Honda S2000
- Thread starter Sukh
- Start date
These seem to start at £4-5k!
If it hasn't been wrapped around a tree, that's surely got to be an absolute bargain?
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/honda/s2000/postcode/ng122pp/radius/1500/sort/priceasc
If it hasn't been wrapped around a tree, that's surely got to be an absolute bargain?
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/search/used/cars/honda/s2000/postcode/ng122pp/radius/1500/sort/priceasc
If not more, then there's the ECU and mapping which will be well over 1k, and exhaust, manifold etc, and you'd probably want to upgrade the brakes and suspension as well.
Im confident in saying if you drive both a TT and a S2000, you won't want the Audi after.
Im 26 / 3NCB / good postcode area, and its £800 with Fluxquite happy with that.
I'm getting something similar here, although some are quoting £3000 excess
Yes the insurance is higher than most cars, according to forums they get wrapped around houses/trees and put in ditches a lot.
My cheapest main stream quote was £1500 for the 2000 and £800 for the TT 225.
The thing is I would like the TT as it is solid and quite fast in a straight line, but I've driven my Father's A6 and the steering wheel doesn't seem connected to the wheels in any way and I don't really like the idea.
Are the likes of Flux and other specialists much better any more?
My cheapest main stream quote was £1500 for the 2000 and £800 for the TT 225.
The thing is I would like the TT as it is solid and quite fast in a straight line, but I've driven my Father's A6 and the steering wheel doesn't seem connected to the wheels in any way and I don't really like the idea.
Are the likes of Flux and other specialists much better any more?
Well if you feel you can afford the insurance then go for a drive in both. They're very different cars - whilst the peak bhp is close, the S2000 will give it to you at nearly 9,000RPM whilst the TT will give it to you around 6,000RPM, but the turbocharged engine will feel vastly different in it's delivery.
The S2000 is also rear drive whilst the TT is quattro based four wheel drive. Different handling styles.
The S2000 is also rear drive whilst the TT is quattro based four wheel drive. Different handling styles.
Associate
- Joined
- 2 Sep 2007
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- 2,001
I've had one for 16 months now. Fantastic car, it gets looks everywhere that might be to do with the colour mind. 
Best gearbox by far and sublime handling once CG has looked at it. New pads and discs cost £200 all round. If you get seized bushes it can get expensive, the max you will pay is 1k. Seized bushes are not a problem unless the appropriate adjustments can't be made to the supension. On mine the backend was completed seized it cost me £600 in the end and that includes a full geometry.
Bullet proof, fairly cheap to run for what it is. It's ok on fuel you need to use super mind. Insurance is the big problem. I think it's because a lot of people put them into ditches. I pay £600 odd. 32, 7 NCB, 3 points, no accidents with one mod declared (Adrian Flux). I noticed this year a lot of insurers won't quote for the S2000 now. I was insured with Kwik Fit last year cost me £600 this year they wanted £4000. Go figure.
Best gearbox by far and sublime handling once CG has looked at it. New pads and discs cost £200 all round. If you get seized bushes it can get expensive, the max you will pay is 1k. Seized bushes are not a problem unless the appropriate adjustments can't be made to the supension. On mine the backend was completed seized it cost me £600 in the end and that includes a full geometry. Bullet proof, fairly cheap to run for what it is. It's ok on fuel you need to use super mind. Insurance is the big problem. I think it's because a lot of people put them into ditches. I pay £600 odd. 32, 7 NCB, 3 points, no accidents with one mod declared (Adrian Flux). I noticed this year a lot of insurers won't quote for the S2000 now. I was insured with Kwik Fit last year cost me £600 this year they wanted £4000. Go figure.
Soldato
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- 13 Jan 2004
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- 23,940
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- South East
Just caught up with the thread and couldn't head off to bed without posting.
Firstly, I am an absurd S2k fanboy. I absolutely adored my car, and in the end it went due to financial reasons, ultimately I could only have kept it by cutting corners and I couldn't bring myself to do that. With that in mind, take my opinion with a pinch of salt.
I think the first thing I should say about this thread, is your comparing a golf in a fat frock with the car Honda built to celebrate its birthday. Its an incredible machine when you consider everything, even if the early ones didn't have a clock !
You desperately need to drive both, but get a decent drive of the s2k, and drive a good one. If you drive one with the geometry out you won't enjoy it anywhere near as much and it will feel like a deathtrap.
The s2000 is a balls out, high reving rwd roadster that on the right sweeping A road at night with the roof down, airbox lid off and the heaters on full will make you wet yourself every time you nail the throttle. Nearly everyone I took out in the car laughed with joy when I floored it and hit the magical 6250 rpm.
Please. Please. Please do not buy a car for 4k. or even 5k, or probably, even 6k. You desperately need one that someone paid 10-12-14-16k+ for, and has treated it with loads of respect. These cars get very expensive when things go wrong.
The biggest thing with S2000's is suspension. EVERYTHING is about the handling. You can spend cash on engine mods (see further below) but handling is where its at. I spent thousands on mine sorting the suspension out (Seized adjustors, getting new springs, uprated anti roll bars, brace bars, poly bushes etc) and it was absolutely incredible after.However, it was so hard core it became tiresome on the roads, and the track was the only place it made any sense. Doing it again I'd have considered different options.
Power wise... you can get decent improvements with an AEM EMS 1042U (I think?) with a map from Mase in the USA. He comes over regularly and you can get 20 or so BHP in the midrange where the car can feel weak. Intake mods are expensive but solve heatsoak issues, and exhaust mods make the car sound like a race car. Your looking (for new parts) at probably close to 4 THOUSAND POUNDS to get a decent Intake (J's Racing/Mugen), decent Manifold (J's Racing/Mugen/Amuse/Hytech) and then a decent exhaust (again, J's/Mugen/Amuse/Hytech/Greddy Spectrum Elite etc) along with that ECU correctly mapped.... You might get 30-40 bhp peak extra on the top end of an early car (pre 2002 which run very rich) but you will definately get a race car sound track and incredible pickup.
Similar money gets you a supercharger or a turbo. Phils2K in the UK shipped his car to the USA to get turbo'd and acheived over 600 bhp on the stock engine block. However, turbo/superchargers aren't reliable on track and the car just overheats.
I could go on and on, but I'll just show myself as a stupid fanboy. Ultimately get in the car and see if you like it. It can be great fun, but equally it can be a money pit and totally not what you are after. See what you think.... but please, spend the money and get a decent one.
As fox says with E39's and E46's they are starting to become cars that you need to be an enthusiast or spend 'more money than its worth to get one' .... Don't let this put you off getting one, but just go into it with your eyes open.
If you were asking me now what I'd get, I'd get a long term enthusiast owned facelift non GT (just means no hard top) 04 car without VSA and using the cable throttle (DBW as of 06)
I'd then get the geometry done at Wheels In Motion for £100 quid, ensuring it had the right tyres on it (Bridgestone RE050A's, the car feels weird without them and it ruins the handling) fit a baffled sump, oil catch tank and oil cooler for track days, as well as buying some extra wheels with R888's fitted and track the absolute hell out of it.
Firstly, I am an absurd S2k fanboy. I absolutely adored my car, and in the end it went due to financial reasons, ultimately I could only have kept it by cutting corners and I couldn't bring myself to do that. With that in mind, take my opinion with a pinch of salt.
I think the first thing I should say about this thread, is your comparing a golf in a fat frock with the car Honda built to celebrate its birthday. Its an incredible machine when you consider everything, even if the early ones didn't have a clock !
You desperately need to drive both, but get a decent drive of the s2k, and drive a good one. If you drive one with the geometry out you won't enjoy it anywhere near as much and it will feel like a deathtrap.
The s2000 is a balls out, high reving rwd roadster that on the right sweeping A road at night with the roof down, airbox lid off and the heaters on full will make you wet yourself every time you nail the throttle. Nearly everyone I took out in the car laughed with joy when I floored it and hit the magical 6250 rpm.
Please. Please. Please do not buy a car for 4k. or even 5k, or probably, even 6k. You desperately need one that someone paid 10-12-14-16k+ for, and has treated it with loads of respect. These cars get very expensive when things go wrong.
The biggest thing with S2000's is suspension. EVERYTHING is about the handling. You can spend cash on engine mods (see further below) but handling is where its at. I spent thousands on mine sorting the suspension out (Seized adjustors, getting new springs, uprated anti roll bars, brace bars, poly bushes etc) and it was absolutely incredible after.However, it was so hard core it became tiresome on the roads, and the track was the only place it made any sense. Doing it again I'd have considered different options.
Power wise... you can get decent improvements with an AEM EMS 1042U (I think?) with a map from Mase in the USA. He comes over regularly and you can get 20 or so BHP in the midrange where the car can feel weak. Intake mods are expensive but solve heatsoak issues, and exhaust mods make the car sound like a race car. Your looking (for new parts) at probably close to 4 THOUSAND POUNDS to get a decent Intake (J's Racing/Mugen), decent Manifold (J's Racing/Mugen/Amuse/Hytech) and then a decent exhaust (again, J's/Mugen/Amuse/Hytech/Greddy Spectrum Elite etc) along with that ECU correctly mapped.... You might get 30-40 bhp peak extra on the top end of an early car (pre 2002 which run very rich) but you will definately get a race car sound track and incredible pickup.
Similar money gets you a supercharger or a turbo. Phils2K in the UK shipped his car to the USA to get turbo'd and acheived over 600 bhp on the stock engine block. However, turbo/superchargers aren't reliable on track and the car just overheats.
I could go on and on, but I'll just show myself as a stupid fanboy. Ultimately get in the car and see if you like it. It can be great fun, but equally it can be a money pit and totally not what you are after. See what you think.... but please, spend the money and get a decent one.
As fox says with E39's and E46's they are starting to become cars that you need to be an enthusiast or spend 'more money than its worth to get one' .... Don't let this put you off getting one, but just go into it with your eyes open.
If you were asking me now what I'd get, I'd get a long term enthusiast owned facelift non GT (just means no hard top) 04 car without VSA and using the cable throttle (DBW as of 06)
I'd then get the geometry done at Wheels In Motion for £100 quid, ensuring it had the right tyres on it (Bridgestone RE050A's, the car feels weird without them and it ruins the handling) fit a baffled sump, oil catch tank and oil cooler for track days, as well as buying some extra wheels with R888's fitted and track the absolute hell out of it.
Associate
- Joined
- 2 Sep 2007
- Posts
- 2,001
Yeah a guy on s2ki owns that. Stunning car which has been looked after. Buy it.
That car is stunning!
With all the suspension work, how did it work with insurance declarations? Are they just replacements for OEM parts or are they upgraded mods that load the premium?
Obviously the premium is already quite high, so loading it with modding tax will hurt.
Also a daft question, but on the motorway sitting dead on 70 what sort of mpg does one return?
With Chris Knott insurance (available after my first year of ownership) I had every mod declared for free.
MPG will be about 25-28 at a push, it's pulling close to 4000 RPM at those speeds iirc
Did you have the car mod free for the first year?
4000 at 70mph?
What ridiculous short gearing is this?
sorry matey but not a chance it will do that, I had mine basically valve bouncing at an indicated 165mph which was 158mph on the sat nav
they are good cars but not 170mph+ capable
Weirdest thing I found when I owned a S2000 with insurance was the fact that quotes for a GT were considerably (£hundreds) cheaper than non-GT.
The only difference between the models was that the GT said GT on the V5C, and came with a removeable hardtop. The key word there is removable - you could store it for the entire year and your car would represent the same risk (i.e. a fabric roof that someone could slash) as a non-GT
The S2000 I bought nearly-new came with a hardtop that the previous owner had decided to buy themselves, so I just insured it as a GT (because it was in every respect bar 2 letters on the V5C) and saved a fortune.
Might be worth you comparing quotes with and without hardtop.
The only difference between the models was that the GT said GT on the V5C, and came with a removeable hardtop. The key word there is removable - you could store it for the entire year and your car would represent the same risk (i.e. a fabric roof that someone could slash) as a non-GT
The S2000 I bought nearly-new came with a hardtop that the previous owner had decided to buy themselves, so I just insured it as a GT (because it was in every respect bar 2 letters on the V5C) and saved a fortune.
Might be worth you comparing quotes with and without hardtop.