"yitznewton" (yitznewton)
11/19/2015 at 12:40 • Filed to: honda s2000, reviews, car buying
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"yitznewton" (yitznewton)
11/19/2015 at 12:40 • Filed to: honda s2000, reviews, car buying | 6
| 7 |
So yeah, I just bought an S2000! From the South! Yeah!
The drive home from North Carolina took me through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, some 600+ miles all told, through towns, mountains, and long flat Interstates.
The overall impression coming away after this is: I have to learn how to drive again. I have no idea how to drive this car. I mean, I know about the dynamics of RWD vehicles, I’ve test-driven a bunch of roadsters; but past 6/10ths, I don’t know first-hand how the car will react to road conditions. I had a few chances to toss the car onto ramps and the like with lots of runoff, and closer to home I know the roads and could take more liberties, but my (rainy) forest drive was very conservative. And loads of fun! I couldn’t have picked a better or more beautiful route. What I really need now is an autocross where I can get used to the feeling of sliding the back around. The S2000 will teach me, but as the AP1 is noted to be an unforgiving teacher, I will make it a point to be a respectful, attentive student.
The drive through Jefferson and Washington National Forests
Most salient characteristic after a few days: OH MY GAWD THE THROTTLE STEERING! I mean, I can throttle steer my Jetta, but it’s like using a tugboat to steer a barge. This is using a paddle to guide a kayak through the rapids*: so precise and crisp. And this, on the all-seasons the car came with.
* OK, honestly I’ve never paddled a kayak through rapids, but it was the best I could do in that comparison
Gearing feels low but not stressful; I had the experience of being in 4th in town, accelerating on a ramp to the highway, shifting to 5th and wondering why the revs were up... and realizing I was actually in 6th to begin with.
Cruising RPMs are in the 3-5k range. This feels totally calm for this engine, unlike my 1.8T Jetta which feels dramatic over 4k or so. Although full power is obviously in VTEC over 6000, there is plenty of power in 3-5k for casual driving. Brakes on my car have significant initial travel, then bite and are firm and confident. You get cowl shake on the highway when the undulations of the road make the car resonate. I’ve felt flex before, but never the ah-wah-wah-wah-wah of an ongoing vibration like that.
The electric power steering is extremely light in parking lot maneuvers, and has plenty of feedback IMO at greater speed. There is a discernible inflection point in the steering where the car pivots and turns in; I don’t know if this is typical of small balanced cars, but there’s nothing like it on the Jetta.
My S2000’s soft top latches are broken, and one (thankfully the driver’s side) has a tendency to fall out of place over bumps. When you’re on an Interstate bridge with expansion joints, turning and shifting, and then you have to reach up to jam the latch back into place before your top blows off, it kinda feels like
I ordered new latches, and I have some zip ties at work I can kludge up for it.
The buying experience
I have a lot to say about this; it’ll be a little stream-of-consciousness, because it was a profound experience and I’m still assimilating it. My first test-drive of the S2000 was an AP2 in mid-August. It got me hooked, obviously. I chose Suzuka Blue or Silverstone on Red/Black as my target colors. It’s a daily, so ideally I wanted one clean, but not pristine, both to keep cost down, and so I wouldn’t be pulling a garage queen out into New Jersey winter duty. Mine is a perfect match: AP1, 75k miles, your usual scrapes on the lip and bumpers. Interior is clean but lived-in.
I found this car, NC being at the outer limits of the distance I would want to travel. The fact of the mountainous region on the way back was a big selling point, other than the fact that everything else looked right. I talked to the dealer last week, made an offer which they declined. They said someone from Georgia was coming in over the weekend; I decided to wait it out.
Come Monday, no Georgia buyer, and they presented a counter-offer Monday afternoon that I was ready to accept. I tossed and turned Monday night, woke up on Tuesday... and realized I had no idea what to do. I looked at flights, found one the same afternoon at a good price. It was that moment, going up for your first skydiving run, looking out the plane door, wondering what the hell you’re doing. I bought the ticket. Round-trip, of course, so I’d have an out if something went wrong. I looked at all the maps for my mountain drive.
I had an important coffee meeting in Brooklyn that morning, from which I dashed to Newark to get on the plane. I was in freefall. Disoriented, wondering if all this was a terrible idea. Landed an hour and a half later, the dealer sent the shuttle to pick me up.
Driving on the NC Interstate, they have left-lane hogs there too. Saw a bunch of nice cars on the way: NB Miata with hardtop, lots of Camaros, Fiesta ST, WRX wagon. A 240SX was pulling out of the dealership as we turned into the driveway, a good omen.
Test-drive, paperwork. A momentary panic over the logistics of payment, and the God-sent chance that I happened to have a blank check in my wallet for another reason, which is almost unheard of. Add to insurance, drive off, fuel up, and drive to the Virginia foothills to find a hotel to spend the night before the long haul back. As I get closer to the hotel, feeling calmer, more at home with the car, getting used to each other.
Already when I stopped for gas 10 minutes after buying the car, a guy is asking me about it. I tell him I just bought it, it’s a rare car and I came from New Jersey to pick it up. He says the blue interior looks custom. I smile.
I love driving the car. I took it to work this morning, and being back on familiar roads, it feels wonderful. But damn, New Jersey, fix the roads. Honestly, the entire way back was nothing compared to my surface street commute. Bang bang bang bounce bounce bounce.
I found some local AP1 wheels for my winter tires, getting ready to wash and wax. Sent a request to Kodokan for the all-important seat locks. Pulled off the dealer sticker on the back. Mounted my radar detector up. Hoping to get the car over to Billman (one of the big S2000 mechanics) for the next service. Gotta start making arrangements to sell my Jetta. Looking forward to S2000 ownership!
Randomness
There is a ton of 80s music in North Carolina.
I had a hard time finding premium fuel in backwoods West Virginia. And when I asked for directions to I-64 East, the locals had a hard time figuring out which way that was... they were using local towns as milestones, which of course I was totally ignorant of. I tried Washington, D.C., but we settled on “toward I-81” for our pidgin.
Oh my gosh, that part of the country really knows how to Interstate. I kept singing “Misty Mountains Cold.” No, the other one.
And driving through the Virginia farmlands was all:
Party-vi
> yitznewton
11/19/2015 at 12:46 |
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“The drive home from North Carolina took me through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland , and Pennsylvania”
I’m sorry
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yitznewton
> Party-vi
11/19/2015 at 12:51 |
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Just a wee slice!
Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
> yitznewton
11/19/2015 at 12:52 |
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did you get a fabulous deal down in NC for one or did you just want to take an epic road trip
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yitznewton
> Supreme Chancellor and Glorious Leader SaveTheIntegras
11/19/2015 at 12:54 |
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I would characterize it as an excellent deal; there were a few factors:
clean car without extreme cleanness markup
epic roadtrip
availability
my personality
Regarding that last one, I’m the type to obsess over things until I reach closure, and being that I didn’t know when the next perfect-storm car would come up closer to home, I took the plunge on this one to get me sleeping easier again.
SnapUndersteer, Italian Spiderman
> yitznewton
11/19/2015 at 13:00 |
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Awesome man! Enjoy it and the 9k RPM wail!
miadaman? yes please
> yitznewton
11/19/2015 at 13:21 |
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Great Scott, that’s some good stuff!
davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
> yitznewton
11/19/2015 at 14:08 |
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Late apex, slow in, fast out. Ease on the throttle past the apex.
I like to think of my engine as basically two of yours slapped together (E90 M3). Enjoy!