2009 Honda S2000 Road Test-a real sports car for driving Purist



2009 Honda S2000 Road Test-a real sports car for driving Purist, The best definition of a real sports car came from the late John Timanus, a successful racer in the 50s and 60s and long time Technical Director of the Sports Car Club of America: "a sports car is a four-wheel motorcycle." That is the Honda S2000.

Like a motorcycle, a real sports car gives the driver the feeling like he car: Superman, cape fluttering in the wind. Just like a motorcycle, a real sports car has an experienced pilot for peak performance. A real sports car is light: the S2000 the empty weight is almost 900 pounds less than that of a Sprint Cup racer. A real sports car has a manual transmission. A convertible top, although not essential, deserves extra points. A real sports car don't necessarily have the most horsepower: a good controlled real sports car can be faster than a pretender a bergweg driven by someone who believes bigger and makes for incompetence. The S2000 exceeds all expectations of a real sports car. And another one: a real sports car allows you to imagine that you're driving a real racing car.

Long ago, I tested Comptech Racing Reynard 95I-Honda Indy car. Riding the 2009 S2000 put me back in those carbon fiber bath. The S2000 digital dashboard is an almost copy of that racer's. The workplace of a S2000 is tight. You should not trim as short or as an Indy car driver, but the size of the ass you will find the S2000 tight. Just like an Indy car, requires skilled coordination a S2000 foot to get it moving from a standstill. Stalls are inevitable.

Just like an Indy car, the S2000 is the 237-horsepower 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine is not much torque at low revs and has its culmination of 162 pound-foot reached only 6,800 RPM. Once either the Indy car or the S2000 the sweet spot of the torque band smells, their engines start touring like crazy. At maximum acceleration, there is little sense to your right hand on the steering wheel back between shifts of six-speed of the S2000-transmission.

On dry public road, it is difficult to S2000's the sticky Bridgestone Potenza RE050s anywhere close to their limit. But a light rain I started to relive my Indy car experience. Just like a Knucklehead, I disabled the S2000 the stability control and launched from a stop to a assertive 4,000 rpm. There was only a hint of wheel spin if the digital lines of the tachometer raced over the top of the dashboard. Because the tach line was red I pulled back on the precise, short-throw shifter without the Horn completely out of gas. The rear tires on the Reynard-Honda illuminated exactly as when I rough on the accelerator. Fortunately, the Torsen limited-slip differential S2000's helped prevent the rear of the intensification.

I repeated this on the two to three an Upshift and was rewarded with a little more wheel spin. The S2000 told me the same as the CART car: "be more soft or you're going to embarrass yourself." After matured slightly more than 14 years, I thought I don't need the S2000 walk to the redline in third. In the rain. On public roads. Instead, I went the next off-camber left-handed a hair faster than was wise. Okay, fast enough to chrome wrist jewelry to earn of the police, and was rewarded with a light and easy vangbaar tail slide. If the backseat settled down, it requires every bit of my scarce willpower to keep from going back to wide open throttle. Old habits are difficult.

The first edition of the S2000 appeared in 1999 as a 2000 model. The 2.0-liter engine suffered from a too high torque peak. To maximum drag-race-style gear to get required a drag-car style launch. The driver of the gas-and clutch pedal to the floor and held, with engine-rpm rev limiter, bouncing against the 9000 dodged the link. That would then rotate the tires on a early S2000 rotation and a half to cross under the maximum torque the motor. When it came to life. It was not easy on the equipment, but to quote the philosopher Tina Turner, we never do anything fun and easy ... we always do it nice and rough. With the new 2.2-liter engine, is a best-time launch reached at a more reasonable 4,500 rpm or so.

The S2000 is a spectacular-and real-sports car that would have been a cult legend had it appeared in 1969 or 1979 or even 1989. Unfortunately for her, the S2000 debuted when we were in love with three ton station wagon (also known as SUVs). Still, this is a real sports car.