S2000 Test Drive!

[skorpion317]

I'm not normally one to praise Hondas (could be because i HATE them), but I always wanted to drive an S2000, just to see what it was like. This is the 4th installment of my "Test Drive" series (parts 1-3 were a new V6 Mustang, a Mitsu Lancer Evo, and a Subaru WRX).

The interior of the car, with the top up, is EXTREMELY small. Two seats, a shifter and spartan console, and not much else. This thing is definitely a serious sports car. The seats were supportive, with good side bolsters.

The shifter is amazing....it clicks into each gear precisely. The clutch is nice, it catches right in the middle of it's travel. The engine has a surprising amount of power low in the rev range. It's nothing neck-breaking, but i was expecting it to be a dog off the line. Watching the F1-style tach wind up is great. The speedometer isn't the best. It's easy to read, with big numbers, but i don't think it's accurate. I felt like I was going MUCH faster than the speedo was reading. It could just be because the car is small, that my perception is changed. I don't know.

The car has nice acceleration in nearly every gear. It was a little lacking in 3rd gear, passing a car on the highway at about 3000 RPM. However, once the engine reaches 6000 RPM or so, it switches over to VTEC. The thing just rockets away.....i was very impressed by it. I was up to about 90 MPH or so, but it seemed much faster than that. Again, i think the digital speedo is a little inaccurate.

The ride is firm, but not too harsh. I'd love to throw this thing into a nice series of S-turns....unfortuantely, the highway has none of those. I'll settle for flat-out acceleration The magazines aren't kidding when they call this car a "four-wheeled motorcycle". It has that same sort of nervous energy that demands you put your foot down and leave it there.

The salesman was a very nice guy, he wasn't trying to B.S. me at all. He was very honest, and understood that I was just coming to check out the car. I was very impressed, to say the least. I wouldn't mind owning one of these cars.

[Koll]

VTEC POWAH!

[Ian]

VTEC......neat.


I raced an S2K when I still had my GTA. We went from a dead stop on a highway. He didnt start to pass me until we hit 60 or so, and even then, he wasn't leaving me in the dust. Fast cars, but I thought I would have gotten owned a little harder. Nice car for sure.

[Fasterthanyou]

They really aren't as fast as they feel. A buddy of mine that is a Honda engineer got a deal on one (duh) and the only way he was able to run low 14's in the 1/4 was to hit the rev limiter and just slam it into gear before it resumed fuel delivery. No clutch usage, just hit it, smack the limiter and yank another gear. I think the feeling of speed comes from the bodies assotiation with sound. Just like a loud V8 makes you feel you're in a fast car the same thing goes for a motor that revs to a bizilion rpm. Neither of which are indicators of actualy horsepower but it's still cool.
I never got to do a full out blast, only a rolling 1st into 2nd up to 60mph and back down again. The thing STOPS very well and like you said, the feel in the shifter and clutch are quality (to be expected from Honda). It does not, however feel good when you try and do a burn-out. That's something I attribute to the crappy 4 banger.
I don't know if it's the revs or the quality but it felt like I was in a mid 90's m3... just felt the same, only on a smaller scale.
I should compare the low end torque similar to the 96 Mustang Cobra I drove, just not there. Infact the Honda might have had better sub 3000rpm pulling power because Ford really f*cked that 32v 4.6L up to only squeeze 300hp and have NO low end. I almost got rear ended on the 3500rpm shift into 2nd!

[BigAls87Z28]

They are quick and more about taking a turn then dashing the 1320.
Much like the Solstice, Sky, and Miata are. They might not light up 12's, but they will twist your face in the turns.

[skorpion317]

The best part was when I was banging through the gears, and had the car up to about 95 MPH or so. The salesman was a foreigner (Turkish, actually) and had a heavy accent. He said half-worriedly, "What if the police see us while we are driving? They pull us over and we tell them we are testing engine?" He was laughing while he said this. I just told him that I know a lot of the cops in the area, so I could talk us out of anything. As i said this, we were deep into 3rd gear, doing about 115, i think. I know, stupid on a public road, but there was no one on the highway at that point. I quickly reeled it back to legal speeds, just in case an enforcer of the law happened to be waiting for us down the road. I hadn't really thought about what would happen if a cop saw me blasting down the road at 100 MPH.

[slasherbarb]

drove an s2000 when i was at strauss...one of the techs let everyone drive it...they are very fun!!!