Published August 17th, 2017: https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/li...-power-plants/

 

Wow that is quite impressive that he picks the Honda S2000 motor as one of his favourites, the ap1 version of course. I was surprised as he talked about not making engines too peaky, yet the ap1 S2k motor was as peaky as they get, but he admired the engineering of it all I guess. Very cool.

 

Neato

 

Well, AP2 was improved mechanically. AP2 also gained a bit in low end torque and peak HP comes on slightly sooner. So the praise really described the newer, improved version of the engine.

 

Funny they say that because it took Ferrari 12 years to beat the high comp JDM f20c in the (IMO largely irrelevant) 125Hp/L and 9125RPM figure department.
I am very respectful of the engineering that took. FRM, light weight parts, crazy tolerances and balance (within 2g IIRC).
The real issue with this design though is out of round bores and higher wear on components if you're tracking/thrashing them often. For commuting ad occasional blasts through the hills as designed though, the f20c is perfect.
That said, these days I'm much more a fan of something I can rebuild at home, plus dimensional efficiency and torque curves thus put my money where my mouth is with an LS3.

'runs away quickly before gnashing of teeth commences'

 

I'm sure he was talking about the F20C. They never got the F22C in Europe.

 

Honda got it right the first time. We'll have to agree to disagree on this point.

 

Well, it's better to be driving around an OEM AP2, than an OEM Mazda Miata? No?

 

Wow - what a complement to the S2000!

 

This.
The F22 was only developed following criticism from the 'merkin market, who are often used to v8 low end torque and are afraid to rev engines to 9k...
I personally find the f20c enough torque for pootling around town, but each to their own. They got it right the first time for all round road and casual track day use.