopwatch.
“On an upshift, you haven’t any loss in shift time, particularly with a turbo automotive,” says Smedegard. “With a standard transmission, while you let off the throttle, you let all of the enhance out, you get the shift performed and also you get again on it, it has to go enhance up once more. With the DCT, there’s no enhance drop in any respect. Most tracks you’re shifting 15-or-so occasions a lap, and also you’re shedding a tenth, perhaps two tenths, each shift. Add that up. That’s a second to 2 seconds each lap in shift time.”
As they labored with creating the DCT, they ran with the least quantity of enhance, bringing the horsepower nearer to 400, the place it stands presently.
“As we had been working by way of the DCT points and getting that to be dependable, we wished to run the automotive in a much less aggressive state,” Moss says. “It allowed us to not fear about operating the engine on the ragged edge and give attention to the driveline adjustments. FWIW information at GingerMan Raceway reveals a really related acceleration plot with the DCT at 400 horsepower in comparison with the H-pattern transmission at 500 horsepower.”
Different Mods
With rather more energy than inventory to the wheels, and a transmission that delivers it extra effectively, Moss and Smedegard upgraded different elements to assist with dealing with. First step, the brakes. They went with a StopTech package deal, which has 355mm rotors and four-piston calipers within the entrance, and 335mm rotors and two-piston calipers within the rear.
“As soon as we had the supercharger on it, we discovered the restrictions of the inventory brakes,” Moss says. “We received a braking system again then that was excess of we wanted on the time. It’s acceptable for what we’ve got now.”
Aero-wise, they labored with Zebulon Motorsport Consulting.
“It’s an aero equipment designed for our automotive and our guidelines,” says Smedegard. “Our bodywork has to remain inside 5 inches of the automotive’s inventory bodylines, and we maximized that space. It’s a full, 3D splitter, with built-in diffusers, and all manufactured from carbon, so it’s tremendous mild and tremendous stiff. It makes a ton of downforce on the entrance, to the purpose that once we put it on, it was loopy how significantly better braking we had.
“We received an enormous, single-element rear wing, as a result of that’s all we’re allowed. We received aspect skirts. We tried to scrub up what’s underneath the automotive, however we’re not allowed flat flooring. We added vents to attempt to enhance the automotive’s aero total.”
A J’s Racing S2000 broad physique equipment permits them to suit the foundations and match the 265-width, 200tw Yokohama A052 tires.
The suspension consists of two-way adjustable coil-overs from Reinharte Racing Suspension. It has an enormous entrance sway bar (aka Gendron bar) from Small Fortune Racing and a rear sway bar out of a Miata.
“It’s a inventory entrance sway bar off a NC Miata for the rear sway bar,” Smedegard says. “It’s principally half the spring charge of a inventory S2000 rear sway bar.”
The duo went to nice measures to scale back weight, too, reducing roughly 250 to 300 kilos off the inventory curb weight. They stripped down the automotive and eliminated each bracket that was not wanted. Moss and Smedegard took out the motor for the convertible prime and changed the highest with a cheap, fiberglass hardtop model. Then, they ripped out the wiring and put in a PDM from Hardwire Electronics within the U.Okay.
Getting Issues to Talk–Half III
With the PDM (energy distribution module), they primarily added one other laptop to the automotive.
“It’s like a standalone ECU for all of your energy,” says Moss. “As a substitute of utilizing relays and operating wires all over the place, we’ve got one laptop that sits behind the passenger seat that all the things will get wired into. We’ve keypads and switches within the automotive that activate and off {the electrical} techniques within the automotive. We are able to additionally program the PDM primarily based on engine parameters–when followers come on, water sprayers, lights.”
The PDM gives just a few advantages.
“Let’s say you journey a fuse, and it’s your gas pump,” Smedegard says. “As a substitute of being lifeless within the water till you bodily exchange that fuse, the PDM can robotically reset that fuse and switch that gas pump on, and it might probably preserve attempting. The PDM could make issues extra dependable, however it’s solely nearly as good as the one that units it up.”
Happily, Moss enjoys programming the PDM.
“The PDM we’ve got on this automotive requires a great understanding of how CAN bus protocol works,” says Smedegard. “Alex already knew a few of that stuff. I perceive the facility aspect of it, however the way to program CAN bus messages and stuff is slightly tough.”
Nonetheless, the chief benefit the PDM gives is that it shaves weight. Numerous it.
“A few of these automobiles have a number of fuse packing containers, relays, and a ton of wiring,” Smedegard says. “A whole lot of it we didn’t put again into this automotive. It doesn’t have a radio or audio system now. We saved near 70 kilos.”
Not Your Sunday Cruiser
Each Moss and Smedegard agree that SuperK is a blast to drive on the monitor. Whereas authorized for the road, it doesn’t provide most of the creature comforts one would possibly like whereas cruising–and that’s not together with the dearth of a working radio.
“You may’t simply soar in it and drive it–you want a coaching session,” Moss says. “You want an proprietor’s handbook with the automotive.”
Smedegard gives an instance of that.
“Typically it’s important to reboot the ECU, as a result of the throttle physique goes into limp mode,” Smedegard says. “It’s a course of to restart with this automotive. It’s not merely flip a key to show it on and off. You need to come to a cease, shut all the things off, energy all the things again on, flip the ignition on, and hearth it again up, and hopefully the TCU places it within the acceptable gear.”
Beginning, on the whole, gives a problem.
“It’s on E85 and has a full standalone ECU–beginning could be a little finicky,” says Smedegard. “Typically, it doesn’t need to idle the best. The TCU isn’t at all times the smoothest–it’s clunky throughout shifts.”
On second thought, don’t fear about lack of a radio. You may not hear it.
“It’s received a side-exit exhaust–it’s actually proper off the engine, into the turbo and two ft proper out the aspect fender,” Smedegard says. “That’s all of the exhaust you get. It’s fairly loud.”
Maintain your drink, too.
“There’s no rubber within the suspension workings,” says Moss, “so it’s harsh, clunky, and noisy.”
Lastly, the potential dealbreaker for SuperK as a Sunday cruiser.
“There’s nonstop warmth coming from the engine bay and thru the firewall,” Smedegard says.
“It’s so sizzling in that automotive,” says Moss. “Every little thing else, you can study to dwell with. It’s a automotive you can drive on the road, however you’ll by no means need to.”
Nonetheless, On the Observe…
So, it will not be a terrific grocery-getter. However on the monitor, SuperK rises to the event.
“It’s an absolute rush,” Moss says. “It seems like there’s no time to consider something–it’s all taking place so quick. You simply received to drive, react and cope with issues as they occur.”
Quick. That was their objective. They appeared to have achieved that.
“This feels such as you’re autocrossing a street course,” says Smedegard. “It’s not such as you plan out your corners–it’s reactionary. That’s the way it’s like driving the automotive on a street course in comparison with one thing slower.”
Moss, who has raced a lot slower automobiles previous to SuperK, now has a brand new appreciation for larger street programs.
“I by no means loved Street America till I took that automotive there,” Moss says. “It’s a ton of enjoyable, since you’re not ready for the following nook to come back up, for what seems like an eternity.”
Moss and Smedegard say they nonetheless have much more to do with SuperK of their quest to make it the quickest S2000. Keep tuned. It appears like Street America might get rather more enjoyable, though the street to Street America might get a tad extra uncomfortable.
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