Honda S2000 News

Hot on the heels of global adulation over the (very good) Honda Civic Type R, reports have emerged in Japan that the the one performance powerhouse will next turn its attention to a two-seat sports car that harks back to the Honda S2000.

Car technology is changing and the laws of our most populous state need to adapt.

The open-topped sports car was created to celebrate the Japanese carmaker's 50th anniversary but, with global sales tanking for most brands, Honda has cut the car to keep its business moving. Production will end with the last of the 2009 model-year S2000s, which means around the middle of this year. But Honda Australia is down to just three cars in local stocks and is not expecting to have to re-order. "It's run its race," says Mark Higgins, spokesman for Honda Australia. "We've been working on a customer-order basis for the last couple of years. We haven't had too many in stock." Production of the S2000, which currently lists for $73,590 in Australia, has topped 110,000 cars since the first one was built nine years ago. America topped the S2000 sales charts with 65,000 and Japan was next with 20,000. "It was introduced in Australia in 1999, which was the biggest year for sales. It did well in 2000 and 2001 but slowed down after that. We have sold 1818," says Higgins. The S2000 decision comes after Honda confirmed it had canned its planned replacement for the NSX sports car. It showed a concept at a number of major motor shows but eventually decided it could not justify the spending, or the potentially poor publicity, to put it into full-scale production. Instead, Honda is looking to hybrids to give it a sporty push for 2010 and beyond. It believes, like Lexus, that a small petrol engine with an electric booster will work best and also give the potential for emission-free electric running in cities. "We are changing directions and looking more towards hybrids. The CR-Z is slated to be a sports car in the style of the original CR-X," Higgins says. The production version of the CR-Z is expected at the Tokyo Motor Show in October, although it is unlikely that the two-seater coupe will now be developed into a droptop. On the S2000 front, Higgins says it's not too late for fans to get a car. "People can place an order until the end of April. They're looking like collector's items now," he says.  

THE replacement for the Honda S2000 has been revealed in Britain. It's a new droptop built up from the hot Civic Type R. Officially, the next S2000 is known only as the Open Study Model and is being displayed at the British International Motor Show as a low-emission roadster. But it does not take much digging to discover the car's Civic roots and a production plan for late next year or early 2010. It is clearly related to the Civic, and Honda in Japan admits it is working on a front-drive two-seater to take over from the S2000 when production ends next year. The S2000 is 10 years old and its unique rear-wheel-drive mechanical package makes it very costly to make. A Civic-based successor opens the way for a more affordable replacement and has the potential for much higher sales. Honda Australia is not saying much about the potential for the Open Study Model. “It's purely a concept hyrid sports car. It shows you can be green and sporty as well,” Honda spokesman Mark Higgins says. “The car was designed by our R&D centre in Germany and is very much a European creation.” It is also a Civic-based creation, with a dashboard that could have come straight from the current Type R hatch. The car follows a stronger “green” direction by Honda, which previewed the CR-Z as a hybrid and has also put its FCX Clarity fuel-cell car into limited production. Honda says the design brief for the Open Study Model is “clean and dynamic”, an approach that means the rear of the body extends into the cabin between the seats. Much of the car is taken from the Civic — including its hidden front-drive mechanical package — and this runs right down to the gearshift in the centre of the dash and a Type R-style ignition start button.