- With what seems like half of the field here at TX2K running upwards of 2000
wheel horsepower, you'd think that competing in a Honda S2000 would
put you on the back foot.
But we're here with Stuart, owner of this S2000 to find out that he's still
pretty damn competitive.
A lot of that, Stuart's gonna come down to the power you're getting out of this
S2000, how much is it making.
- So we had it on the dyno last week, it made 960 horsepower on about
42 pounds of boost out of the factory four cylinder motor that's been beefed up.
- OK so that's gonna put you in at least the top few percentile of S2000s anywhere
in the world.
Now taking a two litre F20 engine that's in stock form, naturally aspirated and
getting close to 1000 wheel horsepower out of it is no mean feat.
Can you start by talking us through the engine combination you're running in there,
how do you make that F20 reliable at that sort of power level?
- Absolutely so it's a Golden Eagle sleeve block, still using the factory block and crank
from this actual car.
The motor had about 120000 miles on it when I took it out so I mean that's kind
of a testament to Honda's stuff right there.
So it's using a Pauter X beam rod, it's using CP custom pistons I've had done.
Then Watt with Watt Shop that does all of our GTR work did some pretty cool stuff with the
cylinder head.
The copper valve seats have been done on there, it's got a VC stage 2 cam,
Ferrea full valve train.
Yeah besides that it's just been working.
- OK that's still got a fair bit of work going on in there.
One of the problems we see with a lot of turbocharged small capacity engines
is head gasket integrity, head gasket reliability.
Obviously as we increase the boost pressure, there's more combustion pressure in there
and holding the head down tight and not letting that combustion pressure out
can be challenging.
What are you doing there to keep that integrity sound?
- Yeah so believe it or not it's actually a factory Honda head gasket,
it's got the Inline Pro 12 millimetre head studs which is probably what's keeping
it together pretty well but so far we haven't had any issues with the head gasket.
- I'm assuming though as well moving to the thicker sleeves that are a little bit
more resilient, that's gonna help you as well.
- Oh absolutely, yeah no doubt that this car would be blown up in pieces all
over this track without doing the sleeves in there.
- OK so the engine obviously that's there to handle the power but it's that
turbocharger that's really making it all work as it does, so what have you got
fitted to it?
- So it's a Precision 6466.
We've had to kind of resort to just dumping the exhaust just out the hood
just 'cause these motors are really bad for vibrations and what not.
So I kept breaking exhaust components.
So I just decided to put it out the hood but yeah it's a 6466.
- Now on paper that's not a massive turbocharger so are you sort of
getting near the limit of the power capable of that, that the turbo is
capable of?
- I can imagine that we're probably pretty high with exhaust manifold
pressure at this point.
I drive this car to work 3 or 4 days a week so I'm not looking for a super
laggy set up.
I just, I enjoy driving it down the street and having the power when I want it.
- Tell us what you're running in the way of the fuel system there, what fuel for
a start is it running and what's the rest of the fuel system to handle that?
- Yeah so it's using Ignite Red which is like I think an E90 blend with probably
some race gas.
The fuel pump is the Veyron fuel pump that people have been referring to,
the brushless pump that Walbro makes.
It's just got kind of a rudimentary controller in there with the JMS voltage booster.
So it's making quite a bit of power out of a single pump.
Definitely be getting one of the Injector Dynamics fuel pump controllers soon.
As far as fuel injectors go it's obviously got Injector Dynamics 1000cc and then
1700 secondaries.
- Probably a good time to stop and just mention that you do work for T1 Race,
Injector Dynamics development and retail outlet so obviously the Injector Dynamics
brand makes an appearance there.
Now we'll just go back to that Veyron pump, the brushless pump and this is
something, we're seeing them pop up and we know, we've filmed our own
tech segment on the ID brushless pump controller.
Tell us what sort of makes the brushless pump technology stand out and why
can a single pump supply so much fuel.
- Right so with the brushless stuff being so much more efficient without
having all the brushes and the heat from the brushes themselves,
then having the ability to control the pump speed which is really where
the ID controller's gonna shine.
We can draw out the pump really hard when we need to 'cause getting the flow
and the pressure out of a single pump to support this is pretty difficult.
- Certainly simplifies the system rather than conventionally you might see a system
like this running 2 or even 3 pumps so makes everything a lot easier.
OK let's talk about the electronics package on the car, what're you running there.
- Yeah so it's a Motec M130 ECU, it's a GPR package that comes off the shelf.
Tony Palo at T1's been the mastermind behind everything and I've no doubt that this car
wouldn't be what it is or as reliable as it is without him doing that.
It's got a Motec C1270 dash in it.
Yeah besides that it's just basically the Motec GPR package tuned by Tony.
- Now that GPR package gives a lot of flexibility to the tuning as well as you've
just mentioned getting the reliability there in the engine.
But you've also got a two wheel drive car making a huge amount of power
and for drag racing and roll racing, getting that power to the ground
is so critical.
So what're you and Tony doing there with the ECU to help manage the power
delivery?
- Right so the Motec traction control system's really really advanced from what I've seen.
I mean I'm not a bright guy by any means but I can tell how well it's working just
by looking at the front and rear wheel speed, they were using that and then
just setting up the actual slip percentage which Motec has a really cool setup
on there.
So the car actually hooks really well for 800 or so on the street.
3rd, 4th and 5th with the aero on the car and the 305 tyres, it works really well.
But yeah 1st and 2nd, completely useless on the street without the Motec.
- So you've got traction control in there but you're also varying the boost dependent
on gear as well?
- Yes sir, yeah so we have set up boost by gear, it's pretty crazy the track rep
here at 2K 'cause typically I have about 30% to 40% of boost available in second
and it's just, it'll just ride traction control even at that in certain situations.
But with the track right here I'm at 80% in 2nd and it's working.
So it's pretty crazy how sticky it is.
- So basically you're all in by 3rd gear from then on in.
And what sort of boost pressure did you say you're running.
- So it's upwards of 40 in the mid range and it kind of falls off up top,
so 35 or so, but yeah it's 100% boost 3rd, 4th and 5th.
- Now that Motec dash as well, we see these fitted to a lot of high end race cars.
One of the important things to mention there is that in most use when you're
actually drag racing, the driver's really gonna be focusing primarily on just
watching the shift light.
So it might seem like an over complication or unnecessary expense,
but one of the real great benefits of having a dash logger like this is the
ability to have driver warning.
So this means you can concentrate on driving the car but if anything goes
outside of bounds, you can bring up that warning and instantly react and often
that can even save a very expensive engine.
So what sort of warnings are you using on the dash to make sure everything
stays in one piece?
- Yeah so I actually have gotten pretty comfortable with display creator itself
so I created the whole file on the car, I've set up all the channels and the alarms
to display actually what's wrong with the car so your fuel pressure or if there's
a boost issue, oil pressure warning, I've got all that programmed in a little
section that I build on the display itself to relay the message to me instantly.
- So instantly bringing your attention so you know exactly what's wrong and what
you need to do.
Now let's talk about the rest of the drive train in the car because again
getting that sort of power to the rear wheels is one of the keys,
doesn't matter how much power you're making, if you don't have a reliable
drive train.
And pretty sure the stock 6 speed Honda box was never gonna put up with that,
so what have you got in there?
- Right so I tried the whole, trying to hide from reality and use a 6 speed
for a while and it worked at 600 every once in a while but now it's got a
Quaife 6 speed sequential in it.
It's the 69G model that they make.
It's got a Nissan R200 rear end out of like the 300z, I believe some Skyline models.
Carbon Driveshaft Shop main driveshaft, and then the DSS 5.9 axles as well.
- Now that's gonna give you something pretty bullet proof.
The other advantage with going to a sequential box like that Quaife
is clutchless shifting.
So are you using the functionality through the Motec to provide that and
how does that work for you?
- RIght so I'm really only using the clutch in this race on the initial takeoff and then
besides that we're using the Quaife load cell that Tony's using with an ignition
retard just to, you know with enough pressure I just yank it back and it
falls in gear.
But it does have an RPS carbon clutch for when we drag race so we can slip it,
along with the Magnus flow control valve that we're able to only work above
or below a certain mile an hour so it's not actually happening on the shift
so if I need to clutch it as well.
- OK so I just wanna back up there and dive into a couple of those aspects
you've talked about there.
So first of all, just for our listeners who are watching, that load cell on the gear
lever it's a strain gauge which basically tells the ECU whether you're pulling
back on the gear lever.
And when you pull back on the gear lever hard enough it can provide
ignition retard or a cut, so it allows you full throttle shifting, you don't need to use
the clutch with that dog engagement gearbox.
But the other bit that you just talked about there is the clutch slipper unit.
So here at TX2K you're entered in roll racing, so the launch really isn't
a critical aspect but you've said that you do wanna take this car drag racing
as well and getting a car off the line, particularly a small capacity turbocharged
engine can be really tricky balancing that sort of traction and slipping the
clutch is critical.
But it's really difficult for most drivers to consistently get the same amount of slip.
So these clutch slippers, I think we've used them in our own drag cars,
and they're kind of one of those dirty little secrets of drag racers and not
a lot of people know how they work, can you explain exactly what it does?
- Right yeah so like I said it's the electronic unit that Magnus Fabrication
makes, so we're actually logging the clutch pressure with a Motec 3000
psi sensor on there as well.
So we'll play with it and see how much actual delay we want and slip we
want in the clutch and once we're able to get that dialled in,
we'll be able to just make a couple of adjustments in any race.
But again we won't be using it after the launch, but again with the
consistencies we were talking about with the drag racing.
- So the key there is that you as a driver, as soon as the tree counts
down and you get the green light, you can side step the clutch,
but instead of that clutch instantly engaging, that magnus unit is providing
a slower release for the clutch, building in some slip?
- Yeah exactly, yeah so before if you just try and slip it, yeah you might
get it once out of 10 times but with this it's gonna be absolutely the same
thing every time.
- Only downside of course is purposefully slipping the clutch is going to put some
wear into the clutch but with those carbon clutches they are able to
support a lot more heat and last a lot longer.
Let's talk a little bit about the results you've had from the car already.
We saw you last year at Pikes Peak Airstrip Attack running in the half mile
race event.
What's your best mile an hour so far?
- Right so I ran the half mile, the DA that day in Colorado was like 9600 feet DA
so the car was down like 15 pounds of boost from what I remember.
It went 181 and some change in the half mile.
At that point that was actually a world record for the Honda S2000 platform.
There's a 2J car that ended up taking that back a couple of weeks afterwards.
But I plan on getting it out to Indianapolis half mile this year and going over 190
pretty easily.
- I'll just go back on that as well, you just mentioned DA of 9600,
so that's density altitude and for those who aren't aware, Pikes Peak,
we are at high altitude so you've got low air density.
There's pros and cons of that.
With the very very high power cars we're actually seeing an advantage because
the lower air density means it's easier to push the car through the air,
and once you're down around that 1000 wheel horsepower or below,
just makes it harder because you're not making as much engine power.
Here at TX2K this morning we had a density altitude of -680 feet so that
means the air's really dense, it's really good and makes it much easier to
make power.
Now also you wanna take this car drag racing on the 1/4 mile and you haven't
done that yet but with that sort of power level and the rest of the setup,
what do you think it's capable of?
- It's always one thing to hope what it runs but I think best I can estimate,
it should go 8.80s, 8.90s at somewhere around 160 miles an hour.
- Well look Stuart it's an impressive package, we're looking forward to seeing
how it runs this weekend and good luck for the event.
- Thank you very much.
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