2000 Honda S2000

Convertible

2.0L 4 Cylinder Gasoline Fuel

Manual

JHMAP1147YT002537

Rear Wheel Drive

Gasoline

Power Windows

This is a first year (model year 2000) Honda S2000, for sale by its original owner, the co-founder of the North Texas S2000 Owners Club. (Over 100 more pictures at http://flic.kr/s/aHsjuLM4xR.) The car is mechanically solid with a factory new engine installed by the dealer at about 76,000 miles and driven gently since. The car has less than 102,000 miles on it now. So the engine has 26,000 miles on it. Prior to that, the car was used as a daily driver as well as for about 10 total track days (no racing however) and spirited country drives with sports car clubs. The car is very well-maintained and in excellent mechanical condition but the body shows plenty of paint chips and wear. The car had one single-car accident at about 19,000 miles which resulted in a new fender, hood, left rear wheel and suspension. The interior is in very good condition except for normal 100k wear on seats (no holes or tears). The radio works but the CD player does not (original equipment). The car is stock except for an X-Brace and a shock tower brace. The transmission, suspension and other running gear are in excellent condition. The tires are nearly new. Always dealer serviced, first at Lute Riley then at Honda of Frisco, and occasionally at Boardwalk Porsche in between (tires, inspections). The car drives fine. I maintain cars well, and this car has all regular services and more regular-than-required oil changes. I had all fluids changed both before and after track days (no races) and the more spirited club drives. I also had all brake pads replaced after each such day, and usually tires as well. I have virtually all maintenance records, and most delivery documents including the original window sticker (Monroney). I do not have the Owner’s Manual, although if I find it I will send it. This car was one of the very first S2000s shipped into Texas and I purchased it in October 1999 after eagerly waiting for its introduction. It was my daily driver until 2007, and has been in covered, secure storage since, driven lightly each month. Including this car I have four convertible roadsters so it is time for this very enjoyable roadster to find a new home. ABOUT THIS CAR (Over 100 more pictures at http://flic.kr/s/aHsjuLM4xR.) The car was my daily driver from 1999 to 2007. In addition to the track days and club drives noted above, it took two month-long trips from Dallas to California. If you like sports cars this one is easy to do cross country: the trunk holds two full carry-on sized roller-board suitcases, plus two computer bags, plus coats, etc. Along with my wife's purse at her feet, we had no problem staying on the road for weeks at a time. If you know Honda VTEC engines, you know this: below 6000 RPM it is an enjoyable, spartan but comfortable roadster, above 6000 RPM it is a adrenalin-pumping, hair-trigger, surgical road carver. The best description I have for this car's personality is "hooligan". There are faster sports cars but only a few really beg you to drive faster and push harder. Near the limit this car rewards. However, this is the original, first year specification, so you must keep your wits about you: the cars are tail happy and do not tolerate braking through turns. As with any aggressive sports car, you trail brake into the turn and accelerate through it. Also, as is well-known about original specification S2000s, they do not tolerate worn tires in the rain. Unless the tires are relatively fresh (under 10,000 miles) you will not want to drive faster than 55mph in the rain, and even then you are risking it. The car has relatively fresh tires on it now. As at the introduction of the Acura NSX, the introductory S2000 has the hair-tigger suspension that Shigeru Uehara - the Honda chief engineer on both cars - loves. Also as with the NSX, Honda then "dumbed-down" the suspension after complaints by U.S. car magazines and unskilled drivers. They made it safer and more "accessible" but less exotic and rewarding of skill. My car has its original suspension specifications as Uehara-san intended, and the year 2000 S2000 celebrated Honda's 50th year as a company, so you know he put soul into it. So the handling rewards skill and is great fun to drive fast. Of all the car's great features, however, the engine/transmission combination is to this day matched only by a very few much costlier sports cars. Until the Ferrari F430, no naturally-aspirated production car ever matched the 120hp per liter mark set by this Honda nearly 15 years earlier. Too, only a few cars today match the 9000rpm redline. Nobody builds better high performance engines: after all, it is the Honda Motor Company, right? Running the car through the gears, to red-line in first, second and third is both an exotic treat and a real blast. Slicing from apex to apex while keeping the engine between 8000 and 9000rpm with the six-speed takes skill, practice and focus, and gives a great feeling of satisfaction to those who value such things. Accelerating to red-line driving through a tunnel will treat you to an F1-like snarl that will have you looping back to do it again. It is cliché, but the transmission is indeed the closest to a rifle-bolt you will feel. A flick of the wrist will do it, and you'll swear you can feel the machining inside the mechanism. We have two late model Boxsters, and the car magazines all praise the crispness of the shifters. I have no beef about Porsche shifters but these testers have clearly never driven an S2000; it's not even a contest. And obviously, while a Ferrari dealer can send his kids to college on your F430's maintenance bills, maintenance on the S2000 is Honda-frugal. Dealer oil changes: $19.95. Periodic maintenance: $69 to $300. We had a Porsche Boxster of the same year at the same time. Oil changes literally 10x more costly. Regular maintenance easily 3x costlier. And yet the Boxster engine was comparatively inefficient at power and mileage. ABOUT THE CRASH One night in 1991, I was returning home from the airport late after a weather-delayed landing at 3:00am, through one of those massive monsoon rains that can slam Dallas. I was on the North Dallas Tollway, which was empty of cars, driving about 20 miles an hour into a heavy headwind and a blinding downpour. I was driving slowly because I was exhausted, I knew the tires were at about the point of being changed and visibility was nil. The car was water-tight as ever, but it was being buffeted back and forth by wind, even going only 20mph. But there was no one behind or in front of me, and I felt better getting home slow than not getting home at all. I came over a mild crest and the wind simply lifted the car enough to cause it to hydroplane on the water-logged road. Suddenly I was just a passenger. The car did an agonizingly slow 360 - brakes and steering useless on the slick surface - all the way around. I pushed in the clutch and waited, hoping it would simply spin to a stop. Unfortunately, it did so by bonking the left side into the curb of the center lane. It smacked the left front fender and front bumper into the guard rail, which in turn bent the aluminum hood. During the pirouette, I saw no headlights coming at me from behind, so I got out and - standing in the pouring rain - inspected the damage. I could see no leaks or flat tires, so I got back in and gingerly took it forward. No obvious problems, so I limped off at the next exit and drove it home at 15mph. A bad evening. The next morning it was obvious that, along with the body damage I had bent the front and rear wheels and possibly suspension. Flat-bedded to the dealer's for repair. I have the full repair record but the gist was: new left front and rear wheels and brake discs, new left rear suspension, new left front fender, front bumper and hood, as well as associated bits and pieces. All told about $8100.00 of damage, and what turned out later to be a pit-prone paint job. The car drives fine. Other than the pitted paint, there is no mechanical indication the crash ever occurred. Sigh. As I say, I drove it daily another six years and enjoyed it just as much. ABOUT THE NEW ENGINE In 2005, at about 75,000 miles I had a regular oil change and drove to the airport (about 22 miles). No problems. When I returned from my flight, I got into the car and the oil light came on. I called the service tech and he advised that the oil was low. He suggested rather than towing that I simply go to the nearest gas station and get a few bottles of oil, fill it up, and carry a few more with me. This way when the oil light came on, I could stop and fill it up. I did so, although from the smell I could tell I was leaking a lot of oil. I limped back to the dealer; they tightened the oil drain plug, topped off the oil, ran a diagnostics on the engine, and pronounced it fine. At about 76,000 miles, I was on a day drive with the Porsche club, and the engine faltered and then stopped. Although it would start, it did not sound good. I called the service tech and they recommended I drive it back to their shop. By the time I arrived, it was running very poorly. As it turned out, the main bearing had been damaged (over-heated) by the previous loss-of-oil incident. Then the stress from the Porsche club drive completed the damage. After a discussion with the dealer who had done the service, they agreed to share the cost to replace the engine (top and bottom end) with a new, in the crate, motor from Japan. Among the pictures listed here you will see the invoice: $8600.00, of which the dealer paid half and I paid half. After the new engine was installed, I did no more track days and only a few more club drives. Two years later (2007) I bought a Boxster S, which became my daily driver and my “spirited driving” car. I felt the S2000 had served well and wanted it to go into a long and gentle later life. That said, it is a new engine with only 30,000 miles on it, and it has been driven only monthly since 2007. My reason for selling is I recently acquired an Alfa Romeo, so I now have more cars than I want. Time for the S2000 to find a new home. A WORD OF CAUTION AND ENCOURAGEMENT Although it may be a Honda and it may be priced well for a college kid car, I would not recommend it unless your child has an unusual degree of driving self-discipline. It will egg the driver on, and when driven fast, it does not forgive unskilled or clumsy driving. However, if your child has discipline, and is interested in learning to drive sports cars, especially on the track, this is a great car. As noted above, it is a car with an exotic level of engineering, exciting performance, and high capabilities which rewards good driving technique. MORE PICTURES Over 100 more pictures at http://flic.kr/s/aHsjuLM4xR.