Tag Archives: s2000

2003 Honda S2000 for Sale – SOLD!

UPDATE:

On 05/27/2022 – the S2000 has been sold!

Details:

Sadly, the day has arrived to put my 2003 Honda S2000 for sale.  It is time to let someone else look after it and enjoy is as much as I have.
This AP1 is listed for sale at Bring-A-Trailer.  To see the auction CLIK HERE.  Current mileage is 17,000.

There are a number of posts here about my S2000 from the day I bought it, to well, now.  I’ve had the car for 10 years, and the car is in exceptional shape.

This S2000 is one of 223 S2000’s made with Sebring Silver Metallic and an all red interior.  Either you love it or hate it, but it is very unique.  This is the last of the AP1’s – meaning it has the original 2.0L engine with a 9,000 RPM redline.

The front lip is OEM Honda as well as the rear spoiler…

Here is some more info about what is included with the car:

* Keys – Three (3) black keys and one (1) gray valet key. The valet key prevents VTEC from engaging. And there are 2 fobs in working order.

* Carpet Mats – You will see in the photos two sets of carpet mats. The original set that came with the car and an aftermarket set. The original set is rather small and only covers the footwell area. The aftermarket set is longer and covers the structural beam on the floor in front of the seats. Usually that area of the carpet is exposed and gets damaged – in this case, it is not.
You can see the beam and the aftermarket carpet details here:
https://bowtie6.com/honda-s2000-organizer/
Oh and the small organizer works great! It will be included with the car.

* Tonneau cover – the plastic tonneau cover used to go over the soft top has never been used. It is in as-new condition.

* Rear spoiler – I bought that OEM from a Honda dealer. It came with an extra torsion spring that enables the boot lid to spring up a bit when opened. I did NOT install that but that spring as well as the special tool used to install it will be included with the car.
https://bowtie6.com/s2000-rear-spoiler/

* Seatback pockets – these took me a LONG time to find and I paid dearly for them. I have two – one for each front seat back. On the inside back trim of the cabin are two hooks behind each seat. That is where the seatback pockets hang. Since space is so limited, these come in handy to store papers, manual, etc. They also look cool and are in included with the car.

* Battery – I replaced the installed battery with a new Honda battery.
https://bowtie6.com/oem-honda-new-battery/
That original battery was installed by the previous owner – Not particularly fond of aftermarket stuff so that is why I bought the Honda battery.

* Oil changes – Oil has never gone over 3k miles. I’ve always used Mobil1 and OEM factory Honda filters specific for the S2000. And yes, I have replaced the crush washer on the drain bolt every time. This is where that orange threaded funnel comes in handy – if you look at the red valve cover in the pics, there is no evidence of any spillage.

* I have replaced the cabin air filter once. It was not dirty at all, but I figured why not.

* Shift knob: you see in the photos the OEM Honda aftermarket titanium shift knob. I like the knob better than the original one and it looks cool. The original shift knob is in pristine shape, including the small leather trim. That will be included with the car and is shown in the photos.

* Owner Manual – There are some photos with all the documentation including the 2003 Owner’ Manual and some other brochures. There is also a little booklet with a “get to know your car info” material – it includes the factory radio’s security code.

* Books –
FIRST: the Daniel Carney S2000 book – this is out of print and hard as hell to find – there is a copy available on Amazon – look it up and you will see what I mean. It will be included with the car.
SECOND is a limited edition Honda book with a serial number. I believe these were available at dealers but not 100% sure – if anyone has info about these please let me know. I paid dearly for this copy and it is in pristine condition – the only issue is a little bump on the edges from when it was mailed to me. The sleeve is perfect though and the book has some really cool pictures.

* Covercraft windshield sun screen – this is a perfect fit sun screen. And no – the sun visors are not damaged in any way. I made two tabs from hard plastic to hold the sun shield so the visor would not be damaged in any way. The tabs hold the sun shield in place.

* The soft top – when I first bought the car, I read the soft top frame came from the factory with small imperfections that would cause the top to wear and tear. I went over the frame and sure enough I found the “bumps”. I’ve removed them and this has kept the top from tearing in the usual places. The top has been treated regularly with “Ragg Top” dressing and this has prevented fading.

* In case you are wondering, I have inspected all four springs on the car and have found NO rubber spacers! When the cars were shipped from Japan, rubber spacers were inserted in the springs and some dealers never removed them.

* There is a picture of the trunk well showing the jack and tools. The jack has never been used; ditto for the tools. Every time the wheels have been off I have been present and the lugs have always been torqued by hand with a torque wrench. Never with an air gun.

* In the 10 years I have owned the car, I can honestly say I have never driven the car in the rain. I wish I had a lift so I had been able to get better pics of the underside, but you can see there is not mud or stains from having driven in the rain. The car has been garage kept the whole time I’ve owned it.

2020 Mileage Roundup

Coming to you on a rainy and dreary New Year’s Day 2021, with the previous mileage roundup for the fleet.  Thanks to the pandemic, 2020 was not the greatest to report outings for any members of the stable.  Good for saving money on fuel and wear-and-tear, but cars are made for driving and this was no fun.

I just realized I did not post totals for 2018 and 2019, so i’ll include them here for good measure.

RedRock

This is sad – my 2014 Camaro didn’t see much of the road this year.  With lockdown in place and working from home, didn’t get a chance to get out much…

2014 Camaro SS – RedRock

QuickSilver

Well I suppose this makes my AP1 S2000 more valuable…  It didn’t get driven at all in 2020.  But, I am not quite ready yet to let her go.  Have you seen what nice S2K’s are going for on BAT these days!  Yikes!!

2003 Honda S2000 – QuickSilver

bowtie6

I feel bad for poor old bowtie6.  Hardly driven in 2020.  The RedTop Optima took quite a hit during lockdown – it suffered loss of charge.  So much so, I had to get a battery tender.  I have written about it here:  NOCO Genius10 Battery Charger Review

1972 Triumph TR6 – bowtie6

Finally, some dashboard pictures:

Good Riddance 2020

With 2021 ahead, lets just hope things turn out better for us all.  With vaccines on the horizon I try to be optimistic about 2021.  Sure would be nice to be able to return to some sort of normalcy.  However, the reality is things are still not well not only here in America but in the rest of the world.

Flipping channels last night, I did get to see folks celebrating the New Year in New Zealand where according to the news, covid does not pose a threat.  I reckon folks there had a more unified and caring approach than the rest of us…  Maybe there is hope…

Happy New Year and be safe…

2017 Mileage Roundup

Time for the 2017 mileage roundup for the fleet.  I started this type entry a year ago when I summarized the mileage totals to start collecting history on mileage traveled.  I made it a point after acquiring RedRock to create an account at Fuelly.com and then installed the app on my iPhone.  With a little discipline, I’ve recorded every fuel-up and the results are interesting.  The website provides a yearly totals view and that is where these screenshots came from…

Here is my 2017 mileage roundup:

Totals for: RedRock

Totals for: S2000

Totals for: bowtie6

Comparing to the totals from last year, I must drive MORE!!!

Finally, like I did last year, here is a gallery of the three dashboards taken on New Year’s day, 2018.

Note:

This might be one of the few times I post a picture of the mileage on bowtie6.  It shows 23,519 miles and this is a bit misleading (adding this as a reminder to myself too!):

  • I’ve driven my 1972 TR6 for 23,159 miles since I put it on the road after the full restoration.
  • The first engine – a 3.4L V6 from a Camaro –  ran for 14,513 miles.  That is when we discovered an irreparable frame failure with stress cracks and my cousin Jim built the new frame from scratch.
  • The 2.4L Ecotec engine/gearbox came from a Pontiac Solstice with only 8 miles on the odometer.  This powertrain was then installed in a new frame built at Jim’s shop.  On October 15th, 2011, bowtie6 left Jim’s shop and has been a hoot to drive.
  • The new Ecotec powertrain has 8,998 miles so far.

 

New Honda Battery

“Genuine Performance”…

My 2003 S2000 got treated to a brand new Honda battery today.  A couple of days ago when I tried to start-up the S2000, the old battery seemed a bit weak.  And it makes sense because the prior owner had replaced it before I took ownership and that was 5 years ago!

So today, I made a few phone calls.  My heart was on a new Optima dry cell battery (like the one in bowtie6) but damn!  These batteries have become very, very expensive these days.  Just for shits-and-giggles, I called the local Honda dealer and was very surprised with their answer:  they had a genuine new Honda battery for less than what I would have to spend at a generic auto parts store.  And, it comes with a generous 100 month replacement guarantee.  Hmmm…  Can’t go wrong with that.

Note leakage on the top seam… Not good!

The dead battery was an aftermarket generic replacement from the home-town of the original owner.  Fair enough…  Upon closer inspection the battery was certainly past its expiration date because the battery had leaked some of that oh-so-wonderful-acid that wreaks havoc on battery trays…

Plastic battery tray saved the day!

Fortunately the good folks from Suzuka designed a plastic tray fitted over the battery box holding the battery.  Funny because this is one of the most common “issues” on Triumph TR6’s – the battery leaks right on the battery box and 9 of 10 TR6’s show acid damage in this area.

Old battery gone. Here is the battery box saved by the plastic tray…

New Honda battery installed and ready to go…

Not wanting to leave well enough alone…  You know me!  The battery is held in place by two metal rods that hook to the bottom of the battery box.  The rods are not originally painted and this looks unfinished.  So, I cleaned each rod with a little Scotch-brite and sprayed them with low-gloss rattle can paint.  I think they turned out right nice…

Rods painted in low-gloss black…

And finally, today’s mileage…

Not bad for a 2003 model S2000!

 

2016 Mileage Roundup

I’ve thought about a post summarizing the 2016 mileage roundup of the fleet.  Questions such as “who will read it?” or “who cares?” came up, but then I read a post on DriveToFive and I changed my mind…

So borrowing Tyson’s idea from his blog, here is my 2016 mileage roundup:

Totals for: RedRock

Totals for: S2000

Totals for: bowtie6

Moral of the story, I need to drive MORE!!!

The daily driver is RedRock (duh!) and it did very well considering a 6.2L V8 with 400hp is under the hood.  The Camaro really does well on the open road though with an all time best of 24 mpg.  The S2000 and bowtie6 get driven only when the sun shines.  Matter of fact, the S2000 has seen the rain on the road only three times since I bought it.  Poor bowtie6, it got neglected big-time!  New Year’s resolution is to do something about this!

In closing, here is a gallery of all three dashboards taken on New Year’s day, 2017.  Should be interesting to see how this compares a year from now…

Note:

This might be one of the first times I post a picture of the mileage on bowtie6.  It shows 22,612 miles and this is a bit misleading (adding this as a reminder to myself too!):

  • I’ve driven my TR6 for 22,612 miles since I put it on the road after the full restoration.
  • The first engine – a 3.4L V6 from a Camaro –  ran for 14,513 miles.  That is when we discovered an irreparable frame failure with stress cracks and my cousin Jim built the new frame from scratch.
  • The 2.4L Ecotec engine/gearbox came from a Pontiac Solstice with only 8 miles on the odometer.  This powertrain was then installed in a new frame built at Jim’s shop.  On October 15th, 2011, bowtie6 left Jim’s shop and has been a hoot to drive.
  • The new Ecotec powertrain has 8,091 miles so far.