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I can't believe the journey I've had as an S2000 owner.
Getting my then gf and me our first car together in Feb 2000 was a beautiful Berlina AP1 with no forced options, no adjusted dealer markup....a simple Honda that the dealership salesperson called out as a 'convertible Civic', because the dealership salespeople didn't know any better at the time. MSRP was $32k, I got the car at $29k. Looking back, I should've bought 5. LOL. There was a small group of us loosely connected on early internet sites back then were we followed the SSM/S2000 development incorrectly assuming that this was going to be a Japanese market only product. Thankfully, we were wrong.
The first few years of ownership were really fun; getting to meet people from various backgrounds and varied interests, with one thing connecting us....enthusiasm for the S2000. I swore not to mod my car... then I went to the 1st Tail of the Dragon meet where a beautiful Mugen SS New Formula got in my rear view mirror trying to catch up to the Upper Midwest Caravan. The owner left a few hours late because he was still picking up his car from King Motorsport. I turned to my then and current wife that our S2K is going to be turned into that. She said no.
I did mod the car here and there for a few years, started doing some Mugen stuff to it, including racing buckets. She tolerated it. Then she and I had our first child. She never got back into our S2K. She wanted us to let go of it for something more practical. I got HER something more practical. She still never got back into the S2K...not until a good S2K owning friend of ours got seriously injured resulting in paralysis. He kept his S2K through it. He asked us to use it for a summer so that it would get driven. Wife drove it....she missed driving an s2k. She mentioned it to me at the end of the summer when we returned the s2k back to our friend's house. I took that as a calling to build her an S2k...we had 2 kids now. I figured how practical, now we both would be able to drive both s2ks, both kids, if/when we wanted to go somewhere and have fun doing it.
Slowly and surely, I turned both S2Ks into full Mugen builds, with hers not getting the Mugen buckets. Both got color swapped, mine multiple times. As years went on, I also bought other S2ks and built them differently, drove them, sold them (I was lucky to have owned a CR delete amongst these 'others'). I was really content....or so I thought. Fast forward a few more years, my son started driving and wanting to learn to drive manual, we bought him a 6 spd TSX. He modded it, reminiscent of his old man's Prelude. I was more content, getting to share my import modding passion with my son and his interest in it growing. 1.5 years after the TSX, wife gave me the idea to maybe get him an s2k; he was bringing home great grades, is a great kid, was holding a steady job, student athlete in tennis. She thought it'd be a great father-son thing to share before he heads off to college. Found and got him a clean high mileage S2k this past summer in Houston; where I got my wife's car from...go figure.
Right away getting on the highway, I knew I had something special. I was driving home in my son's first s2000. Got home, started modding it within the first week to make it his. Dropped off the car to get paint cleaned up and a wing painted and mounted just before we left for a long vacation to Kenya. We got back, picked up his car the next day and stopped off at a former Tilted Kilt...stopped there, because years ago, I took my son there for his second lunch and drive car meet. We took pics there, but now with both of our first S2Ks. "Content" doesn't seem to enough to explain how I feel now....I do have something VERY special because of the S2K; only this time I know it's more than the S2K.
Pre-Mugen, Berlina Son's 2nd S2k meet His and Hers Mugens....Champ white one is the original Berlina S2K, Apex blue one is Covid project (even the red one is color swapped...New Formula to Milano). Son's first s2k Back to the original lot where father & son started S2K journey together Father & son Family Affair Step-child wanted to be in pictures too
Luder94 Family Affair....
