Thx and Understand. Not trying to replace the torque experience, just not used to the lack of torque and would like more. Otherwise the S2000 is pretty nice of a drive and rush at the higher rpms.

 

if you are looking for high torque the S2k is probably not the car for you. That is, unless you go down the power mod road. Not something I am interested in, but there are many here on the forum who are boosted.

The s2k experience, in stock form, is not really about torque. But yes, as you learn to drive the car you will learn to keep the revs up pretty high, which definitely improves the situation if its torque you are looking for. It took me a while to adjust to it. But, I absolutely love the car now.

Maybe you would prefer a Vette? Or a Mustang?

 

Good things come to those who wait! -- said someone. Honda makes us wait forever until VTEC finally cut in at 6000rpm (58mph) in 3d gear so if you're at 60 you need t downshift to 2d to get any decent power.. FlashPro can fix this on the DBW cars and not force you to constantly rev the tits off the engine to get power. Stock, there is no power below 6000 rpm (exaggeration but seems like it). Hard to believe, but some consider this an advantage or at least an endearment of the (frantic) driving experience.

AP2 gearbox VTEC engagement at 6000 rpm vs the Rev Limiter. Note when you hit the rev-limiter in 1st and shift to 2d you're no longer in VTEC no matter how Fast-n-Furious you can shift. You're also likely to fall off VTEC at max rpm shifting from 2 to 3 and probably from 3 to 4.

6000rpmVTECbegin/RevLimit
1st 28mph/38mph
2d 42mph/58mph
3d 58mph/80mph
4th 75mph/102mph
5th 92mph/125mph
6th 113mph/155mph

Drop the VTEC to 3500 and it looks dramatically different with never falling off the high power cam if you keep your foot down::

3500rpmVTECbegin/RevLimit
1st 16mph/38mph
2d 25mph/58mph
3d 34mph/80mph
4th 43mph/102mph
5th 54mph/125mph
6th 66mph/155mph

-- Chuck

 

Thanks Chuck for the great insight. Sounds like FlashPro will do a lot and with the GernPipe should make a fairly significant change to the needed torque.

Alan

 

My FlashPro tune is from Gernby (the Gern in GernPipe). Ubiquitous K&N FIPK intake, Berk high flow cat (required to lower VTEC), Tanabe Medalion Touring exhaust. The Gern pipe has the high flow cat internally and reports look good. Still gotta get the car tuned and, sadly, Gernby no longer does this for us. My VTEC engagement at WOT is 3600rpm (but I found the 3500 rpm data here).

-- Chuck

 

Awesome looking car, OP!

@Chuck S Is there any downside to lowering the VTEC engagement that low? I can't imagine why there would be - other than possibly gas mileage and emissions - but I also would think Honda would have lowered the VTEC crossover from 6k from the factory if there wasn't any negative consequences.

 

No downside to a lowered VTEC I'm aware of.

It's probably more complicated but it's mostly accurate to state that VTEC only engages at WOT (wide open throttle) above a set rpm. That's 6000rpm in stock tune (wait...wait...wait ). On my car it's 3600rpm.

If I'm cruising in 6th gear at 80mph (79mph here in Virginia ) or about 4000rpm I'm not in VTEC because even though I'm above my 3600rpm engagement point, I'm not at WOT, I'm on the low power "economy" cam. If I press on the throttle, though, VTEC instantly engages and adds another 20-25 horsepower right then. Since I get on the VTEC cam at just over 15mph with the pedal to the floor there's no wait and no VTEC Yo! feel as there's no massive power jump all of a sudden.

No fuel use issues, I still have a 300mile planning range per tank of fuel. No emissions issues I'm aware of; the car passed Ohio smog when I had it tested. I'm in a non-smog test county in Virginia at present so my last test was probably 2016.

-- Chuck

 

Congratulations @1niceap2 on finding such a clean example. When it comes to any vehicle, and not just the S2000, I believe that there are tradeoffs associated with pretty much any modification you can think of no matter how insignificant they might seem to some. The key is to understand what those tradeoffs are an how they might impact the car over the near term and the long term as well. It's your money and your car (a beauty by the way), but with only 22K miles my advice would be to leave forced induction completely out of the picture unless you know for sure that you have no plans of getting rid of the car or if you really don't care about losing money on the deal. Still, these cars are getting increasingly harder to find with this kind of mileage and if torque is really what you're after, then like rpg51, I'd also guess that you'd be better off looking elsewhere where more displacement is involved.

I'm not going to take the time to double-check Chuck's figures, but for what it's worth he's taken liberties with such things in the past. Others might want to look a little deeper into this matter before taking his word as gospel.

 

Hi all,
This is indeed a great car, but after driving it more the last few days, not the car for me. I have started a search for something else and the S2000 will go up for sale.
Thanks for all the support and advice. Not sure if I should consign it here locally in Atlanta as there are many places to do so or list here in the forum.
Thanks,
Alan

 

@GuthNW Not sure what data you're doubting. Someone posted a dyno dyno chart showing the mid-range power increase with a lowered VTEC in the past month, likewise the speeds in gears data is here. But since the OP is not keeping the car it's moot as far as this thread is concerned.

-- Chuck