PRESS RELEASE

Honda has announced that the Honda S2000 Ultimate Edition will go on sale from March 2009 in Europe. This limited edition has been produced to mark the end of production for the award winning sports car.

The Ultimate Edition retains its highly acclaimed 2.0 litre 9000 rpm VTEC engine and combines it with a Grand Prix White body and graphite coloured alloy wheels. The shade of the paint evokes the colour first used on Honda's 1964 F1 car and many sporting models since. The exterior colour combination with the dark metal alloy wheels and unique black S2000 badging gives a fresh look to the timeless shape of the roadster body.

The white exterior will be matched with a red leather interior and complimented by unique red colouring for stitching on the gear lever gaiter. Ultimate Editions will be marked out by their unique numbered plaques on the kickplates, denoting their position in the series.

The 2-seater sports car may now be almost 10-years old, but its 240PS 2-litre is still one of the highest output per litre and highest revving engines ever made. In recognition of its incredible power output, the Honda S2000's engine has won the International Engine of the Year category for 1.8 to 2.2 litre engines five times in its lifetime.

As the name suggests, the Honda S2000 Ultimate Edition will be the last version before global production of the model ceases altogether at the end of June 2009. Since the introduction of the Honda S2000 in 1999 until the end of 2008, Honda has sold 110,673 units worldwide - 19,987 of those in Europe.

The first viewing of the Ultimate Edition will be the 2009 Geneva International Motor Show starting with the press day on the 3rd March.

Honda S2000 Edition 100 (2009) CAR review
By Mark Walton
First Drives
30 March 2009 12:00
To mark the end of its S2000 roadster after a decade of production, Honda UK is selling just 100 examples of this special run-out model, all in Grand Prix White with special graphite alloys, a red leather interior, and a serial number on the kick plate. But ten years on, can the S2000 still cut the mustard?

Has it really been ten years since the Honda S2000 was launched?
Yes, it has – the S2000 was launched back in 1999 as Honda’s ‘50th birthday present to itself’. Now, on its 60th birthday, it’s stopping production. So much for sentimentality.

Is it mechanically unchanged?
The S2000 has remained remarkably unchanged over the last decade, and the Edition 100 is no different. But don’t worry – that’s not through laziness on Honda’s part, it’s just that the spec of this car was pretty much perfect from the start.

So, ten years on, it has the same high-revving four-cylinder 2.0i VTEC engine that produces 237bhp at 8300rpm, and redlines at a headline-grabbing 9000rpm; the engine is mounted behind the front axle for a perfect 50:50 weight distribution and front-mid-engined agility; and it drives the rear wheels via one of the sweetest 6-speed manual gearboxes you can buy, and a Torsen limited slip diff. It also has electrically assisted rack-and-pinion steering, and double wishbone suspension all round. See? Pretty hard to improve, right?

And what’s it like to drive?
Despite being a decade old, the S2000 is such a pure-bred design, it remains the genuine article it always was. The interior is snug, the sports seats are supportive, the steering wheel chunky and purposeful. Press the start button (a real novelty back in 1999), dip the light clutch, and snick the tiny metal gear lever into first.

Once on the move, the engine (winner of International Engine of the Year five times over) proves to be friendly and tractable… yet strangely lacklustre at low revs. It’s incredibly easy to live with, trickling through town, but it’s so smooth and efficient it’s almost characterless, as though you’re driving a Civic.

It’s only when you get out onto an open stretch of road that you find out what all the fuss is about: press that throttle deep, and the revs rise, and rise... and rise some more… until you reach 5850rpm, and the VTEC cams engage. Suddenly all hell breaks loose – and now it feels like someone’s pressed the fast forward button, yet STILL the revs keep rising to an incredible 9000rpm. By the time you change, that engine is screaming like a motorbike, which certainly makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. It’s just a shame the excitement sits so far up the rev range it’s hard to reach – you have to plan it, think ahead, schedule it in, to make sure you have the room you need to reach the giddy heights of the VTEC zone.

Do you always have to rev it?
No, not all the fun is hard to access – there’s a delicacy to the S2000 that’s always rewarding, no matter how fast you’re going. The steering is light and accurate, the responses sharp. It’s not a car for rally drivers, and tail-sliding is virtually impossible – it’s a circuit racer, and on the road it’s a car that feels neat, precise and predictable.

So how much is it?
There were still standard S2000s on sale in the UK as we closed for press, being heavily discounted down from the on-the-road price of £28,130 for the ‘Roadster’ (the standard car with an electric soft top), and £28,670 for the GT (a Roadster that also comes with a removable aluminium hardtop). Which means you’re looking at paying a premium to get this limited edition white car – it comes as a GT only, and costs £29,086. Just remember, the S2000 has aged incredibly well, it will probably always look this good, and it’s a dead cert to be a classic; I’m not saying buy one as an investment, but you could certainly buy one, knowing you’d still have a peach in 30 years’ time.