After four years of being the proud owner of production #1600 (and one of the guys who paid above sticker), I bid farewell to my 2000 S2000 two weekends ago. I've been a semi-active member of this community and a frequent lurker for the past two and half years and a year on the predecessor board.

I have to admit of all the cars that I've owned, I've never seen a community with such enthusiasm and passion about an automobile and I've never experienced the same for myself. Its a truly unique automobile and a truly unique group of people that drive them.

When I first bought the car, there were less than 25 in Houston and very few people had seen them. When I brought it home, my wife made two comments "It looks like the Bat Mobile." and "So, you bought a single person's car?" I told her that this car is not a chick-magnet, its a guy-magnet because of the unique engineering that only car people really appreciate. My words held true. In the first six months of driving around, I would frequently get people from across the intersection honking, commenting and giving thumbs up! People would go out of their way, U-Turn and come by the gas pump just to look and chat about the car and it was always some guy - never a girl! Not that there aren't any girls that appreciate the car as a machine, they are just a very small percentage.

I bought a BMW X5 4.4i last year and my S2000 had mostly sat in the garage since last December. With my son off to college and a gimp 94 4Runner that needed to be replaced, my S2000 was the ticket to a new truck for him. With 20K S2000's on US streets now and others copying the roadster concept, I figured the car was no big deal anymore. Driving it to the dealership that Saturday, I had to make a few stops and behold - the reverence still existed. I had two people make comments about the car and one even asked "What is that?"

I've owned 10 cars in my lifetime and most of them very nice. After we finished the transaction on my son's new Silverado and it was time to turn over the keys, I found my self telling the salesman all about the car, what needed attention, how to handle it, etc. Then it dawned on me - "He could care less." He laughed, turned to my son and said "Wow, your dad is giving up something special to him for your truck. I haven't seen someone have that much difficulty walking away." I did linger for a bit to detach myself from my car. As I drove off, my only regret was that I couldn't have sold the car to an enthusiast who I could feel would appreciate the car and tell stories to. I've never in my life reacted this way about any car I've owned.

So, if you see a Black/Red 2000 S2000, production #1600 with Texas Tags 9K XLR8, put them in touch with me.

To those of you remaining as owners, Godspeed and XLR8 constantly!

If anyone wants to assume my identity on this board with S2KXLR8N, let me know, we can transition the account to you. Best to contact me at steve@thealexanderhome.com.

BTW: Don't misread this, my BMW is absolutely the FINEST automobile I've ever driven, but it is NOT a roadster!

 

Thanks for the post and good luck to you.

 

Well said Steve.