So it's official: as of yesterday I have spent one full year living and breathing life with a Honda. A *stupid* honda. I have grown to call this whip this because it is just *stupid* how much I like driving it. Here's how this thing looks today, exactly 1 year of ownership...I'll be honest, it's been beaten to death, brake and garage dust everywhere, and is pretty basic given the time that's gone into it:
After 13 years of owning heavily modified turbocharged/all-wheel-drive Mitsubishi products, I decided I wanted a convertable. I went immediately to 2 choices: a Porsche Boxster, BMW Z3, and Honda S2000. I had a budget of around $10,000 so I was looking for 2005-and-older, higher-mileage options with good maintenance records...I thought about a 3000GT VR4 or a Eclipse GST Spyder as solid options as well but price and the pending maintenance requirements and the drive to try something TOTALLY NEW (to me) pushed me towards the boxster and s2000...and then the fond memories of Kracka (Chris Hughes) and his black AP1 S2000 and stunning 'its just a honda' attitude really made the s2000 an obvious choice.
Look at how *horrible* that paint was after a 20-minute buff job
One day, Hughes was having lunch with one of his car buddies down in Dallas and that guy brought his co-worker. As conversation went on the coworker gentleman told the two about how he was about to trade in his old honda for a shiny new jeep! Turns out this guy was the single owner of a red, 2001 S2000 that he had daily driven for most of its life. It had 164,000 miles on it and he admitted that he didn't drive it much anymore. He was extremely keen on simply trading it in towards the new jeep and keeping his life simple. After Hughes took a closer look at it, I quickly offered him $500 over his trade-in offer (with tax incentives figured in) and we drafted a purchase agreement for me to buy the car for $6400 as-is. It had pretty bad sun faded paint and there was some minor damage to the seat but the engine ran great and the convertable top was in great shape as it had been replaced *twice* in the 15 years he owned it. Tires had some tread on them, that's all I really cared about.
Cruisin with da big boys
After what felt like an eternity, maybe 3-4 weeks of waiting for this guy to buy is damn precious Jeep, Hughes took delivery of the car, did vtec things (as much as you can have when you own a C7 corvette) for a few days and then brought the car to the local honda dealership for a look over.
This was mid april 2015, and we quickly hatched a plan for the upcoming MitsuStyle.com Spring Cruise: scheides purchased a $94 one-way ticket to Dallas for the Thursday before the cruise. We grabbed some bad-ass BBQ @ Mike Anderson's and then some tacos with Julie (Chris' gf), took a nap, and hit the road sometime around midnight Thursday or 1am Friday. We met up with a few of the Dallas locals that had decided to join us for the MitsuStyle Cruise and bombed towards Minneapolis. I was a small fish cruising with some pretty big sharks: a GTR, Supercharged Camaro, C7 Corvette, heavily modified evo9, a new v8 mustang, and me in my baby honda.
With AssHanson
Somewhere in SW Wisconson/NE Iowa
We picked up Andrew AssHanson in DesMoines and then landed in Minneapolis around 5pm, I stopped at my house quickly and Andrew and I hit up a few bars in NE Minneapolis with a bunch of other friends....this turned into an all-night bender and suddenly it was 3:30am, we were having breakfast at Flameburger, and we had to be at the meet-up spot at 8am.
Did I mention I shipped a bunch of stuff via Amazon Prime to Hughes for the trip up? Bluetooth on factory stereo, elastic straps for the top, hardwire kit for my ValentineOne, and a glovebox organizer kit from modifry.com
...oh and a chicken head mask
Needless to say, the next morning was ROUGH but we made it. It was cold (like 40°F) and overcast and I decided to just drop the top to show off the new whip to the others at the meet-up spot. As we departed, I decided to crank the heat and keep the top down, bundle up a bit and just see how it went. Well I then discovered how GREAT this car is at top-down cool-weather cruising and spent the next 8 hours that day and the entire 8 hours the next day getting a sunburn on the way home.
Jilly (RIP) and Turbo absolutely love cruising with the top down!
I was hooked, this car is awesome! It will make a REALLY great 's2k day' (those days that are clear blue sky, super beautiful and warm, etc) and maybe I'll drive it a few times inbetween for the hell of it. Long story short, I ended up putting ***9000*** miles on this car during the summer of 2015...we had some exceptional weather and I took advantage of it every stinking day I could!
Parked at work.
What happened between then and now? Stay tuned....
The new stable...380whp evo9, stock s2k, and 600whp beaterX/evoX
Re: #StupidHonda - 1 year of ownership with a 15-year-old S2000
You can certainly find them that cheap. I found one in AZ for a buddy of mine, about the same mileage, about the same price after haggling. Was a bit more beat than Scheides' but whatever, it's a stupid Honda.
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Re: #StupidHonda - 1 year of ownership with a 15-year-old S2000
Ok so let's dive into the nitty gritty details here...I go the car for a song but with 167,000 miles on it it was obvious that it needed SOME love. Even though the previous owner had kept a STACK of paperwork on the car's maintenance history, I had Hughes drop it off for a few days at the local Honda dealership near him in Dallas (David McDavid of Frisco) and they gave me a laundry list:
-drive belt is good, replace it later if you want to (spare included in trunk)
-Coolant is ok, good for 100k miles and it was changed around 100k.
-Manual valve lash adjustment necessary
-Spark Plugs just cause
-Valve cover gasket is leaking
-Alignment should be done
-Oil change
-needs front tie rods really really bad
-all sway bar endlinks trashed
Engine bay as it came after the dealership in Dallas. 167,000 miles.
Previous owner was SO apologetic about the ruined paint...turned out to be ALL oxidization and buffed right off
6th gear, 80mph...yup it really is geared that low!
So, I had them do most everything on the list except the sway bar endlinks since I knew I was about to drive it across country...the tie rods would have been easy in retrospect, the valve lash not bad, and valve cover gasket the same but again...travelling across country, go for gold guys. My ONLY regret here is that I had them do a factory US alignment on it, which is SO SO tame and all I ended up running all season long but meh, KISS (Keep it simple stupid). Grand total was $1325 including fresh transmission, rear differential, and brake fluid (again wasn't clear when it was last changed, do it right). They even threw in some free windshield wipers, a headlight restore job, and a buff/wax, all of which made picking this thing up and driving it 1600+ miles in 3 days a breeze
See the little bluetooth add-on piece behind the wiper stalk? Fits nice and works great!
Had a pair of twins modeling for me tkrPerformance's daughters
Little more polishing once back in MN, not perfect but not bad!
Trunk WAY bigger than I expected!
A few days before I left, Hughes and I were scheming like nobody's business! He FedEx'd me the title, the day I got it I ran to the downtown service center (a few blocks from my office) and then FedEx'd plates back to him. I was ordering things next- and same-day shipping on amazon like a fiend: Modifry glovebox organizer, OEM CD Changer/aux input adapter, bluetooth adapter, Modifry convertable top elastic strap kit, and let us of course not forget the googly-eye glasses and chicken hats!
First brake job: front rotors...so cheap for quality parts its comical!
Dude this cannot be real!?!? screw it its only $180, that's a $1000 exhaust...
$100. 'used'
Tires/brakes: fresh oem dot4 fluid was put in at the dealer, stock brake pads had 50% life on them (very aggressive for street pads!), and I was a little disappointed...no very disappointed to learn that a TX car had all-season Ziex 612 tires on it in the 100% oem sizes (front 205/55-16 rear 225/50-16) but hey they had TONS of tread and I kinda knew I'd be shopping for some nice 200TW tires and maybe wheels if/when I would ever track the thing...but why would I bother? I had an evo9 track car! Anyways, the all-seasons did 'ok' on the street while I learned the car in spring temperatures but after the cruise the front rotors were DEFINITELY warped, so I threw down a *hefty* $50-per rotor for a set of Centric 120 standard blanks (I love owning a honda!) and about 30 minutes-per-corner fixed that pretty quicklike!
so much stuff deleted!
Factory inspection paint still on strut towers...cool but also means they will need to go some day...
Staggered AP2 version 2 wheels (from a 2006/2007?) 17"x7" front 17"x8.5" rear and 225/50-17//255/40-17 tires, nice
*slight* upgrade, lmfao!
Through the month of May, I found a few parts...because honda/fun-car/cheap stuff! And i was able to shed a BUNCH of weight from the car with all the crap I removed. Still a street car but hey, start with the basics right?
-AEM v1 intake: scored used, about 300 miles on it for $100 shipped from Wisconson somewhere. Amazing!
-Megan resonated testpipe: $110 shipped
-Modifry air pump delete harness: $60...kinda a lot to remove a CEL but hey it works
OEM-style lip spoiler fitment...gotta have dat aero for the track!
Turbocharger install...you knew that was coming! (my beagle, Turbo)
*proper* brake bleeding technique....
A few weeks later I blew up my evo9 at DCTC and pulled the trigger I had brewing in the back of my mind for this car, and some basic fun and track prep: intake, exhaust, better fluid, better pads, etc. Let me see...
-Magnaflow catback exhaust: $180 shipped, what the hell!?!? It came damaged but welded up quicklike thanks to tkr Mark!
-Apex'i V-AFC2: $100 shipped....but I never installed it...couldn't cut up factory wiring.
-OEM-style painted rear wing: $90 shipped on ebay
-AP2v2 17" staggered wheels WITH RS3v2 tires (200TW) in great shape...$700 delivered to my garage
-Hawk HP+ front brake pads: ~$100
-Motul 600 fluid: $20? whatever.
It *actually* showed up and it fit fine! (after a little welding)
Wheel and exhaust fitment. Stock 170,000-mile suspension.
So let's stop and do some napkin math here: at this point I have just under $10k into the car, I've owned it a few months, it is winning me all kinds of fun/girl/friends/style points on the street and its got basic track prep done. Remember I've kinda done this before with Evos and DSMs and dumped....well a lot more money into the cars and I'm starting to napkin math further in my head: "this...stupid(?) honda is slower but is it actually any less FUN? How much less fun? Does the 'reduced fun' get outweighed by the MASSIVE reduced costs? .....oh shit do I like this f*cking Honda more than I do AN evo!?! more than MY EVO?!?!?!"
Half tank fuel, spare tire, and humans removed....not bad!
Dad and I having some fun...he is a porsche guy and....wants this car...
Full brakes on the roadcourse
Honestly at this point panic sets in. I start to question everything, start to re-evaluate my life and all the countless evo/dsm things I've done and then I remember: cars are fun. It is a hobby. This is a toy. Stop. Being. Stupid: go have fun! And I did! I started looking for the next track event I could bring this car to, what I should change, to make it better, tighter, and ultimately more reliable/capable of doing what I was about to demand of it: MORE FUN!
Re: #StupidHonda - 1 year of ownership with a 15-year-old S2000
Quote:
Originally Posted by cmspaz
You can certainly find them that cheap. I found one in AZ for a buddy of mine, about the same mileage, about the same price after haggling. Was a bit more beat than Scheides' but whatever, it's a stupid Honda.
Let me know what else you find. I'm so in love with RWD.
Scheides all of your project threads are always inspiring with the amount of fun you are having.
Seeing that motor mounted the correct way is sexy.
Would you say this still retains Honda ridiculous reliability even though you are pushing it with the track days and such?
I only have faint memories of the original S2Krackmobile, but i remember the interior was impressive. (I wasn't sure what to expect, but it felt taillored to the driver)
Re: #StupidHonda - 1 year of ownership with a 15-year-old S2000
I'd say reliability is on-par for Honda, I mean 177k miles on it now and no real issues, it went 600 miles this weekend and saw 9000rpm at least 50 times in almost every gear. Doesn't really burn any/much oil and all the other wear items (suspension, bushings, mounts) are all being addressed slowly but surely.
Plenty more to come!
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Originally Posted by Murlo26
I need to listen to Scheides more often i think :)
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Originally Posted by turbotalon1g
...I realized that I can't keep up my shit talking without anything to back it up.
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Originally Posted by JV
S2000: For those of us that know the Miata is the best car on the planet, but also want extra power and to not have to turn in our man cards.