Chuck S

Any Karcepts tuners doing this on the road and via email with a history of tuning the S2000? Just curious but it would make them serious contenders.

-- Chuck

silenc3x

Since I have an 05 I gave serious thought to the Karcepts tune on an emanage, but it isn't customized to YOUR setup, and most tuning shops hate the emanage with a burning passion and refuse to work on it. The few shops I spoke with in the tri-state area all said to steer clear of the Greddy eManage ultimate.

I still want to pass OBDII emissions testing, so I'm most likely going the Kpro route and getting a custom tune, even though it's more expensive. Ballade offers a new version that requires no changing of sensors/other parts. It's $2500 though,so theres that.

https://www.balladesports.com/produc...sor-conversion.

rpg51

Complete nonsense.

Colin Shipp

B serious talking complete nonsense
its more comfortable i'll agree

but
9000 rpm enough said

jeffreygebhart

Ha! I was waiting for an AP1 owner to snort at that comment!

B serious

Haha. I've owned the same MY00 for coming up on 13 years now. Driven it cross country a couple times and tracked it a million times, street driven it...and I'm definitely still in love with it.

I got to experience an AP2 when my wife bought one a few years back.

I quickly discovered that AP2's are better in literally every measure.

When it came time to sell one of them, we chose her car to sell for 3 reasons:
-My AP1 was modded to be EVER so fancy
-My AP1 wasn't worth as much, even with lower miles
-My AP1 revs to 9K.

I recently bought a MY07 to use as a dedicated track car. It too, reassures me that the AP2 is better...even with DBW.

I've contemplated a 2.2L swap in my AP1. But...yes...I will 100% admit that the 9K redline is difficult to give up. You can rev out an AP2 that far...but its not brilliant. That's really the only AP1 party peice for me.

Its seems daft...because the AP2 makes more power and more torque and has a fatter power band and a better engine and a better diff and better speakers and better...everything measurable.

But you know...

How does one walk away from an engine that willingly spins to 150 times per second??

Hfreak

Here, this knowledgeable owner has both. Have a listen to his thoughts. Good and bad both ways.

GuthNW

Based on this thread, while not a sure bet, it does seem fairly safe to say that whether you end up buying an AP1 or an AP2 you'll grow to feel that it's the best of the breed, lol.

If you haven't already watched the savagegeese S2000 videos out on YouTube then you should check them out as well. I believe that he's currently on his fourth S2000 and is also a member here.

JRG2000

Yep, watches those. These videos are probably the main reason why I even questioned the AP1 vs AP2. As I said from the start, I like both of them equally and would be happy with the attributes of either based on my test drives. The S2000 as a whole embodies exactly what I want and miss from a car. Heck, I lamented the day car manufacture's started putting in auto-dimming mirrors!!! The AP1 I saw was the exact color I wanted and a perfect 1-owner example and right at the top but within my budget. I was going to pull the trigger on that one but then started questioning whether I should hold off for another year and save some more and get an AP2 to avoid all the issues such as weaker diff, retainer spring weakness, weak brass synchros, etc... Which brings me back to my original question. If the AP1 is solid and well cared for and I take very good care of it (I love to do my own "over-maintenance") will the brass synchros and weaker retainers and diff last a long time... I think they will.

GuthNW

He covers a lot of information and some have complained that he's almost a turnoff for buying one of these cars. I'm cool with that because there are some downsides to these cars, just as with any car. Obviously most everyone here has their own preferences, but I think the trick is to know how you personally plan to use the car. For me this same logic applies to any number of different purchases and not just cars. I honestly think that you would enjoy either variation given that it won't be a daily driver and you have immediate access to empty backroads. I also feel that all S2000s are built better than most other cars out on the road and will last a very long time if well taken care of. If the AP1 is mint, in the exact color you want and within your budget that really seems like a no-brainer to me. But you originally said that you're more of a stock kind of guy. If you're planning to modify the car and want to experiment with tuning then you might want to consider the later model years for reasons that others have noted.

Like you, I'm not overly crazy about an abundance of complex electronics on vehicles these days. I've actually experienced an ABS failure on a car before (not a S2000) and that was probably the single most frightening experience in a car or on a motorcycle that I've encountered while piloting a vehicle. (While I was actually in a pretty nasty crash when I was a kid, I have no memories of it at all.) ABS was available on the last motorcycle I purchased but I chose to go without it. I'll admit that I've had a few really close calls on my motorcycles where I was fortunate not to lock up the brakes. While ABS wasn't even an option on the vintage bike I rode, ABS is now here to stay on cars and motorcycles alike and overall it is hard to argue that it's not a good thing. I've benefitted from it more than once. Still I also choose to avoid DBW systems when I have the choice. For me, that's one legitimate reason why I'd likely choose an AP1 over a 2006+ AP2. But not because of throttle response or any other performance reasons as some would note. Basically the newer cars get, the less appeal they have for me personally. I can still appreciate them for what they are, and I do. But the S2000 is right on the edge of when cars started to lose some of their appeal for me. I got along okay with carburetors, but I also enjoy electronic fuel injection so what can I say — maybe I'll come around on the other stuff some day as well.