Street Racing Stupidity: S2000 vs. Nissan XTerra
The unlikeliest of match-ups leads to an embarrassing end result.
Okay, we need to clarify a few things: yes, the Honda S2000 is an amazing sports car, few people would contest this. That said, with 240 horsepower, a stock S2000 is not a drag racing machine. Sure, a healthy S2K with a decent driver will turn mid-14 second quarter miles, but it’s much better suited to a winding road or track day. There are many pedestrian family vehicles that will embarrass a stock S2000 in a stop light drag race. In fact, most modern minivans will go toe-to-toe with a stock S2000 in the 0-60 sprint, and a few of those family rigs will take the win.
That brings us to this very blurry, and dark video posted up on the Salt Lake Street Racing SLSR YouTube channel. This channel has been posting drag and street racing action that is presumably happening in the greater Salt Lake City area. Their latest string of videos seem to feature an abandoned, industrial back drop and a bunch of cars parked on the sidelines. Really, it’s all typical street racing fair. Things get interesting when a Nissan Xterra lines up to run.
For those wondering, yes, the Nissan Xterra is the now-discontinued full-size SUV covered in body cladding, and best known for not changing in any discernible way over its 11-year production run. This 4,400 lb SUV featured a 4.0-liter of the venerable Nissan VQ engine, dubbed VQ40DE that kicked out 261 horsepower and 281 lb-ft of torque. It also featured a solid rear axle with a locking differential, and with it’s big, knobby tires, was best suited to the occasional off-road trail and frequent runs to Costco. In short, it’s not a fast vehicle.
ALSO SEE: S2000 Track Car Takes on German and American Adversaries at Laguna Seca
Here’s a reminder to enjoy your sports car on a legal road course when you can really push it to the limits and have fun. Please do that instead of this. One S2000 owner in Salt Lake City must be feeling embarrassed after they got waxed by said Nissan Xterra. Ouch. And talk about a beating, too: this Xterra seems to have put bus lengths on the S2K in this little street race. It all seems to have gone down at the launch. Listen closely and you can hear a big RPM launch from the Honda, followed by a lot of wheel spin. Meanwhile, the family hauler rolls off the line and proceeds to drag the S2K like a boat anchor.
S2000s are awesome, but they are not super fast drag racers, no matter what the other kids in the high school parking lot say. Have fun driving your S2K on the street, but save the 10/10ths stuff for the track. Hopefully this public service announcement will save a few egos, and get a few new faces out to the track.
