Now that I have your attention, my name is Devin "Stiglitz" Giles. I'm apart of a race team called Professional Awesome. We consult, write about, and podcast about DIY aerodynamics. We also sell components that will help anyone out there to obtain their goals of being faster. In fact, you might have seen some of our adverts on this site. I'm also a writer for Speed Academy where some of you might know this car from. With that being said, I'd like to introduce you to my problem child named Sheri.
Like most of you, I lied to myself that I wouldn't modify this S2000 passed a streetcar in the beginning. That was in 2012 which I had a 240sx (S14) at the time which served its duties as my track car. Like most 240s of the time, it was consistently broken. SR engines just weren't reliable for me. However, it did help me develop my photography skills since it sat perfectly still. The more I became frustrated with the S14 the more this stock-ish S2000 became my go-to for HPDE's and autocross with my local Miata Club. In fact, it came a day that I was setting up to take a photo for a sponsor and I thought out loud "one of these needs to go." Here is that photo actually.
I told myself whichever one ran after this week and had a better chance of success is the one that stays. Well of course it was the Honda. She continued on her path doing HPDEs and dominating my local Miata Club's Unlimited class in 2012 and some of 2013. One day In 2013 thought I was hot E36 M3 and went down to Rantoul, IL to do an SCCA autocross in STR. I figured I'm beating all these Miata's in my ill-prepared car I can surely beat these guys. You know where this is going, I was wrooooonnnnnnnggggggg. That was surely a humbling ass whooping. If I remember correctly I placed 6th out of twelve people in the class but I was about a second and a half from first. I did realize something though, I liked the bigger courses but I did not like the fact that I only got 6 runs out of the day. With the Miata Club, it was usually around 12-14 runs per day. So I started looking into ways I could get into competitive driving on the track that didn't involve caging my car. Of course, this naturally led me to Time Trials and Time attack.
For the remainder of 2013, I started aiming my focus on NASA and their letter classes. That's right boys, back when there was TTB-TTE. I found that in my local region this car sat pretty well in TTC. I went to a few NASA events and took my time in climbing the ladder till I had my provisional Time Trials license at the beginning of 2014. There was one thing holding me back though, Hoosiers. I didn't have the cash to afford an extra set of wheels to mount used Hoosiers, plus the only way I had to transport them was strapping them to my wing. May was fast approaching and I was about to buy one of those trailers you can tow behind your car. Then I saw an ad in one of my import magazines about Global Time Attack at Road Atlanta. I thought shoot I can run these tired Direzza Star Specs one more time. It's not too far of a drive, only 10 hours.
Well silly me, driving 10 hours in a race(ish) car freaking sucked. However, time attack hooked me. Open rule book to be as creative and make things as cool as I wanted. I thought a lot of cars there were fast and to be on street tires and be that quick was pretty astonishing to me. This is the point where it all went into a black hole. You know when your car stopped being a car and turned into a barrel of money on fire.
That following year (2015) was the inaugural year for Gridlife. This car still sat in Street Modified class rather nicely and it was fairly competitive with 200 horsepower of fury coming out of the F20C. My main competition was a linginfelter C5 that belched out quite a bit of ponies so I was feeling pretty good that I could keep up and notch out a couple of wins against it. I ended the season on the podium in third place but I knew I would have to come with more horsepower and chassis development the next season.
For the 2016 season, I naturally did what anyone would do in Time Attack and add more powa! Went wider and tires and threw chassis development out the window. That led me to a car that was relatively fast at 370 wheel horsepower but not fast enough. I also made a mistake that year and running Nitto NT05s. I was able to land a podium at Road ATL but that was it. I also went through some teething pains of adding a turbocharger and getting the V mount to cooperate properly. I also joined the Professional Awesome team in the 2016 offseason.
2017 was eventful. Sheri made 480whp thanks to a Garrett GTX3582. When I say she was a freight train on the straits I mean it. Unfortunately, she was a handful at the corner exit. Actually check it out here: Autobahn South. I added a full cage as well as some other safety features like a full containment seat. I ended up bumping up a class to Track Mod/Limited as well. This was also the first year that I came out to the Ultimate Track Car Challenge. I did not compete because I came a little too late and missed the driver's meeting (poor time managing with getting the car ready before leaving on the 14-hour journey). This was also the year that Sheri was featured in Moto IQ: 480whp S2000. The car was a blast to drive but we had to make it less rowdy, this is right around the time I sat down with the team on how to make this thing better.
I took 2018 off to get some life stuff in order and to plan what we were going to do next. We ended up thinking that a K24 swap would be beneficial for two reasons. 1. More usable powerband, the F20C was pedestrian until around 6k RPM then it shot up like a Toyota Supra's dyno chart. 2. K24 is far cheaper to replace. My F20C actually caught on fire (As seen here) in 2017 and it made me realize that if I were to have to replace it midseason I might be able to afford it.
2019 would prove to be a rough time for Sheri and me though. I started with UTCC where I couldn't keep the car cool. It ended up being air trapped in the system then it popped a head gasket. The following event was Gridlife's Midwest Festival at Gingerman where I went out for two practice laps then the pilot bearing popped out of the flywheel and got wedged into the pressure plate. I spent one day removing the trans and getting that all squared away before going to work that evening. But wait there's more, in the rain the next day my wastegate broke off my manifold so that ended that event. Then it all circled back at the season's last event where we still had overheating problems. They were a few positives, my MPH in all turns was up and I got my second feature in Moto IQ: Continous Improvement.
That brings us to 2020, where Covid 19 has impacted everyone in different ways. I elected to not do any competitions this season which was pretty tough but it was the right thing for my family. Oh yeah, I bought a Corvette for wheel to wheel duties. I tell you what though it's hard to condense a years worth of efforts into one paragraph lol. This is semi where things are right now, I'm at a crossroads rather I should go back to the F series for simplicity sake, Stay with the K series and try to get to the bottom of this, or do something radical and go the LFX route. I'll try my best to update this with any major updates each month or so. You can also find me in numerous places.
