S2000 In The News – On-Track Crisis to Mid-Life Crisis

 PlanetLeMans reports that the Muscle Milk Aston Martin Racing car took victory at a chaotic race in Mid-Ohio. In addition to controversial decisions handed out like candy by race control, the Mid-Ohio Honda S2000 Safety Car ground to a halt with transmission trouble as it attempted to gather the field behind it. The Porsche Cayenne Medical vehicle was pressed into dual duty as a result. While we are unsure whether the issue was caused by a money shift or using the wrong MTF (manual transmission fluid) or some other reason,  Porsche certainly appears to have scored some brownie points in Honda’s backyard. Click through for other news.

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Members belonging to the Ohio S2000 Club participated for the fourth time in the 2011 IndyCar Decal Program for the race at Mid-Ohio on August 7th. Thirty-five S2000 owners from the Ohio area participated in the festivities for the Honda Indy 200 race. The highlight of the event being the parade laps featuring the decal program S2000s with the Indy drivers riding shotgun. Here’s to hoping we can score an invite to this restricted event in the future and we hope IndyCar and the Ohio S2000 Club can keep this program going.

Unless you live under a rock cut off from all forms of modern communication, you have probably heard about Consumer Reports dropping the 2012 Civic from their recommended list. Honda was appalled and issued a press statement defending the Civic. The merits of the Civic aside, Honda must take heart from the fact that the S2000 was listed as a personal pick by Eric Evarts of Consumer Reports as The Best Car for a Midlife Crisis. In his own words,

 “For me, the top has to go down. That brings us to my easy and unequivocal choice: the Honda S2000. Refined it ain’t. But perhaps because of that, rather than in spite of it, I’ve never been able to wipe the crazy bug-spattered grin off my face behind the wheel. As used cars, they’re pretty affordable. A winning reliability track record makes that go double for maintenance. The only hard part is finding one that hasn’t been radically modified or abused. Make mine stealth gray, with red leather seats, please“.

Ouch! we are sure he really meant to say Silverstone Metallic. Hey! Honda, if you are reading this, there is still a market for the S2000.

Import Tuner Magazine features the last article in their series on Project S2K – to build the ultimate street/track S2000. The article refers to all the updates that were done on the car in order to reduce weight, improve aero efficiency and enhance track safety. Famous time attack driver Eiji “Tarzan” Yamada, was chosen to prove the car out on track at Buttonwillow and  managed to set a best time of 2:01.02.  The magazine has plans to return again with further suspension modifications and forced induction and aim to set a time of under 2 minutes. We wish them the very best in their endeavor.

Indy200 Parade Lap Image courtesy of pistolpete17, video created by TheLast13