The S2000 is a fantastic, fun car. Once you accept its dual personality, you get what it's all about. When just putting around town under 5K rpm it has decent response but it's nothing special. That makes it quite relaxing and easy to 'go with the flow'.
Then going over 6K rpm into the VTEC zone you enter another world - the realm of the race car. The S2000 snarls, then screams to 9000 if you have the balls to go to redline. It's a beautiful thing. 85% of the time I short shift it because there no reason to go mental. The other 15% is pure gorgeous roadgoing fury.
Greatest car I have ever owned, and my first car was a '73 Datsun 240Z. An M3 or Boxster might be as much fun but to get a car that is MORE fun than an S2000 I'm sure you'd have to spend over $100K.
I concur, I had no intention of buying a S2000 but I needed to check out this review because it's such a great car. I've traded cars with a good friend of mine that owned a modified S2000 on numerous occasion and I've had the opportunity to drive a ton of other awesome cars like the M3s (previous gen and current), Boxsters, Miatas, RX7/8, Supras, etc.. Oh and a couple of supercars too but this one is unique.
It's surprising not only because Honda decided to make this car for 10 years and with the cancellation of the NSX, but rather, this car is targeted towards a really small niche, people that loves to drive and ideally, with only one person. They could have easily done away with the passenger seat cause that only adds more weight. Someone at high up at Honda must love cars too.
The Z4/M? seriously? That thing wasn't very good, till the most recent generation.