2002 Honda S2000

Excellent condition 2002 Honda S2000 AP1. with replica Mugen hardtop.

Clean title. fully paid.

Sebring Silver exterior. black interior. Small dents and scratches. but generally in nice shape.

Asking $15. 00 OBO.

This car has been operating in Arizona for most of its life.

Mods (most of them are OEM S2000):

AP2 wheel and tire sets (Front 215 45R17. Rear 245 40R17). Very new Michelin Pilot Super Sports. 7/32 tread depth remain.

AP2 exhaust pipes (better look).

AP2 engine (2004. 2. 2L): at 88. 30 miles. it became a victim of the valve retainer issue. and swapped an engine from another 2004 AP2 s2000. with 61k mileage then. The engine swap was flawless. and it ran perfectly since then. Dyno chart after the swap can be found in the pictures.

Rear sway bar: replaced with a Miata NC front sway bar. The reason is explained below. The original part is retained. and can be easily restored.

Hardtop (replica Mugen). Can be easily removed. The original soft-top is still there and fully functional. folded back when the hardtop is in place.

Multimedia console: Kenwood KDC-BT362U. with Bluetooth connection.

About the engine and the rear sway bar:

The S2000 has two “generations” (but not really). namely AP1 (99-03) and AP2 (04-09). The AP1 was a more hardcore sports car. while AP2 was mechanically tuned to be a bit softer so that easier to be daily driven. slightly changed the look (front bumper. wheels. exhaust. etc. ). improved engine reliability. added ESC and drive-by-wire. etc.  

The AP1 S2000 was the car Honda wanted to be: high rev. stiff suspension setting. very agile and tale happy. But it also came with some big issues:

Valve retainer cracking: may crack at high rev. Once completely broken. the retainer will go inside the cylinder and destroy the engine. The AP2 fully solved this issue by using better material for the retainer and reducing the revs. Inspecting the retainers cost a few hundred. changing the cracked retainers costs well above 1000.

Oversteer / spin. Due to the aggressive suspension setting. the AP1 is very tale-happy. and tends to oversteer when corning over its limit. Once the rear wheels get loose. it'd be extremely difficult to save the car without over-correction. which would lead to spinning and totaling. The AP2 solved this issue by softening the suspensions and sway bars. but also gave the car softer driving character.

This car can be thought of as a hybrid of AP1 and AP2. With AP2 engine it will no longer suffer the valve retainer issue (the 04 and 05 engines are most reliable of all S2000 model years). By softening the rear sway bar the car is more balanced and controllable during spirited driving. yet reserving the AP1's characteristics. The AP2 wheels are larger (17'' instead of the 16'' of the AP1) and wider. provide better grip and better look.

Please contact me by email if you have any question.  

Also published at eBay.com

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