2001 Honda S2000 - Review

HI-RES GALLERY: 2001 Honda S2000

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The Honda S2000 is one of those rare cars that’s so delightful it can charm you into writing its own road test.

No question about it, the S2000—Honda’s effort at a ‘traditional’ (as in front engine, rear-wheel-drive) sports car—is world-class. Not only does it offer brilliant engine design as we’ve come to expect from Honda, but it also has a well-tuned range of athletic abilities and a sexy, ageless sports-car shape.

Start with the view from behind the small but chunky three-spoke steering wheel. Like Formula 1 racing cars, the orange-hued electroluminescent gauges include a simple digital speedometer in the center with a long, arc-shaped bar-graph tachometer above and temp and fuel gauges on the side. And you don’t start the engine with a turn of the key, rather with a press of the red ‘start’ button—admittedly a gimmick, albeit F1-inspired.

The S2000’s seats are unlike any other seats in the Honda car family. They’re thinly but firmly padded and nicely contoured. Despite the expected lack of an abundance of legroom, my six-foot-six frame somehow fits well. Headroom is also adequate when the top isn’t down.

The top is power operated, via a simple toggle up/down switch on the center console. You just pull back two latches at the top of the A-pillars, tilt the switch, and about five seconds later it’s finished. Although a manual top would probably be quite heavy, it might have kept better with the car’s lean, race-inspired image to go with a simple pullover manual top like the Miata and British roadsters of the past, but nevertheless the electric motors are probably what the market demanded.