This thought went through my mind as well.

Then I also considered the vast majority of the current population who are too busy with their technology to be BOTHERED with the task of shifting.

(Or, looking up at the world around them for that matter.)

With that in mind, I think a NEW Honda S2000, released TODAY, would ABSOLUTELY need to have an automatic transmission to be viable.

 

If you can't drive stick, you have plenty of other options. It's not like you are being kept out of sports cars entirely.

 

Maybe, but the objective of this car was to be pure and simple

 

Too many people think that performance is only about mashing the go pedal, and going faster than the next guy. Automatics tend to play into that sort of thinking.

Saving the Manuals is as much about preserving those other, more satisfying aspects of operating performance cars as it is about the physical dexterity involved in shifting manually...

Sent from my SM-G920P using IB AutoGroup

 

They would have sold (like a nicer automatic Miata) but they would have been miserable. At the time, the vast majority of autos had 4 or 5 speeds. Much longer gearing + torque converter sounds absolutely awful in a car with such low torque and high revs. Automatics weren't made for peaky powerbands, and the S2k would be so much less fun and engaging without the manual box.

I am guessing a lot of automatic S2k buyers would have crashed them in the wet from lift-off oversteer...
It was actually only supposed to go for two years!

 

I would buy a 8 speed paddel shifter S2000. Two more gears would help keep the rpm's up in the power band better.

ROD

 

Did someone say S2000 with paddle shifter?

S2000 with paddle shifter on youtube

 

it does not sound like 9K rpm...

as for an Auto S2K -
i believe it would sold way more S2K, but i would also assume that these cars had to have a different engine (the F20/F22 characteristics does not suit an auto transmission that well) and probably different suspension calibration.

 

Just to the contrary... Manual trannies are becoming more rare. Even in sports cars. 991 GT-3 and the 458.

 

Maybe in the USA they would have sold more, but I think here in Europe there would have been very little interest in an automatic S2000 (thank god). A lot of our friends with fast cars find it boring driving a (classic) automatic, except maybe a few 60+ senior drivers who might like that. Most people here also learn to drive a manual anyway so we don't really care about AT's as it's really not that hard to do your own shifting.

Sure, it might be interesting in a daily for commuting a long distance to work everyday and it would be nice if it had a bigger boot for groceries, good MPG and a roof rack, but it's not a mommy van is it?