An S2000 Affair is Forever – Part 1 (The Madness Begins)
Our member, jeallen, shared his thoughts on his continuing affair with his S2000’s. Owning both an AP1 and an AP2, he ranks among the privileged few that own and experience both cars and have come to love both for their character. Click through to read Part One of jeallen’s affair with two flavors of a special roadster.
My love affair with the S2000 started in 2005. My kids had all grown up and there was no need to keep the extended cab Toyota Tundra truck. After a string of Toyotas (’78 Celica, ’80 Corolla, ’81 Supra), my first Honda experience began with a 150,000-mile ‘95 Accord I purchased for my oldest son.
The Accord was the first stick shift I had driven in a while and it rekindled a long dormant desire to do more than just get to a destination; I wanted to “drive.” I began looking for something to satisfy that urge with no real thought for what it was except it had to have a stick. I was so far out of the loop on cars that the S2000 wasn’t even on my radar. I test drove several cars, including a WRX, until I ran across a used S2000 at a local dealer and something just clicked within me.
The 2003 AP1:
I scoured the pages of AutoTrader for several weeks and found a 2003 S2000 with 11,000 miles a state away at a dealership in Mississippi. I bought it and have never looked back. Even six years later with 85,000 miles, I often return home from my commute to tell my wife how much fun the car is to drive.
The S2000 is my daily driver, but early on, I found top up freeway commutes a bit wearing. I added Dynamat to the interior and trunk and sprayed undercoating in the exposed area inside the rear wheels to dampen the noise. The result was a less fatiguing ride, especially on long trips or anytime the top is up.
I upgraded the stereo, nothing crazy, but some 5.25” Alpine speakers in the doors and 4” Alpine speakers in the panels behind the seats. This not only improved the sound, but made it more audible at speed with the top down. I also added a subwoofer from an RSX that sits within the spare.
In 2007, I started running the car in autocross events and that’s when the love affair became an obsession. I had several early wins in the stock class running R-comp tires and a Comptech sway bar and later upgraded to the Gendron sway bar, and Penske shocks. Together we racked up several wins until in 2010 when I became frustrated with my growing losses to an AP2 driver. I felt the larger wheel and tire differences of the AP2 were giving him the edge and started looking for a deal on a high-mileage AP2.
The 2006 AP2:
I found a bargain on a 2006 New Formula Red theft recovery car in California with 38,000 miles. While I had been looking for a “beater” to race, the low-mileage ’06 turned out to be a really nice car and I drove it daily for months.
The AP2 addressed a number of my perceived minor inconveniences present in the AP1. I liked the ambient temperature gauge and clock in the dash. The car beeps to alert you when you reach the radios lowest volume settings and beeps when the emergency brake isn’t fully disengaged. The extra room in the console meant there was finally a ready place to drop my cell phone, sunglasses or gloves…
Images courtesy of jeallen