When Honda released the S2000 to commemorate its 50th anniversary, the world was introduced to one of the most advanced automobiles to grace the asphalt in the world. The most HP per liter in a 2.0l 4 Cyl engine pushing 240 HP, carbon fiber reinforced block, 9k Redline and one of the smoothest(and still one of the slickest) 6 speed manual gearboxes ever created. Did I mention that it was also RWD and a convertible to boot? Yes. It seemed that the S2K was everything that a team of F1 engineers could hope for in a sub-$40k production sports car.
But with the Economic crisis of the last few years, the S2K, like the never released 2011 NSX, was retired in favor of Honda concentrating on making great, reliable and economic cars. While this strategy made great economic sense for Honda, one of the few companies that actually posted a profit in 2009, it left the die-hard Honda fans with only a refreshed Civic Si to look forward to.
Wait. Something is brewing on the other side of the Pacific. Rumor has it that some gear heads at Honda of Japan are currently tinkering with merging the Spirit of the S2K in smaller chassis, similar to that of the Honda Beat, and unleashing yet another fun to drive, RWD and affordable sports car. This car, with Honda’s current use of a Hybrid engine in the new CRZ, can very well indeed be powered by some type of hybrid or all electric engine as well. This would make the most sense if Honda is to market the new sports car at a global scale, since many countries have new stringent rules when it comes to production cars that like to burn gas for the sake of fun.
Never the less, the fact that this supposedly came from an inside source at Honda has all the VTEC heads jumping in their little race boots. Hopefully Honda will deliver just as an exciting sports car as they did back in 1999. The car market has turned around and people want their choice of fun to drive coupes again. And with Toyota hopefully releasing the air apparent to the classic 86 in the near, what would be better to have then both new vehicles go at it in a battle of whose 4 Cyl RWD coupe will rule the Touges of Japan, let alone the world.
SPEEDMOTORING 