STREET SWEEPER

John Santos’ Time Attack S2000 that stays true to its street roots.

John Santos has been into fast cars as long as he can remember. A hereditary inherited passion from his father, his love for cars only grew as he became old enough to truly enjoy them. From a co-owned Civic with his brother, to an Eclipse GSX, to an R32 Skyline, and finally - after some others along the way - to this insanely aggressive S2000 you see here, Santos’ journey through modified car ownership has been full of hits.

Before he had even purchased his 2003 Honda S2000, he knew he wanted something that he could take to the track and be competitive, but also keep the car on the street. To him, a racecar that you couldn’t enjoy the rest of the week was a waste of time, so the goal was a dual-purpose vehicle. When he first found the vehicle, it was impractically low to the ground, on stretched tires wrapped around BBS wheels with a considerable amount of negative camber. While that may be perfect for some people, it wouldn’t last long in Santos’ hands with his time attack aspirations.

The car originally had a CD009 transmission in it, but for the purpose of time attack, Santos opted for a DCT transmission from a BMW M3. After some trials and tribulations - both related to the transmission, as well as other mechanical mishaps - the DCT is in the car and making shifts in 80 milliseconds, and Santos says they can probably get even faster. Until then, he and his team are constantly data logging and making improvements.

Under that wild exterior of custom aero and widebody flares is a plethora of impressive suspension work, fine-tuned for serious track driving. Nitron 3-way adjustable coilovers, spherical bearings, and a full set of K-Tuned arms in the front and rear allow Santos to make adjustments to his suspension setup on the fly with ease. Look a little further beneath the car and you’ll find 5.9 axles hooked up to a 370Z differential with a Wavetrac LSD inside. Pair all of this with that DCT transmission and you