Lazyrider69

Good point.... Forgot about that.. The Japanese market eventually got the 2.2L but all other markets except U.S. and Japan got the 2.0l I think.....

Lazyrider69

The cars were being compared and the video is a comparison of the cars in question. No one stated it was definitive. For me, the AP2 is a far more refined car in many ways and my personal preference.
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My point is that THAT particular video is a bunch of guys goofing around on a track.... Yet it is so often referred to in these discussions as some way to level discussion...... put Motoharu "gan san" Kurosawa in that AP1 on that day and see what result is... lol

The AP2 was adapted for exactly what Honda thought the U.S. market wanted. "refined" is synonymous as "softer" and less "edgy".... Not the original vision for what the car was suppose to be....

Take a look at old air cooled... more visceral Porsche 911s. Prices through the roof for the "pure" experience...

Love the Ap2... almost bought one..... but in 1999 when I first saw the S2000 I wanted THAT car... Couldn't justify it as a daily driver or without a garage at time..... SO HAPPY I have a Subaru Outback to get around in all the snow this year..... S2000 tucked away under cover in garage......

macdaddies911

How coincidental that you didn't like the write up.

05thumper

So what exactly do the AP2 swaybars do for an AP1? Probably has been covered 1,000,000 times but since it was brought up I figured why not ask.

s2ka

They make it more compliant on public roads.

Here's the suspension comparison of all S2000 models:

https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/818...page__hl__sway

Summary of swaybars:

Front/rear lb/in

'00-'01: 393/427
'02-'03: 300/396
'04-'07: 300/311
'08-'09: 354/311
'08-'09 CR: 392/362

Changing the rear bar on AP1 cars is the easy way to get more rear grip.

kevinS2OOO

Listen, everyone is biased to his/her own S2000 so this debate will never end...

Not to mention, Honda made the improvements pretty much based off on what people complain about the AP1 and work from there. Tail happy, okay, less tail happy for the AP2; not enough torque for daily drive, okay, more less end torque for the AP2...Honda made the improvements according to what the customers wanted, makes total sense, profits profits profits.

But that doesn't always conclude the AP2 is a better car than the AP1. Opinions? That would depend on what kind of driver you are and/or what you use the S2000 for. So it's all individual preferences.

socals

S2ka knows s2000's and suspension setup

Lazyrider69

Honda really didn't make a profit on the S2000..... But I agree with you generally... although I think Honda never really intended to go 9 years with the s2000. They created the Ap1 and when it got such acclaim, they continued to build to promote its engineering chops.

They tweaked the s2000 mainly here in USA first, and changes made were definitely "improvements" as far as driver assist, but it wasn't the ESSENCE of what they originally set out to make... And it is this "ESSENCE" of what the Ap1 was that really makes the argument of Ap1 vs. Ap2 silly.... Because in the end there is nothing like the original

Carbon Blue

its more along the lines of varying the rear to front roll stiffness ratio. People that run non staggered tires ( 255 all around) will tend to run a rear ap2 bar since it is less stiff than any ap1 rear bar. This is due to the increased oversteer that a 255 square setup induces.

05thumper

Sweet, thanks! So leave the front bar on my AP1 just swap the rear?