please forgive my ignorance as I am a new owner to the 06 s2k which is my first sport car ever and it comes with a redline @ 8000rpm. I am near the end of my break-in period which is 1000 miles, I am planning on hitting vtec soon to enjoy the true performance of the car but I don't think I have the need to redline the car though so I never thought of hitting redline and its consequences. However, recently I was told by some of my friends separately that with a fine sport car like this one, I should be redlining it once in a while to maintain the performance of the car, even it's in low gear. It doesn't make too much sense to me but that gave me some thoughts to hitting the redline.

Is redlining not a good idea even for a sport car like ours? Common sense tells me that it means hitting the max limit of the car which usually isn't a good thing to do. However, I saw a lot of members here posting their experience of redlining as a daily habbit which put me in doubts. when they doing that, what gear are they in and how fast are they going and for how long?

Do I need to, like how I was told, redline the car once in a while to keep the performance? If I do, how often should I do it? should I do it in low gear like 1st or 2nd and how long I should keep it at the redline?

Maybe by redlining my friends mean hitting vtec, but I am not sure. I mean, I would be driving it at high revs sometimes to feel the real power of the car. that's for sure cuz what's the point of getting a sport car if I just use it for daily driver. but I am just not so sure if redlining is necessary. I appreciate your comments, thanks!

 

Redlining does not hurt the car...it was made to go there. Think of it this way.. if you don't redline the car, when you hit Vtec at 6000 rpm you will be shifting almost immediately.

For daily driving and around town...most of the time you will not even hit vtec. But for spirited driving, you will redline most of the gears.

Don't worry....just drive the damn thang.

Enjoy the drive!

Tim

 

There have been people on this board that have been redlining their S2000 since the day they bought it over 6 years ago now.

Redline it or return it to the dealer for an Accord.

 

In answer to your question though, not revving the engine to the redline regularly (or irregularly for that matter) will not harm or negatively impact the performance of the car.
Cheers,
Mike

 

your car has a revlimiter... when you hit redline (actually, just slightly past it), it will temporarily shut down. the only way that you can go above redline is to downshift into a lower gear when you are at high rpms in a higher gear- this is the only way that you can possibly harm the engine.
imo, this car is made to be driven through vtec- hitting redline is not the best way to drive it (because you do not have control of your engine when the limiter cuts out), but in theory you should shift just before you hit it.
experience will help you learn when to shift so that you do not hit the revlimiter... and getting as close as possible is one of the thrills of this car!

 

to answer the other part of your question...redlining your isn't a requirement to keeping your car healthy.
i don't know if anyone else experienced this but the lack of analog gauges at first was bothersome and i found myself hitting the rev limiter a couple of times...there is just something about seeing a physical needle buried that registers in my brain to shift. i'm now adjusted to the digital gauges.

 

Redline whenever you want. If you don't ever want to, then fine. If you want to drive at 7,500 rpm every moment you can, then fine.

Remember that if you're at redline and miss a shift...say redlining in 3rd gear and accidentally shift to 2nd gear....many bad things will happen. Easy way to avoid this is just not to mess up.

 

Getting used to the digital gagues takes some time, same with adjusting to the speed that this car hits redline. Bumping off redline is fine, just don't downshift into an overrev!

Redline isn't the max limit of the engine, its Honda's recommendation for the max limit of the engine given usefulness over a longer lifetime. The AP2 engine can probably spin to 12k, but not for very long. 8K ensures hundreds of thousands of miles of reliable engine performance.

Vtec really doesn't effect the engine - its just altering its power as rpms increase. The bread and butter of the engine doesn't change, so rpms are rpms no matter where you are.

 

I've never redlined my 2002. I run it up to about 8,000 or so occationally. The s2000 engine is made to take high RPMs. I don't think it will hurt it to redline nor will it hurt to not redline.

 

only redline it in 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th and 6th gear