I would be in line will everyone else on this board....

 

As I remember, the S2000 prototype had 5 cyl. Since the goal was to build a mid-engine car with the engine behind the front axle, the engine was shortened first by reducing the number of cylinders to 4 and second by going with a gear driven second stage camshaft. With such a small engine, one way to boost horsepower was to increase allowable RPM vs increasing displacement and thus torque. I think the formula is hp = (torque x rpm)/5050. Another goal was to keep the engine as light as possible, in the neighborhood of 350 lbs., so there was not as much weight to throw around (as with the C5) and keep as much weight to the center of the car as possible thus creating a lower polar moment of inertia. I personally like the "turn on a dime" nature of the car as a result of all the above changes and really wouldn't want to see the car lengthened to accomodate a 6. I don't care about trying to out accelerate the kids in their mustangs. Just my $0.02.

 

Keep in mind that it's probably not that profitable for
Honda to develop a truly unique engine for such a
short run car (short in total production). I don't see a five
cylinder for this car simply because I doubt other variants
will show up in other vehicles. I wish I were wrong, because
I'd love a five cylinder engine at 300hp.

My guess is that the next car will retain the 4 cylinder layout,
but increase displacement and rev line to attain perhaps
280 hp, and more importantly, raise torque perhaps
180 ft.pds with a fatter mid-line (i-vtec). That would probably
be enough to shave nearly a second off the 0-60 if they can
hold the weight down (owing to more torque from 3k to 6k).