(car engine)
- Long face, no top, and an exhaust note that drives
fear into the hearts of even the bravest men.
(car engine and yelling)
It was a rear wheel drive car from the company
who perfected front-wheel drive.
A return to the roots that showed the world
Honda can still have fun.
And just like a Summer fling, the McPizza, and my old man
it didn't stick around for long.
Leaving us before we could appreciate what we really had.
This is everything you need to know
to get up to speed on the Honda S2000.
(fire crackling and music tone)
(gaming music)
Today, Honda's the name of one of the
largest automakers in the world.
But in the 1920's, it was just the name of some mechanic.
Soichiro Honda spent his youth
fixing bicycles at his father's shop.
Falling in love with all things mechanical.
One day, little Honda was walking home
and he saw something that would change his life
and the entire car industry forever.
Bouncing down the road, came a Ford Model T.
Honda had to know how it worked
and soon he did what any inquisitive child does.
He dropped out of grade school and moved out on his own
to apprentice at a mechanic shop.
When I was in grade school I dropped out
and started learning
how to yell at cars about cars.
(musical chimes)
And soon, he was a well-renowned mechanic
with his own repair shop.
Here he would build custom race cars
and motorcycles in his spare time,
dreaming of the day when he could build his own vehicle.
The Second World War would delay these dreams
becoming a reality as Soichiro
began producing parts for the war effort.
That is, until his workshop got bombed
by the Allies and smashed by a earthquake.
Once that happened, he decided to sell the rubble for scrap,
buy a water tank, and make some whiskey.
This dude is awesome.
That really happened.
Google it.
In 1949, Honda would make history by
founding his namesake company Honda Motor Company
with the introduction of a number of small motorbikes.
- [Fast Robotic Voice] Fast Forward to 1955.
- Japan is starting to recover from the war.
The government is has put out a directive
for what they call a "people's car."
Four seats, cheap price, and easy production.
- [Deep Voice] That was easy.
- Honda hired 50 engineers and got to work
building a car suitable to bear his name.
Despite being beat to the market
by rivals Suzuki and Subaru,
Honda and his engineers kept on working
before finally revealing the fruits of their labor
at the National Honda Meeting General Assembly in 1962.
These cars were called the S360, S500, and T360.
Honda, who was told to produce a
family friendly four-seater that can
protect passengers from the weather comes back with
two convertible sports cars and a minitruck.
Boss!
- [Game Character] Boss?
- Well today, Honda has a reputation
for making wrong-wheel drive cars.
The company actually began
with rear-wheel drive Convertible Sports Cars.
(car engine)
Basically, the Honda S500 was a four-wheel
tandem seat motorcycle.
The engine was small and had individually
carburetted cylinders with a 9,500 RPM redline.
It was a screamer.
(car engine revving)
It even used a chain-drive contraption
to give power to the rear wheels.
This tiny rear-drive roadster was
everything Honda loved about cars.
It was mechanical, it was interesting, and it was fun.
By 1970, the S500's engine had grown
and the car was now the S800.
As Mr. Honda became older, he started stepping back
from the operations of his company.
As other business leaders besides Mr. Honda
gained more influence in the company,
the focus began to shift more and more towards
fuel efficient family-friendly vehicles.
For the next 30 years it would seem that
Honda had forgotten its roots
and the S line of roadsters was dead and gone.
Until one day, in 1995 a bright unexpected
light appeared on the horizon.
And no, I'm not talking about the
day that Post Malone was born.
It was the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show
and Honda dropped a bomb on the entire auto industry
with their Honda Sport Study model.
It was sleek, stylish, and most importantly it was topless.
This study was lead by Daisuke Sawai and showed fans
that Honda maybe hadn't forgotten
the spirit of their founder.
The concept featured a drop-top body
powered by a two liter, five cylinder, V-TEC engine.
(yelling)
This car would proceed to tease fans for the next four years
until the 1999 Honda finally released their next S car.
Nearly 30 years after the last one,
the S2000 was born.
(car engine revving)
Released in Japan for the 1999 model year
and the rest of the world the following year,
The S2K was truly a return to form for the company
The 2 liter engine, which gave the S2000 its name.
This engine, dubbed the F20C, is absolutely filled
with headline-grabbing technology including:
aluminum block,
forged aluminum pistons,
Dual-OverHead Cam,
V-TEC ...
(yelling)
A timing chain rather than a belt,
fiber-reinforced metal cylinder liners,
molybdenum piston skirts for reduced friction.
Look out Dad, cause baby's got molybdenum.
All of which result in a mean
piston speed of 81 feet a second.
That's fast!
- So ...
Fast...
- All those big words mean that the Honda S2000 makes
234 horsepower out of a 2 liter engine
or 247 horsepower if you live in Japan,
where they get slightly higher compression ratios.
These power numbers are achieved
way up in the rev range at 8,300 RPM
with the redline sitting at 9,000 RPM.
Power is sent through a 6-Speed Manual
to the rear wheels where an LSD came standard.
This put the F20C at around 125 horsepower per liter,
which means it had the highest output of any
mass production naturally aspirated engine
until it was beaten by the Ferrari 458 it 2010.
The S2000 landed during the perfect time
to launch such a bold nod to their heritage.
Not only were they able to capitalize off their
recent CART and Formula 1 experience.
Accessible Honda performance was seeing a renaissance
on public roads through the launch of their NSX Supercar
and the arrival of the titebar nameplate on American shorts.
Integritite bar, you ever heard of it?
Check out this video.
Oh, what a time to be alive.
Except there was one problem, Americans per-us.
The S2K focused on making its power by
reducing internal engine friction
allowing faster engine speeds and higher redlines.
This meant the S2K made all of its power
way, way, way at the top.
V-TEC didn't even kick in until 6,000 RPM yo.
(yelling)
To get the most out of the S2000,
drivers really had to work the transmission
building and keeping engine speed high.
Americans were used to big cars
with large torque powerhouses.
They didn't react well to the S2000
with its high-strung F20C.
Hoping to change these reactions,
Honda face-lifted the S2000
five years into its production run,
launching the updated S2000 in 2004.
Since the first Honda was known as the AP1,
this one was logically named the AP2.
The biggest difference between the two models is the engine.
The AP2... got an updated... F22C1.
Just like the Honda S roadsters of the 60's
this updated engine was larger, stroked at 2.2 liters.
The new motor was purely a response to the American market
and their distaste of the high-revving F20C.
The F22C1 produced a bit more torque,
had a bit lower redline at 8,200 RPM,
but had just as much character as before.
Luckily for us, not only can Honda build a wonderful engine,
they can also build a pretty rad car to put it in.
With a long hood, clean lines, and a road-hugging appearance
the S2000 is a beautiful car.
Something important to any successful sports car.
Even more importantly to a sports car,
the structure of the S2K is incredibly strong
due to an X-bone frame which supports
the engine and transmission and everything else important.
These good looks, Grade-A chassis, and amazing engine
all quickly put the S2K on the
radar of many car enthusiasts.
Many people were introduced to the S2000
and the idea of a fast Honda in
The Fast and The Furious when Jesse got smashed
by Johnny Tran's $100,000 S2K.
Too soon, Junior.
As production neared the 10-year mark
Honda knew the S2000 was not longed for this world.
They decided the best way to send the car off
was to release a few special edition models.
The most focused and hardcore version
was actually reserved for the American market.
What?
We got a cooler car than Japan did for once?
What the ...
This model, called the Club Racer, or CR
was Honda's nod to the enthusiasm shown
by American drivers for the car.
The CR included track-revising
exhaust and suspension systems
as well as CR specific wheels and wider tires.
On top of these added parts,
Honda stripped the CR of any weight it could.
This included making the radio and a see optional
as well as deleting the folding roof.
And the roof storage space was filled with an X-spray
and a sweet hard top was included.
Well the CR is covered in special edition
visual only mods like faux carbon fiber.
Two editions which have a definite purpose
are the front and rear spoilers.
These aid in cornering speed by providing downforce.
This downforce combined with wider rear tires
make the CR slower in a straight line
but faster in the twisties.
With this special edition, Honda wound down S2000 production
closing down the assembly line in 2009.
With the end of the S2K, Honda's line up was
for the most part... missing fun.
- Boring.
- CRV's, Pilot's, and Odyssey minivans
filled Honda showrooms everywhere.
Honda fans worried that fun Honda's were gone.
Today Honda is going through a repeat
of what brought us the S2000 in the first place.
They're becoming more focused in motorsport.
The world has a modern NSX and America has a Titebar
Japan even has their own S roadster
in the form of a cute lite S660K car.
Honda is fun again.
- Dang.
- The S2000, a car that seemed out of character
for Honda almost 20 years ago
may actually be the most
Honda car that Honda has ever built.
That's everything you need to know
to get up to speed on the Honda S2000.
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