I have wanted an S2000 for quite a few years and in March of 2016, thisdreams became a reality. The car is a 2000, 140ish thousand miles on it, all stock other than a K&N intake & a stereo of some sort, along with some rust for weight reduction. Well that & a rusty battery tie-down, incomplete maintenance history (IE: almost none), interior wear, a fairly major tear in the top and....zero evidence of any collisions anywhere on the car. Additionally the car just felt better than any of the other seven I drove over the few months I spent searching for the right base for me to start with.
My goal for the car is to improve any weaknesses that I come across; all while sticking to an aesthetic vision inspired by the car that originally opened my eyes to the S2000, the J's Racing original Touge AP1 w/ J's half bumper, SSR Type C, etc. That era of Japanese automotive modification has always felt right to me, whether in the way Civics were modified for Osaka's Loop, drift style and even period JGTC cars.
Before we get to any of that, here is the car when I first started driving it.
After getting the car & putting the AP1 wheels/Direzza ZII on, the next priority was sorting out basic maintenance. Over the years & past projects, I've found that it doesn't matter how many cool parts your car has...when things start going wrong that you could've prevented, it really sucks the fun out of things. With that said, the first things I picked up were some basic fluids, I wound up with Motul 90 PA for the diff, Motul RBF600 for the brakes & clutch, and OEM Honda MTFII for the trans.
I got the rust repaired before I had even put 100 miles on the car (outside of the 200 mile drive home).
With some basic maintenance performed (in addition to fluids the car got new coil packs, spark plugs, a valve adjustment & an alignment) I set out to pick up the parts necessary to fulfill my vision for the car. I began with the exterior, picking up the following:
J's Racing Half Bumper & Carbon Canards.
J's Racing 60RS Ti Catback
**I bought & sold the Advan RG before ever using them, I've got something else in mind for the car.
HKS Hipermax IV GT
With this car I wanted everything I added to the car to be street worthy, but also as good or better than the OEM part it was replacing. While no Ohlins DFV, I trusted HKS to develop a quality product & the spring rates seem to fit my need perfectly (install to come).
J's Racing S2 RCA
As I like my cars lower than ideal, I wanted as tall an RCA as I could find.
Mugen Compliance Bushings to keep things tight. (Bolts are now installed with Spoon radiator stays)
The interior was also deeply important to me, with the car needing to walk a fine line between early 00's Japanese tuner dreams & a car that I daily drive (for the most part) during the summer. As such I chose the Recaro Pole Position ABE to replace my worn & torn OEM seat.
As far as actual updates on the car itself, I've very much lagged on this. I didn't want to install anything until I had all the parts in hand, most notably wheels & tires. I can't imagine how goofy an otherwise stock AP1 would look with a J's half bumper & canards, thus I wanted to hold off. Recently I got the itch & installed my coilovers, this is the result (with the rears about as low as they'd go without removing/modifying anything & the fronts with plenty of room to go lower).
Thus far, I've been tremendously impressed with the GT. The car rides exceptionally well, better than my daily Honda Fit (stock w/ RPF1) in many instances.
There are a couple other trinkets & parts bought/sold along the way, but no need to waste words.
Thanks for reading, I hope to update this with more parts hoarding in coming weeks & with actual progress this spring. I just really like build threads.
. So only driver's side has the race seat at present.
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