Rywire Builds 2.5L Widebody AP1

The Search For Perfection

Angel Ramos is no stranger to the Honda S2000 platform and many enthusiasts considered his car to among the best S2Ks roaming the streets. That said, car buffs like Angel never seem completely satisfied with leaving a car as 'good enough' because they are always looking to push the envelope a bit further and make improvements anywhere possible. When your car is already near perfection though, how do you go about making it any better? For Angel, the answer was simple; send it off to Rywire Motorsport Electronics to work their magic.

Photos Courtesy of Super Street

Reimagined By Rywire

The story goes that Ramos initially brought the car to Rywire because he wanted to get involved in track day driving and felt that improving the safety as well as performance would make for an overall better experience. The project quickly snowballed into a full-on build that would subsequently end up at the 2017 SEMA show in the Toyo Tires display. This build was not simply a case of throwing some new parts at the car but ended up being a complete vehicle overhaul. According to Ryan Basseri of Rywire, they built a jig to support the chassis and stripped the car completely down to the bare shell in order to go over the entire car with a fine-toothed comb, thus leaving nothing untouched along the way.

Photos Courtesy of Super Street

Stroke It Good

The powerplant in the car is quite special as it is a Bisimoto F-series build. The engine features a stroked crankshaft that is paired with an accompanying set of shortened H-beam connecting rods and forged aluminum pistons housed inside Golden Eagle ductile-iron sleeves. Port Flow Designs perfected the cylinder head which was then coupled to a set of Bisimoto cams. The end result is 2.5 liters of displacement with a rather extreme 14.5:1 compression ratio. But wait, there's more! The fuel-injection setup on this thing is mental with individual electronic Kinsler throttle bodies and (8) 1000cc Injector Dynamics fuel injectors controlled by an AEM Infinity 8h ECU. The staged injection setup is common in motorsports circles, but fine-tuning was required to allow for a smooth idle and cruise while also providing power on demand when the pedal is mashed.

Photos Courtesy of Super Street

Only The Finest

Prime components were not only used to spruce up the engine but throughout the entire car. A custom CSF radiator and oil-cooler setup were fabricated as were all of the XRP HS-79 motorsport-grade plumbing lines for the water and oil cooling.  Ballade Sports offered up some goodies such as the exhaust manifold, catch can, cooling plate, and timing chain tensioners. The engine and differential are supported by Hasport mounts and Rywire relocated the ABS unit and clutch line to tidy up the engine bay. The chassis received some goodies of its own like the adjustable KW V3 coilovers with Karcepts Inc. top hats. A Ballade Sports spherical bushing kit was installed to remove all of the slop and deflection that was present in the stock control arm bushings. A StopTech Trophy Sport brake kit with 14" floating rotors and 6-piston calipers were installed to withstand the rigors of severe track duty.

Photos Courtesy of Super Street

Bespoke Bodywork

With such an extensive build, Rywire did not want to use off the shelf body pieces from any number of S2K suppliers. Instead, they opted to use rare Mugen bits but commissioned Casale Design to modify them into widebody-esque pieces to look as if Mugen designed them that way. The quarter-panels and side skirts were customized to blend into the bumpers that were widened and reshaped. The extra width allowed for a set of 18x10" front, 18x12" rear Volk Racing ZE40 wheels (with Toyo R888 265/35R18 front, 315/30R18 rear tires) to fill the wheel wells. A custom cage was fitted to the car and powder coated white but still fits under the GT Motoring carbon-fiber top (not pictured) when installed. A pair of Recaro RS-G seats with Crow harnesses are sure to keep Ramos and his passenger secured in place when carving corners. Other interior features include an AiM MXS display and ASM wheel hub with Mugen wheel. That custom cowl behind the seats (where the soft-top originally fit) is a nice touch done in-house by Rywire.

Photos Courtesy of Super Street

Stealing The Spotlight at SEMA

In the end, it was quite a rush for Rywire to finish up the car in time to make it to SEMA. Fortunately, it made it there in all of its glory and was praised for the level of craftsmanship and attention to detail. After the show, Rywire was set to do a bit of testing and fine-tuning before handing the car back over to Ramos. By now, Angel Ramos is probably out wreaking havoc on California racetracks with his incredible Rywire S2K.

Photos Courtesy of Super Street

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