CAR GAZING
S2000 driving into the sunset
Honda's speedy roadster ending production after 10 years
By Derek Price
Spending a week driving the S2000, Honda's tiny two-seat sports car, leaves me torn between two emotions.
One is elation. I've long thought the S2000 is one of the world's best sports cars, even though many people still haven't heard of it after nine years of production. It's an exciting car to drive, with an engine that revs to 8,000 RPM and a road-gripping suspension that makes your eyes bulge as you sling it around corners. How can a thriller like this not make a car lover happy?
At the same time, I'm heartbroken because this will be the last year the S2000 will be built. I feel like singing a requiem for one of the all-time greats, mourning the loss of an irreplaceable old soul.
It was a great run.
The S2000 was first sold in 1999 and was originally meant to be a short-run, limited production vehicle that would show off Honda's spirit and involvement in Formula One racing.
It turned out to be popular enough that Honda kept it alive year after year, eventually making it more of a mainstream car – at least as mainstream as roadsters can be – when it massaged the engine and suspension to be better for everyday driving in 2004. Before that, the S2000 seemed more like a toy for weekend racers than something you could reasonably drive to work.
Today's S2000 is still a very pure, true-to-its-roots sports car. It's entirely focused on the driving experience, even lacking such conveniences as a glove box and cup holders.
The cabin layout makes that obvious, with a brilliantly designed dash that lets the driver perform every important function without his hands leaving the steering wheel, the buttons perfectly placed within fingers' reach. The passenger seat seems like it was included as an afterthought.
Some drivers will find the cabin a tight fit, which is exactly as it should be. If the S2000 were any bigger, it would sacrifice its mission as a pure, lightweight roadster. It's all about performance.
And it performs well, accelerating even faster than a Porsche Boxster and riding with more precision.
The engine is perfect fit, a 2.2-liter four-cylinder that makes 237 horsepower. Honda's VTEC technology changes the valve timing as the RPMs increase, providing a turbo-like boost when accelerating and encouraging you to rev it up. When you do that, the sound is just right, with a pleasant howl rather than a grating scream.
The suspension is likewise tuned perfectly for a sports car, offering an enormous amount of grip in corners and giving the driver a good feel of the road's surface. It's a firm suspension, allowing very little lean in corners.
All in all, the S2000 is custom-built for people like me – the folks who like to drive more than anything else. It's cramped, noisy and stripped down, which makes it absolutely faultless to us sports-car loons.
And boy, I'm going to miss it.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.)
The above article is provided for the interest and entertainment of our visitors. The views expressed in this article are only those of the author, who is solely responsible for the content. AutoGuide.net does not endorse any of these views, and is not to be held responsible for any of the content provided in the above article.
Click here to read Derek's past articles!
If you have any questions or comments for Derek or the AutoGuide.net, please fill out this form.
