ludecrs' 2000 Honda S2000
Hi Brad, I selected you to be our next featured ride because: (1) everyone loves an s2000; and (2) everyone loves a moderator (LOL). Reading your build thread shows that it’s been a long journey but you’re happy where you are now. So tell us a bit about your car and why you decided on an s2000.
Well I remember wayyy back in 1999 reading a Motor magazine with my friend about a review of the Honda S2000. Young, naive and just hitting puberty, I was all like “Honda convertible? LOL since when did the Civic become RWD and drop top?”
Ahh those were the days... Fast forward 5 years, insert some kilograms and some maturity (albeit still quite childish :D) and you have someone who owned a 1999 Honda Prelude (no VTEC) and had a love for all things Honda powered. Over 2yrs of ownership and bling wheels with that car, I saved up for 6 months so I could afford what seemed like the next logical Honda step of RWD goodness - the S2000.
I did consider an RX7 Spirit R, but I couldn’t justify the costs on what was essentially a 15 year old design. The Nissan 350Z was also a contender until I drove one back to back with an S2000. The Z had the torque and the power but just felt like a boat in comparison to the nimble little S2000. I chose the S2000 back then for a number of reasons: its handling, looks, power, cheap to run, cheap insurance etc.
After searching for what seemed like an eternity, I found a blue one for sale in the Courier Mail one Saturday at a dealership; 2000 model with only 56,000km's. I put a deposit on it and came back on the Monday to buy it. The Prelude was garaged for 3 months until I could sell it (practically gave it away) as all I drove was the S2000.
Three months and 10,000km later still stock, I was rather sad that I was putting so many km's on the car but it was such a joy to drive, you'd make up excuses to yourself just to take it for a trip down the shops. Since then, I've gone through 4 sets of wheels, 3 suspension changes, 2 bumper setups, I/H/E/test pipe, head lights, tail lights, carbon diffuser, AP2 upgrades galore, a Comptech Supercharger kit, plus much more all in the pursuit to find perfection in my eyes. I assure you, it’s an ongoing battle... haha.
Why did you choose to not modify the car when you first purchased it? Was it still under warranty or did you know that “once you pop, you can’t stop”?
I envisioned all my modifications but didn't dare buy them for fear of catching the 'mod bug'. After about 12 months of ownership, I swapped gear knobs because the OEM one was aluminium and in sunny QLD top down weather, my hands got sweaty rather easily. Well that's what started it... one gear knob became two because it had to match the handbrake. Then I had to upgrade head units, then speakers, then an amp, then a spoiler, then a wind deflector...
These were things I envisioned, so I felt I had to continue with my dream car. It was natural that I moved to the usual upgrades - I/H/E and test pipe.
Anyway, a multitude of mods came thereafter - the mod bug well and truly bit me.
I may be assuming here, but is the reason why you didn’t want to modify the car initially is because with your previous car you went overboard with the modifications?
To a degree yes, but my old car was a Prelude with some subs, bling wheels and a few JDM goodies - still I think the bill came close to 10K on that car but only managed to sell it for 13K. I promised myself, an S2000 didn't deserve that kind of sacrilege - ugly chrome wheels, loud sub woofers and what not. It was an S2000, it already had the performance and the looks and it didn't need anything more.
You were in a similar situation to Rein regarding the girlfriend getting in the way of your pride and joy. Does having no girlfriend and no drivers license give you more time (and money!) to think about what things you want to modify on your car? You purchased a supercharger kit, I guess it does!
I'd tend to agree that I came out worse. I lost my girl, my license, $700, 8 demerit points and the will to finish building the car in the space of 5 minutes. Depression set in... No car, no girl, no desire to go anywhere or do anything. I was in 2 words - ****ed up. I had no desire to spend any more money on the car. In fact I nearly gave it all up because the girl I loved so much, wasn't mine any more.
About 4 months rolled slowly by and I began to get myself back on my feet somewhat to a point of being social again. I figured with the car under wraps, now was the best time to get in and do some mods. I was browsing the American S2000 forums and came across a cheap incomplete supercharger kit... I know what you’re thinking (something along the lines of you lost your license for speeding in a NA S2000, WTF are you buying a supercharger for you ****ing moron!! LOL). But I bought it anyway :D.
Tracking down the missing parts proved easy, as well as keeping me active in the S2000 game. The desire was again starting to set in.
Can you share your experience with buying parts from overseas. Were there any hurdles you had to jump to get the parts at your doorstep? I heard import tax was a killer.
Buying parts for me is/was easy. I previously bought many JDM/USDM parts for my Prelude from PreludeOnline forum members. Once you get a feel of who are willing to send stuff over, you then use them as a benchmark for future transactions.
With the S2000 I applied the same theory and it was sweet from the get go. Three years and about 150 PayPal transactions later, many of the parts I bought have come from other S2000 members from USA and Europe. Once you've built a background, you just rely on your history as evidence to your seller.
Don't let my happy story put doubt in your head about sour transactions though. With 150 transactions, there’d be a small share of transactions which didn't go to plan. The first was my AP2 head light. The seller didn't address the box correctly and consequently the head light was returned to sender. With the inability to fill out a postal form I decided dealing with this seller again was a waste of time, so I just got a refund.
Then came the infamous Mugen hardtop roof from Malaysia being sent by airmail. Purchased over eBay, it was picked up from the sellers address and sent by air mail. Unbeknownst to me, it arrived in the country within 3 days. The next day it was at my local AusPost mail depot where it was then returned back to Sydney and back to Malaysia without any reason. The seller was adamant it was picked up. The tracker was rarely updated, the 45 days grace from PayPal was up and I filed a dispute. I got $15 in refund from PayPal. Many phone calls to Malaysia Post late at night dealing with people from another country proved futile. I eventually tracked the roof down to find it sitting in the Kuala Lumpar International Airport being randomly shipped around the country. I tried to have it re-routed back to me but by this time the seller was unresponsive to mail; it wasn't how Malaysia Post did things. Eventually it was returned to the seller, where I was given a refund by the seller.
Recently I've moved house, but I still purchase items from overseas. It’s a great shame really. Although the street and suburb I live in are as old as WWII when the US soldiers trained here, the USPS (United States Postal Service) doesn't have it on file. So the items I have bought in recent times have been returned to the sellers and I've been given refunds. Unfortunately, one of those items was a very rare Mastergrade carbon fibre engine puzzle kit. It was damaged in transit from the US, never made it here and was returned to the seller. The poor guy refunded me and had to throw away the puzzle kit.
But overall, when dealing with international sellers, you should be polite and have a rough estimate of postage costs off the top of your head given the size and weight of the item you're hoping to buy. I never get knocked back from sellers on www.s2ki.com these days because my car is known, I'm a regular on the website and I have a feedback thread online where others can comment on my dealings with them. This is always handy to have as it further emphasises you’re not an international scammer having dealt with so many people prior.
The items I've purchased have ranged from about $15 through to $4,000 thus far, not once have I been pulled up by customs in regards to import tax. Maybe I've been lucky but I believe that buying from the US, there is no import tax due to the free trade agreement we have in place - thanks to our past government I believe.
Damn, I don’t think I’d put myself through the trouble of getting overseas parts… Anyway, 6 months without a license would seem an eternity to some. Share your pain and anguish with us about not being able to drive your car.
To be honest I don't think it was all THAT bad. At the time I was working for Supercheap Auto in Stones Corner and public transport (as usual) royally sucks up here in QLD. I used to get up at 4am in the morning, out the door at 5am, catch the first train through the station at 5.15am and take the ride to Southbank until 6.10am. I then had to switch lines but the next train didn't arrive until 6.55am, a 45 minute wait in between trains. So I used to take a trip down into Southbank, get some raisin toast, have a hot chocolate and talk to the university girls in the cafe before trudging back to board the train at 6.55am.
Four stops down was my station where I arrived at 7.20am and had 10 minutes to walk to where I worked about 1.5km away. Along the way I'd stop off at the bakery and get my lunch for the day and keep moving until I arrived pretty much at 7.30am for the morning opening.
The store doors shut at 5.30pm, so I’d be out of the shop by 6pm. I’d then hastily make my way back to the train station in less than 15 minutes to board the train @ 6.15pm. If I missed it, it was a 65 minute wait for the next one... Four stops later I’d roll into Southbank at about 6.25pm where I'd again have to wait about 45 minutes for the southern line to connect at 7.05pm. Again I'd stroll down to Southbank shops, get some dinner/snack/chat and make my way back to the station to take the trip back home to my station at 7.45pm to be picked up and home usually by 8pm.
4am to 8pm 5 days a week for 6 months. You're probably thinking “god how painful” but it honestly wasn’t that bad. My body kind of got used to all the walking and my leg muscles grew a lot! Haha!
As for the car... I started it religiously every Saturday for 6 months to keep the fluids going. I'd drive it up and down the driveway to remind myself of what I was missing…
So you eventually got your license back, installed the supercharger kit and got it dyno'd. The drama didn’t end there with a belt snapping on the dyno and the car being inoperable. What luck… but tell me how you came to the conclusion that dynometers give you a false sense of information.
Installing the Supercharger was great fun. My mates Steve and Ian, and a friend of Steve – Jeff – and I started the install one Saturday morning about 9am. We finished on Saturday night/Sunday morning around 4am; around the time for me to go to work at 6am for stock take. I had NO sleep and was quite knackered. First time ever in my life I've been so tired, I nearly fell asleep at the wheel multiple times. Had it not been for my overly excessive loud exhaust - I believe I would’ve as every time I nearly nodded off, the weight of my foot would drop on the throttle and the loud drone of the exhaust even for just a second - kept me going. Then I got to work, felt fine by 9am, did a whole day of stock take, and went home fine. I got home, ate, and went to bed. I was dead to the world for about 18 hours...
When we installed the charger, there's a bracket that connects to the alternator and it appears we didn't screw it in properly because it wobbled lose. The bolt rubbed against the s/c pulley belt, rounded the bolt head and eventually shredded the belt from being about 20mm wide, to about 4mm... We got all that fixed up and went to a shop to get it dyno tuned... The car pulled a lousy 245rwhp on 7 pounds of boost. I was most unimpressed.
The very next night I went to a different shop for a dyno tune. The car pulled I think 269rwhp. Same car, same setup, 25rwhp difference? It was here I learnt how all dyno's differ in results and to not take them too seriously - after all, it’s just a number - the power increase and cars drivability is what was important.
