No offense meant by this post but I have to say it after going through this thread:

Maybe it's because I drove a five-previous-owner, 12-year-old (at the time) AWD turbo Mitsubishi with tons of gadgets for two years, but I just don't get it when people are afraid to push S2000s hard. There's nothing to it. The S2000 is a normally aspirated inline four with about as much technology as an abacus, plus it's manufactured by Honda. No need to be scared, people There's hardly anything there TO break.

 

This. I remember driving my ex-wife's '99 Civic up I-40 to Asheville one year, and that little D16 was screaming along at about 4500 RPM for the entire climb up the mountains, probably a solid 15-20 minutes. Just didn't have enough torque to stay in low gear. After a few minutes I started thinking, "Gee, it's running pretty high, and this is a long way up... well, it's a Honda and has great oil, so we'll see." Temps never climbed one notch. I think the noises that small motors make revving high tend to scare people, 'cause they sound somewhat delicate. The LS1 in my Z just sounds more pissed off the more you rev it.

I also can neither confirm nor deny that I drove my '98 Prelude at just below VTEC crossover (5200 RPM, IIRC) for however long it takes to get from Charleston to Asheville at a speed which corresponded with said engine RPM in 5th gear. Look, I was young, stupid, and my friend in front of me had a radar detector, so...

 

Once I hit VTEC, I find it hard not to take it to 9k
That being said, it's 10 or more times a month.

I've heard that not taking this motor to redline every now-and-then can result in a loss of power? Apparently it's dyno proven. I read it on the Internet, on this forum actually, but you can't believe everything you read. Who knows.

 

sad

 

Poor car neglect! Lol. If you think you need to baby this car by not driving it hard ever you are very wrong.
This car is made to handle high rpms all day long.