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The Honda S2000 has a special seat at the table of the world's most iconic roadsters.
There’s no questioning the Honda S2000 is one of the greatest sports car ever made. You may know this roadster from the movies, as it was portrayed not in one, but in two movies of the Fast and Furious franchise.
However, this is not the only reason that this two-seater sport is famous. The Honda S2000 first came out in 1999, and it was continuously manufactured till 2009. This performance driving machine could easily fall into the category of the “immediate classics.”
The DNA of the Honda S2000 is made up of pure Japanese motorsport heritage and the huge rise in its price observed in a short amount of time is mostly due to this whip's reliability, performance, and capability. Let’s have a closer look at what made this spyder car so awesome.
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Honda, founded in 1946 by Souichirou Honda, first started as a Technical Research institution pursuing the fabrication of small, but efficient internal combustion engines. They officially incorporated the institute as Honda Motor Company in 1948, and first began massively manufacturing motorcycles in 1949. Years later, the carmaker would start fabricating their first roadster model - the Honda S500. It's a two-seater car which would, years later, become the inspiration for the creation of the Honda S2000.
In 1995, the Nipponese automaker brought a prototype of the Honda S2000 to various motor shows, suggesting they were preparing a formal launch of that model soon. In 1999, on the occasion of the company’s 50th anniversary, the first official version of the Honda S2000 finally saw the light of day.
It’s no secret that Honda has played a remarkable part in Formula One as an engine supplier for over five decades now, achieving several constructors world championships. The creation of the Honda S2000 assembled all the company’s motor racing legacy, ending up with a record-breaking roadster that just cannot be forgotten.
Some think they named it after the new millennium, but the truth is the naming of the vehicle has to do with the first model 2.0-liter engine capacity. Honda developed two main versions of this sports car: the AP1, produced between 1999 and 2003, and the AP2, offered from 2003 to 2009. The AP1 2.0-liter four-cylinders zooms easily to 9,000 RPM and develops 240 hp and 153 lb-ft of torque.
Concerns about the torque were raised among the consumers, so the automaker decided to solve this issue by launching a slightly modified version of the Honda S2000 with a new engine: the AP2. The F22C1 came with a 2.2-liter capacity and its horsepower remained the same. They increased the torque figure up to 161 lb-ft, at the cost of a lowered 8,000 RPM.
Although the public felt these modifications crumbled some of the car’s live-wire feel, the ride actually became smoother. Despite the critiques, the engine turned out to be the foundation stone to its performance popularity, and it was no surprise: it had the highest specific output of a normally aspirated production car engine in the industry.
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The clean driver orientated cabin will instantly grab your attention the minute you hop into this sports car. Seats are not specially comfortable, but the distance between them and the controls works just fine and within easy reach. A curved completely digital dashboard faces the driver's seat, one of the first digital dashboards to be incorporated into cars ever.
Truth is, drivers shouldn’t expect a luxurious interior, but a cabin adapted towards performance, and it should be judged as such: the Honda S2000 cabin is made out of long-lasting materials, it stands out for being functional, simple, and for having great outward visibility.
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The Honda S2000 presents a wide long hood which gives the sensation of lowness, and a short rear end. This open-topped roadster uses steel body construction except for the hood, which is aluminum, for weight reduction purposes. On profile, it may look aggressive, but the general styling of this two-seater is a modern and dynamic look defined by soft and clean lines.
The Honda S2000, being a serious avant-garde car for its time, could still beat several other sports cars from this era: its engine is basically a smaller adapted version of those manufactured for Formula 1, and it truly shows. Redline hitting 9000RPM was never seen in a sports roadster and somehow gave the sensation of racing in motorsport. Will the company ever replicate the Honda S2000 production? It’s uncertain, but one thing we can be sure of: this roadster will never fade into oblivion.