i am a new driver and I can handle a car well... I am in love with s2k's and I am dying to get one, I've done research and a lot of people have been saying how dangerous they are, and how easy it is to crash. Although I am young, I am a responsible driver, and I know bad things can happen with any car, but is the s2000 known for bieng abnormally dangerous and why?

 

It's not the car, it's the driver. I'd say it is safer than a motorcycle. Good luck getting one to your liking and hopefully you have it a long time.
Levi

 

New, I assume teenage, driver? Old sports car?

These cars are not dangerous but they handle differently than "normal" cars which in your lifetime have been front-wheel drive.

Few of us are accomplished drivers -- we certainly think we are but we're not 'cuz 99% of our supposed skills are self taught. Go into a curve like a round-about or on/off ramp too fast and instinctively lift the throttle and rear wheel drive cars want to swap ends. It's not the car it's the driver. Honda modified these car every two years to help curb this natural RWD over-steer but it's still present. The 2006 and later cars have Vehicle Stability Assist but Honda stopped short of calling it Stability Control. It can be turned off if you want to slide corners.

Two seat open cars make horrible daily drivers and they're open to every thief with the master key (called a box cutter). Then there's the questions of who's gonna pay for the car and insurance. Some like me are slow learners and I owned a two seat roadster before I was 21 but it lacked the power of the S2000. I owned another one in my 20s and a third one in my 30s.

Can you do it? Sure! Do I recommend it? Nope.

-- Chuck

 

Most teenager who just got their license will have this mindset.

Take some sort of performance driving course then you'll be ahead of 98% of new drivers.

 

If you do get one, get one that's already been wrecked before. Don't ruin a good one.

 

This, if you are a new driver you really don't know if you can handle a car well yet. That's what I thought when I first started driving. I figure if my first car was an AP1 S2000, I would have wrecked it. My actual first car was a rear wheel drive 300zx from the eighties but it was lazy and soft compared to an S2000 so I managed to survive it.

 

Dangerous may not be the right term but they came with a set of risks that more "normal cars" do not have, which need to be managed and newer drivers are inherently less experienced at doing so. Personally in your shoes I'd get a miata with limited slip diff. It's got similar risks but a lower performance ceiling as such when things go wrong it's at a lower speed. They're also cheaper to buy and maintain which is also a bonus.

Cut your teeth on a miata, maybe do some auto-x / HPDE time and once you've learned how to handle that car upgrade to the S2K platform.

 

Hate to say it but these guys are right. Most drivers wreck their first car. If you don't, you are a rare exception, especially these days. Keep the love for the S2k alive and be patient. You will have one someday I was 25 before I got mine, and it definitely was not my first car. My advice, get a good, but expendable first ride, and then upgrade from there as time goes on.

 

I had a few fwd performance cars before I bought my first S2000 (Integra, Civic EP3) and had 3 years of driving experience but crashed my S2000 on the same day as I bought it. Due to heavy rain, vtec in a corner, rear stepped out, i hit the brakes and hit a wall.
A few years later I bought another one and now I am more mature, I respect the car more and gave myself enough time to learn the car and understand the way to drive it. Please buy something RWD which is cheap to learn how to handle and have some fun with before you buy an S2000.

 

Are you experienced with manual transmissions? This is really not the greatest car to learn "the stick," esp in stop-and-go traffic. IMHO.