Thanks man I appreciate that. I feel that because i was right on the fence about what i was going to do. Hardtop would have taken away my ability to get into roadster mode easily and that’s honestly one of the best experiences you can have with this car (the sound of this engine at high powerband topless) Plus the fact of not having a garage clinched it for me. I know the price ranges are a pretty different too. OEM hardtop is the cost of another S2000 practically, i just think that’s really silly. A real jdm carbon fiber top is almost as much as the OEM and questionable at best for everyday city usage.
With so many fitment issues and QC issues I’ve heard after people drop a couple grand on “double sided CF” hardtops i’d be pretty salty if it happened to me as well.
Another reason i love having a soft top as opposed to hard top is due to all blind spots disappearing when it’s dropped. I’m coming from riding sport bikes and being able to look over my left or right shoulder before cutting into a trajectory gives me piece of mind, as I would on the bike.
But cruising the S2000 today was nice with the top up, it’s raining here today and nice to put the heater on and actually drive without freezing now that winter in California is in full swing.
I think you’ll be happy with your top when you buy it and install it. It takes a bit of research before committing one way or the other.

Thanks bro I appreciate the comments. It’s a lot of work but the time goes by quickly, there’s a lot of little things that don’t get put in the write ups I’ve seen. It’s kinda intuitive if you’ve read up on it, I don’t think we even looked at directions once we started in on it. It just helps to study before the test.

Yes you could be right. Upon hitting VTEC and moving on up to 9k a black plume omits. The car feels healthy. No codes. The car was originally from NY and had some goods installed before i got it. There is still some mystery about here and there. But another contributor could be that my cruising RPM is higher than most due to a 4.77 final drive gear. At roughly 77mph I’m touching 5k rpm in 6th. High flow kat w HKS Hi-Power.
Good post though I should get her sniffed and see if the demons inside are normal.

It’s my understanding that the F20C runs on the rich side. I’d rather be a little rich than lean. It’s good advice to get a proper reading though and I appreciate your input.