New HONDA S2000

[digitalcraft]

I think we've already been in a sportscar glut for a while, sorry to say. There's a few good ones, but not like the '90s.

[Spastik_Roach]

What doesn't quite make sense though is the 3.5-litre V6, which just seems a little too un-Honda-ish for a car that has traditionally been powered by high-revving four-pots.

I'll disagree with respect, perhaps even R3sp3Kt, as you've put a good thread out here.

Given the choice between the peaky, but superb 2.0 four in the current S2000 and the NSX's ancient but also superb V6 in a two-seat open roadster, I'd take the V6.

But matching the spot-on character of the NSX's V-6 could be a challenge.

'Quail may well have donned his rose-tinted glasses, but when the NSX was laid to rest after reaching the ripe old age of 15, the gravestone might well have read, with great gravitas, "Here Was a Sportscar."

It made the Ferrari 328 look like a Indonesian kitcar, and it left in its wake a high-water mark for sportscar purity that may never be bested for somethign a blue-collar petrolhead could aspire to own — and one that goes largely unappreciated to this day, ITQHO — and that brilliant V-tec V-6 was rightly deemed worthy of the brilliant chassis.

(Quail has recommended '90s listening for those reading this post, should they choose: YouTube - Stone Temple Pilots - Plush)

The Nips bloomed late, as far as sportscars go. Britain, Germany and Italy all, arguably, had their best days behind them when the Japanese sportscar renaissance of the early '90s bloomed. The generation-III RX7 remains a case study in stylistice elegance and minimalism unmatched to this day; the Supra Turbo was so brutal, raw and unapologetic that, sadly, it became a caricature of itself in pop culture, the Nissan 300Z simply oozed suaveness and sophistication in a way that the (admittedly faster and better) 350 can only crudely ape; the Nissan Skyline evolved into the R-34 and became something that, at least in the 'States, was the stuff of legend — the rare and ethereal breed of car that evoked an emotive response, warranted or not, rose to the level of the sublime and the NSX, well, it was the NSX.

(STP may have run its course at this point. Here's continuance: YouTube - Oasis - Wonderwall)

Think about it. The Japanese sportscar market has, for the true enthusiast, come in the sort of fits and spurts that are (if not hard evidence) the harbingers of twilight years, and we're all the worse off for it.

The "NSX replacement" that Honda keeps threatening to produce are, in comparison with the Chapman-esque purity of the original, abominations: Toyota keeps badging its Supra replacement as a Lexus, inexplicably, which, ISF aside, is a long, tall step in the wrong direction seemingly before a prototype worth mentioning has rolled a wheel; Honda seems to have stolen the same modern sportscar playbook as Toyota; Nissan's 370Z replacement smacks of the sort of "end of model run über-special-edition" thinking that, to this gamebird, indicates that the marque is ready to nix the entire sportscar genre a'la Toyota (and, mind you, Nissan doesn't even have a pie-in-the-sky 21st Century sportscar concept to tout) and if Mazda keeps touting the admittedly capable but nonetheless weak-kneed, ungainly and unworthy RX-8 as the RX-7's successor for another six months, then 'Quail is going to lose patience.

(UCP Longest Sentence and/or Most Commas in a Sentence award winner?)

(If you've run out of music a third time, 'Quail offers this: YouTube - Chadin Stevens Video Hour #2)

The curtains seem to have drawn on Japanese sportscar boom, after a virtuoso performance — but what else drew to a close with it? The new Nissan GTR would beg to differ, but this tired old gamebird has started to wonder if we're not all tumbling into a worldwide sportscar depression from which we may never emerge in a recognizable state. Gasoline, which courses through my veins as it does many here on UCP (raise your hands if, truthfully, you'd spray it on as a cologne?) has become an enemy of the global future, and its days could be numbered if our scientists and engineers figure out how to make electricity and/or hydrogen without burning fossil fuels or irradiating angry villagers.

Electric cars can be fast, and they can be exciting, but even if 'Quail buys an electric car that accelerates like a 427-engined Chevelle and handles like a Lotus Elan, the magic of internal combustion and that soul-lifting noise — and emotion — will be lost. Utterly lost.

Another American witnessed the end of an era, and he put it better than this tired old 'Quail can ever hope to:

"History is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of 'history' it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened . . . There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning . . . And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn't need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave . . . So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
— The Good Doctor, Hunter Thompson; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1971.

So, finally, 'Quail's verdict on the rumored S2000 replacement:

'Quail waits and sees.

'Quail waits and sees.

You're a bloody genius man....loving the quote from fear and loathing.

I've thought in the past about what you've said in that post...if people are really going to be that enthusiastic about cars of the future...one thing seems sure in that they're very complicated pieces of machinery...perhaps out of reach of your average backyard mechanic to work on which makes me glad my cars 25 years old and has the computing power of an abacus.

[CamNismo]

since were talking S2000's....heres a cpl more pics of it....i know this isnt the new one or the concept, but is still an S2000........

[clutch-monkey]

can they bring back the integra too...

[NSXType-R]

Last time I heard news about this car, it was going to be a Mazda MX-5/Miata competitor.

Please keep it the same concept as the current S2000.

It is such a nice car.

And bring back the Integra.

And fix the stupid design theory Acura has put out.

And don't screw up the TL.

And give Honda/Acura wagons again.

And don't screw over the RL.

And keep the cars simple.

Jesus Christ, the complaint list for Honda is so freaking long. And it could be longer.

Like wtf is wrong with the Pilot and CRV's styling?



I agree with Quail and Spastic.

The car we have been used to for even the last 15 years has been changed so drastically with the advent of the computer. What's wrong with crank up windows? Did anyone forget the weight savings we get from it? Did anyone also forget it could also be the only exercise we get from it?

[Lets Gekiga In]

can they bring back the integra too...

Don't you guys have the Civic Type-R as well? But I imagine it's not the bad ass Japanese one.

[NSXType-R]

Don't you guys have the Civic Type-R as well? But I imagine it's not the bad ass Japanese one.

I guess they can have both, if import regulations aren't that tight. They're both RHD anyway.

[Lets Gekiga In]

I guess they can have both, if import regulations aren't that tight. They're both RHD anyway.

If the car isn't domestic, I'd be more afraid of how much parts/repairs would be.

[Ferrer]

If the car isn't domestic, I'd be more afraid of how much parts/repairs would be.

I doubt their Type-R engine and our Type-R engine is that much different.

[Zytek_Fan]

Last time I heard news about this car, it was going to be a Mazda MX-5/Miata competitor.

Please keep it the same concept as the current S2000.

It is such a nice car.

And bring back the Integra.

And fix the stupid design theory Acura has put out.

And don't screw up the TL.

And give Honda/Acura wagons again.

And don't screw over the RL.

And keep the cars simple.

Jesus Christ, the complaint list for Honda is so freaking long. And it could be longer.

Like wtf is wrong with the Pilot and CRV's styling?



I agree with Quail and Spastic.

The car we have been used to for even the last 15 years has been changed so drastically with the advent of the computer. What's wrong with crank up windows? Did anyone forget the weight savings we get from it? Did anyone also forget it could also be the only exercise we get from it?

Honda is making all these sportscar looking cars, and they're FWD!
How can a true sportscar be FWD?



Look at it, it so badly wants to be AWD or RWD. I say the same for most Acura models at the moment as well.

[clutch-monkey]

Don't you guys have the Civic Type-R as well? But I imagine it's not the bad ass Japanese one.

yes, the UK model for official sale and as NSX says all JDM models available as imports. parts and repairs are the same for either

Honda is making all these sportscar looking cars, and they're FWD!
How can a true sportscar be FWD?

never driven an ITR i see....
although that stupid acura has the proportions of a RWD car for sure, looks like it could use it easily

[Lets Gekiga In]

I doubt their Type-R engine and our Type-R engine is that much different.

There's more to a car than just an engine.

[NSXType-R]

Honda is making all these sportscar looking cars, and they're FWD!
How can a true sportscar be FWD?

Look at it, it so badly wants to be AWD or RWD. I say the same for most Acura models at the moment as well.

I see the Accord coupe as more of a Prelude successor than an Accord. The Prelude was a FWD sporty car. According to Motortrend, the Accord coupe drives really well. But yeah, I do understand your frustration. Honda/Acura really want to move towards AWD, which I think is the wrong idea.

[Ferrer]

I see the Accord coupe as more of a Prelude successor than an Accord. The Prelude was a FWD sporty car. According to Motortrend, the Accord coupe drives really well. But yeah, I do understand your frustration. Honda/Acura really want to move towards AWD, which I think is the wrong idea.

But contrary to Nissan and Toyota, Honda doesn't have that much of a rear wheel drive history do they?

[Lets Gekiga In]

But contrary to Nissan and Toyota, Honda doesn't have that much of a rear wheel drive history do they?

I guess compared to those two, but...

Honda did have the S500, S600, S800, NSX and Beat.

Not to mention their extensive history in motorcycles.