I've not visited for a while because I collected my S2000 from Brussels on friday morning.

The drive back was a delight - the car is quick from the showroom. I had no problem following the proprietor's wife (oo-er missus) in a Legend Coupe to the ring road. The second gear crunch is a corollary of cold oil, & has not happened since.

By the time I got back to Kent, I had experienced most sorts of weather & found the car very stable & reassuring. It is a surprisingly good motorway car and very comfortable.

I was so busy extolling its virtues by mobile, I didn't notice the Customs officers flagging me down at the Calais Tunnel terminal, but they were nice about it! No intimate body searches or anything.

The M25 (London Orbital) was too depressing, so I took off on the backroads through Essex to verify some received wisdoms.

The car is wonderfully rigid, & the steering wheel is very pleasant to hold. The steering is rubbery, which helps on motorways but at first feels out of place in a sports car. Then you realise that like a sports bike, it is of little use. The rear wheels do all that fine tuning. Run wide into a corner, ease the throttle. The car outside wheel instantly toes out, understeer is precisely cancelled. By that time you've reapplied what you took off (partly out of a learned fear of the bite!) and the car is perfectly aimed out of the corner. Of course the roof was down by now, to enjoy the wonderful rottweiler bark at up to 6000 RPM. The back end tends to lift over crests as the car is so effortlessly quick, & you can feel the RWS adopting some strange angles & destabilising the rear. I can easily see how cold, hard S-02s could be treacherous. But as confidence grows, you can really enjoy this car. I think these tyres could become addictive too.

The first 300 miles went on in the first day of ownership and like a small child, I didn't wanna get off the ride!

I got some sleep Friday night (I've been like a kid awaiting Christmes this week - most out of character). Saturday was too cold to go anywhere, other than to pop out to buy things I probably will never use in the few bright hours. I did sleep though, but was awakened by a dream of what happens after 6K! Does anyone know the number for the Betty Ford clinic?

Funny how only a few people know what it is, & how many come up and ask you. It makes cleaning it a slow process. Do owners do it at midnight, when the neighbours have gone to bed?

Thanks to all the people who put their 2 cents into this site, & finally convinced me to order this car. It really is the four wheeled Honda sportsbike that I needed.

All right, hold tight, I'm a highway star!

 

Congratulations on your purchase Nick. Yet another satisfied customer... Since S2k owners are few and far between, it's always nice to hear the elation of a new buyer every couple of days on this forum.

 

Good on you, Nick; great post. You described a feeling and a state of mind I think we all experience when driving this wonderful automobile. May the thrill never end!

 

Couldn't have said it better Nick! Just the way I feel

Just wondering - the UK is right hand drive correct? And mainland Europe is left hand like here in the USA. So is your S2K LHD or RHD and if it is LHD, does that cause you any problems on English roads?

 

Mon,

just chipping in, you can order RHD in mainland Europe for almost any car, Mercedes / Porsche and the like charge a premium for RHD and in most cases quote longer delivery times to supply continental dealers with RHD, they know they are selling them on to UK buyers cheaper than the
UK dealers can offer UK spec cars for, so they are trying to discourage it. In the case of S2000's though the dealers in europe seem to be over-run with S2000's and it wouldn't surprise me in some cases more RHD S2000's are sold in some continental dealerships than LHD, it just doesn't seem to sell to the rest of Europe in the numbers the UK is selling, my dealer can't get enough of them and UK dealers are frowned upon by Honda UK if they try to source them from Europe, most of the 'parallel' imports are sold through independant UK dealers, although even these are drying up as the summer comes, whereas in the middle of winter plenty of sites had 3 or 4 on the go.

The UK is third behind Japan and the US in Sales, probably 2000 in the UK to date I would guess, maybe close to 1700 UK dealer sales (900 a year from Sept 99)and a guess only of 300-400 parallel imports and a handful of greys direct from Japan, never seen one of these though, with their easily recognisable differences!

 

Hi Nick,

Congratulations on your new car!

I'm glad to here you got her back home ok. Now go out
there and get 600 miles on the odo!

Best,

 

saw a red one in east London 2 months ago, with 6 spoke wheels, narrow license plate hole in the back, and other japanese specs I don't remember right know. The driver (not the actual owner) said it was indeed an import from Japan.
I drive my LHD in the streets of London everyday with no problems so far (crossing the fingers for all the parking tickets I got, hoping that they won't find me in france)

 

Yip, thats a couple from the outside, plenty on the inside too.

Before March colour was an easy 'grey' identifier.

 

Nick:

Just check your engine oil level every 500 miles or so.

 

S2Ktaxi, thanks for the tip. I'm checking it the morning after each fill up (or intending to!)just like the book says.

The car is to full UK specification (RHD, Air-con which the Germans don't get, etc). It's just