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Last year I missed posting on my 10th anniversary of buying my car; it seems appropriate with Homecoming II next weekend that I do a little online celebrating.
In December '98 I'd read Road & Track's cover story on the S2000 ("Honda's Surprise!" by the late, great Paul Frere) and decided immediately that I was going to buy one. In January I moved to L.A. to start a new job; literally the first thing I did after my flight landed and I checked into my hotel was look up a few local Honda dealers and drive around to get on their wait lists. Most hadn't even heard of the car ("S2000? You sure that's a Honda?")
By the time August/September rolled around, it was clear the car was going to be hot. One dealer called me in early September and told me they'd take me off the list unless I agreed to a $15,000 mark-up.
The big day came -- a week earlier than I'd expected. On Sept. 17, a Friday afternoon, the dealer I'd chosen called me at work: "Your car's here!" I went straight there and found a gleaming NFR with lip, spoiler and side strakes on the showroom floor. "Hmm, you got one without all that stuff?" I asked. They did.
I was the second person to pick up an S2000 from that dealer that day. The first guy, I later learned, had paid the full $10,000 mark-up they'd asked for. I'd paid half that, and I know they were willing to let me walk if I went any lower.
For the next year or so, it was common for dealers to allow only their most senior techs/mechanics to drive S2000s when they came in for service, and owners were well-catered to (as they should be, after paying well over MSRP!).
My car has just under 50,000 miles now, about 10% of those on-track. After 1.5 transmissions, two diffs, three exhausts, four suspensions, and more tires than I can count (not to mention two moves and two kids!) I still tell my wife "You can sell my car when you pry the keys from my cold, dead fingers."
That's awesome. I wish I had the means 11 years ago to get in on the ground floor. With used versions of your car going for that other guy's mark up, and stories of Honda porters drifting other people's cars, I can't imagine what ownership was like 11 years ago. When even car enthusiasts didn't know about the S2000 let alone "regular" people.
Awesome story. and glad to see that you're going through tires and track miles like a good owner should.
It's still one of my favorite S2000 articles. Here's the cover of that issue (Jan. '99):
Frere was in his late seventies at the time, and I remember raising an eyebrow when I read "top speed is aerodynamically limited to 150mph, which was reached on an appropriate stretch of road..." Go Paul!
One oddity about the article: it's clear in retrospect that the photos are all of an early-production Silverstone Metallic car, but photoshopped red. (Red seats weren't available in NFR cars, and the red paint in the photos has that glittery metallic sheen you'd expect from a pearl-coat or metallic color.)
09-17-2010, 12:56 PM
11 years and counting!
Go Paul! 
