RE: Honda S2000 GT 100 Edition

RE: Honda S2000 GT 100 Edition

Wednesday 5th August 2009

Honda S2000 GT 100 Edition

The S2000 goes off sale this year. PH's Matt Rigby enjoys a final fling


There is nothing wrong with the Honda S2000. It is an utterly amazing car - I would like to make that clear from the get-go. Many people will tell you that Honda’s wonderful, screaming, 9000rpm, 237bhp, rear-drive sports car is a deeply flawed machine. They are wrong - it is the rest of reality that is flawed.


The S2000 nay-sayers will tell you that the little Honda is expensive, liable to throw you off the road if you attack a corner with too much gusto, has all the torque of a week-old lettuce leaf, is blighted by uncommunicative steering, and its performance is inaccessible unless the driver is given a traffic-free country road or a race track.

In those respects, of course, they are right. But here lies the rub: on the right road (ie an empty, relatively smooth B-road), in the right conditions (sunny and dry), the S2000 is absolutely sen-bloody-sational.


Get the 2.0-litre VTEC singing near its 8300rpm peak power point, use the deliciously mechanical and precise six-speed gearbox to keep it there and you will have a ball. Do that in one of the more recent S2000s, and you can keep enjoying yourself when you get to a corner, too.

In 2004, Honda made various tweaks to the suspension with the aim of making the steering more entertaining and the tail less unruly. In 2008, Honda introduced an even less edgy GT model, with uprated springs, thicker anti-roll bars and re-tuned shock absorbers from the Japanese-market Type S. Now the S2000 is a much more predictable, less nervous machine; the edge of grip arrives in a much more progressive, less snappy way. You can even chuck in the odd 'dab of oppo' moment coming out of a roundabout with out fear of vicious reprisals from the rear end.


It’s aged well, too. For a car that was introduced in 1999, the S2000 still looks sharp, its unashamedly Japanese lines marking it out as a timeless design rather than dating it. The intimate, driver-oriented cabin is also pleasingly distinctive, even if some of the switchgear is starting to show its age

But, after 10 years on sale, 2009 is the S2000’s last - this GT 100 edition that we’ve managed to lay our hands on is a sort of perverse celebration of that fact.


The S2000 will soon be gone, then. But don’t remember it for its deficiencies - think of it on an empty country road, singing its VTEC heart out. Unfortunately most of the roads, most of the time, are not like that. Like I said, it’s reality that’s wrong.

Author
Discussion

MrTappets

Original Poster:

881 posts

190 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
Always loved that thing... *sniff*

Mattmeister

768 posts

206 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
agreed, very underrated car in my opinion and still looks good. (esp in white!)

The GMan

2,508 posts

254 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
I love them.

I think they look great with the copue type roof you can get. Never understood why they didn't make it an offical option.

Edited by The GMan on Wednesday 5th August 11:12

joe_90

4,206 posts

230 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
A truly great car..loved the years in mine.

Dracoro

8,660 posts

244 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
The GMan said:
I love them.

I think they look great with the copue type room you can get. Never understood why they didn't make it an offical option.
?? They've always offered the hard top.

LuS1fer

41,080 posts

244 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
Another Honda let down by it's bland styling IMHO. I think they would be remembered far more fondly if they looked interesting.

Paper Lawyer

247 posts

228 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
The GMan said:
I love them.

I think they look great with the copue type room you can get. Never understood why they didn't make it an offical option.
Say what? The hard top is supplied as standard with the GT model. Or do you like the Mooncraft hard top?


porcupineprince

623 posts

185 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
Paper Lawyer said:
The GMan said:
I love them.

I think they look great with the copue type room you can get. Never understood why they didn't make it an offical option.
Say what? The hard top is supplied as standard with the GT model. Or do you like the Mooncraft hard top?

That looks fantastic! I'd have that over a Z4M anyday!

MrLou

879 posts

220 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
Best car I ever had.

Ahh, the days before babies when I had spare cash...

The GMan

2,508 posts

254 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
Paper Lawyer said:
The GMan said:
I love them.

I think they look great with the copue type room you can get. Never understood why they didn't make it an offical option.
Say what? The hard top is supplied as standard with the GT model. Or do you like the Mooncraft hard top?

Thats what I mean when I say coupe hard top, I know they come with the standard one.

It looks great.

Edited by The GMan on Wednesday 5th August 11:31

The GMan

2,508 posts

254 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
Dracoro said:
The GMan said:
I love them.

I think they look great with the copue type room you can get. Never understood why they didn't make it an offical option.
?? They've always offered the hard top.
As I said I don't mean the standard hard top, I mean the after market one that someone has posted which I don't think was ever an offical option.

I think it looks fantastic, with that.

Edited by The GMan on Wednesday 5th August 11:29


Edited by The GMan on Wednesday 5th August 11:30

Paper Lawyer

247 posts

228 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
porcupineprince said:
Paper Lawyer said:
The GMan said:
I love them.

I think they look great with the copue type room you can get. Never understood why they didn't make it an offical option.
Say what? The hard top is supplied as standard with the GT model. Or do you like the Mooncraft hard top?

That looks fantastic! I'd have that over a Z4M anyday!
It's certainly a good look but, unless partially hinged, you also lose the use of the boot!


S1mon L

372 posts

192 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
After selling my Noble and giving sports cars a break for a bit, i bought an S2000 for abit of a laugh. Got to say, in many ways i prefer it. Bullet proof reliability, screaming engine which you really have to work and IMO great looking car. + the fact that i got a HUGE discount off list on one of the last ones, makes for good sunny evening blasting round the country lanes. Get one while you still can!!! Sometimes, less is more.

havoc

29,917 posts

234 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
Riggers, why the cliche's about the old car? Seriously chap - the car may be no MX-5 in the 'transparency' department, but if driven sympathetically you could get the tail out in the wet or dry with predictability and without it killing you.

(Hell, I managed it for 3 years and didn't spin it once...and I don't rate myself as a rwd god, only as someone who knows his own limits...)

The only reasons the old ones were stuffed so-often was by testers who pushed an unfamiliar rwd car with no TC too-hard in the wet on tyres which didn't like standing water.


Love the coupe-esque hard-tops...and agree they make the car look better than the Z4 coupe.

dan1502

686 posts

214 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
Really enjoyed mine. Nothing to match it in my opinion in the same price range. You have to spend a lot more on a Boxster to get something that ticks the same boxes and that is nowhere near as well proportioned.

I found it fine handling wise - it's just that most people are used to driving front wheel drive cars with various driver aids and think they can buy a sports car, jump in and go fast and get away with it. I even found it good in the wet and though I did have a few moments this is no different to the E36 M3 evo that had no traction control. (A friend did put one through a hedge backwards though - but he is clueless when it comes to driving and should get some training!).


El Guapo

2,787 posts

189 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
LuS1fer said:
Another Honda let down by it's bland styling IMHO. I think they would be remembered far more fondly if they looked interesting.
Many, including me, would call its design elegant and understated.

coogy

955 posts

210 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
Really want one! I think thats gonna be what replaes the Integra, may not be as raw as the ITR but RWD and the looks make up for it. Yum.

ConorNZ

73 posts

188 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
I loved mine too - one of the very first 1999 model cars. In fact, the 26th one sold in New Zealand!

Those original engines in 2.0 format and 9,000 rpm redline were amazing. The gearbox was the best I have come across (close second is original MX-5), but the handling was tricky. Driving on the road was fine, as I just drove within my limits. On the track, in the dry, lift-off oversteer was predictable and hugely entertaining, but you had to know it was coming and get ready!

Now, I am probably the world's best driver of all time, ever (better than the Stig and Shuey's illigitamte love child tongue out). And yet, in the driving rain on one track day, I spun the car 8 times. It was brown at the end of the day with all the mud! You had to keep the throttle in exactly the same position throughout the corner. Any more, any less, or heaven forbid any brakes, and it instantly snapped around.

Oh great, now I want to buy another one... lick

HAB

3,632 posts

226 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
El Guapo said:
LuS1fer said:
Another Honda let down by it's bland styling IMHO. I think they would be remembered far more fondly if they looked interesting.
Many, including me, would call its design elegant and understated.
Yep me too, always thought the S2000 was a good looking car.

Beanoir

1,327 posts

194 months

Wednesday 5th August 2009
quotequote all
"week-old lettuce"

....couldn't put it better myself.