2003 Honda S2000

All through the Sixties, Honda produced a series of lightweight little two-seat roadsters as sporty image-leader flagships, First the S500, then the S600, and finally the S800, with the model number denoting the engine displacement in cubic centimeters. With the discontinuation of this line, Honda was pretty much out of the hardcore roadster biz for the next thirty years until the launch of the S2000.

Unlike the rest of Honda's then-current lineup, but like those older roadsters, the S2000 used a longitudinally oriented engine in the front driving the rear wheels. Also like those older roadsters the S2000's engine was a high-RPM screamer utilizing Honda's motorcycle and Formula One engineering experience.

Under that long hood was a 2.0L (well, 1,997cc) DOHC 16V inline four with Honda's VTEC variable valve timing system. Below six or seven thousand RPM it was just your typical zingy four-banger, but when it got into the VTEC all the way to the 9,000RPM rev limiter, the F20C was a snarling beast more like a race motor than a street car powerplant. For a normally-aspirated two liter four cylinder street motor to make 234 SAE net horsepower was unheard of at the time, but the Honda did it and sounded great while doing so.

Befitting its sporting nature, the car was only available with a six-speed manual transmission. I was strongly considering buying one of these instead of the secondhand BMW Z3 2.8 that I wound up purchasing, but decided to go with the six-cylinder Bimmer because the Honda was only really fun if you drove it like you stole it and the temptation would have been too much for me.

When Car and Driver put a 2003 S2000 (in Spa Yellow, just like this one) in a five-way shootout against two seater convertible sports cars from Audi, BMW, Nissan, and Porsche, it walked away with first place honors while sprinting to sixty in 5.4 seconds and through the quarter mile in 14.1 at 99mph. Price as tested was $33,060, or $58k in current money.

This one was photographed using a Sony a77 and a 16-80mm f/3.5-4.5 Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* zoom lens in September of 2025.