Just curious,

why didn't you weld something like the Spoon gusset plate www.spoon.jp/details.php on Project S2000's suspension arm mounting area? I have seen the sheet metal there to be very thin, if it was my S2000 this would be one of my first mods. Any reasons speaking against it?

Another thing are those rigid collars they have been selling for a while, any thoughts on these?

The AP1s had the weaker sheet metal which was fixed on the AP2s.

As for the Spoon part, Spoon anything is expensive (engineers don't get paid THAT well) and I've done all the work myself either in Kojima's driveway or my garage on jack stands and basic tools.  Also, the car was my DD, so I could not afford any significant downtime.

I did recently buy a new DD though, so now the S2k can be down for more wrench time.  I've seen the rigid collars, but haven't thought too much about them.  It's cost vs. performance vs. time.  The major limiting factors in this project so far have been time (DD, no down time) and money (I don't make enough!).  Hence me doing all the work myself on stuff that can be done quickly.

In how far did Honda fix the issue on the AP2? Do you perhaps have a picture illustrating the differences?

Spoon has a video showing the weakness and where the gusset plates are installed www.youtube.com/watch, I think the car in this video is an AP1, right?

I was just wondering why the Rigid Collars weren't covered on this website yet, as they have lead to many discussions on the forums. I have bought a set, but did not fit them yet. Kind of looking forward to the better geometry, ride and steering feel they promise, though.

Not wanting to sound too much like a Spoon fanboy, I really like your build concept so far! It's very interesting that the KW Coilovers perform so well at a ride height near stock. I only have a V1 and the ride bottoms out quite a lot on the Nürburgring, sadly. The ride comfort over the stock ITR suspension has increased by quite a lot though, in spite of the KWs having higher spring rates.

I know exactly how you feel in being dependent on your car, keeping you from doing bigger things taking some downtime. But I think it is also nice to drive the car you put most effort in for most of the time. Many people I know end up with rarely driving their good cars at all, spending most of their time in their not so interesting DDs.

Do you plan on buying a big brake kit for the rear, too? Are there any on the market for the S2000?

I might do the rigid collars, but it'll be in conjucntion with something else like a clutch swap which will require 'being in there' anyways.  I don't like repeating labor

Can you adjust your ride height higher?  I think the rule of thumb is that as long as you have at least 3" of droop travel, you'll be okay.

As for a rear BBK, StopTech makes one bit it removes the parking brake which is unacceptable in a street car.  I have a pretty simple idea for rear brake cooling though; I just need to get around to working on it

I have seen rear brakes with seperate mini-calipers for the parking brake, maybe you could find one of those! Looking forward to your ideas for cooling though!
KW provides a recommended range for ride height, a span of about 2 inches and I am at about 1.5, so it is already adjusted to a rather high position. I plan to switch my front dampers to KW V3s, and if that's not enough use a thicker swaybar, and if that's still too soft I am going for their linear race springs + top mounts. Don't hope I need to, though, as the top mounts cost about 280$ each.