This has been a couple weeks coming but finally got some time to put everything together after my buddy and I completed a ~4500 mile/7 day road trip in our S2000s. Was definitely a blast and saw tons of the country that neither of us had experienced prior- and what better way to do it than in an S?

The Cars:

Mine: 2008 ABP S2k CR; Roughly 80k mi at start of trip. RE71r, HSD coils, Urge Unicorn Header, Tanabe Medallion touring exhaust, flashpro. I have owned the car for roughly 10 months.
Buddy's (Impulse21 on s2ki): 06 RYP bought a few months ago with 197k miles and good compression on one cylinder. Has poured a ton of work into this car to get it back on track. Longest trip in it prior was 80 miles down the interstate from home. Time to put it through the paces!

The Trip:

The goal was to find some of the best driving and most scenic roads we could find and we had 7 days to do it in. The trip spanned from our starting point in San Antonio, Texas and went through New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, and back home.

Day 1: San Antonio, TX to Durango, Co (~900 mi):

Todays goal was simple- get out of SA and put as many miles behind us as we could to give us a decent start time in the morning for some good driving through Colorado. The day was uneventful for the most part except for learning a pretty important lesson that we definitely carried out for the rest of the trip. Gas planning. Going through New Mexico, leaving the outskirts of Roswell and heading towards ABQ, down to just over a quarter of a tank and decide to stop at the next gas station that shows up on the right hand side of the road.....well nothing did, drive for 20 minutes and see nothing but dirt and rocks. So now we are 20-30 mins outside of town in the middle of nowhere and pull off to check the map to find the next gas station. 70 miles away and we both have just under a quarter tank of gas- me slightly less than him). We take the gamble and decide as long as one of us can make it we will be close enough to be fine. So we set the cruise at like 55/60, I shut my AC off (in the middle of NM in the summer) and we made the push- only to also lose cell service shortly after that point. So after 50 more miles of me drafting him on cruise and us rolling at 55/60 the gas station comes into site and as we pull in, my car shuts off while maneuvering to the pump. Lesson learned. The rest of the day was uneventful until the end. Pulled into Durango, Co about 10pm only to find there were no rooms available; anywhere. None. Every la quinta, best western, doubletree, you name it was sold out. Lesson number 2: plan ending points better. Luckily we found a super 8 or something with a couple rooms left. A little trash motel that still ended up costing $200/night but again, our fault for not committing to our estimates of how far we thought we may make it for the day and booking in advance.

map for Day 1

Start out point in San Antonio



Roswell McDonalds Food stop




Day 2: Durango, CO to Torrey/Capitol Reef State Park, UT (~430 mi):

Starting out the morning, jumping on the million dollar Hwy and heading to Ouray, CO and then making the drive through Colorado and into Utah, This drive was unreal. The weather was perfect, roads were dry, this was the day to make me regret not having a soft top lol. The Rio car was definitely enjoying the top down weather. But the scenery and taking this drive in the S was awesome. Utah was oddly like a ghost town. It was like we had the whole state to ourselves almost. On a whim checked out the Natural Bridges National Monument state park when we drove past and we were the only ones in the park. And most of Utah was the same way. I would say over the 150 to 200 mile stretch through some of the canyons, we maybe passed 6 cars. Was awesome to be able to stop and pull off and take in some of the incredible scenery without worrying about traffic. Will let the pictures do most of the talking here, but in retrospect, we could have stayed here for the rest of the trip and I think we both would have been perfectly happy. We rolled into Torrey pretty late as we took it slow taking a bunch of pictures along the way. Instead of a hotel tonight, we decided to find a campground and throw up the tent.




















Natural Bridges National Monument





Leaving the campsite in Torrey, UT to start day 3




Day 3: Torrey, UT to Maptleton (Provo), UT via Escalante and Bryce (~330 mi):

Camping in Utah was awesome so we decided to do it again. We planned to do a hike to the lower Calf Creek Falls in Escalante but by the time we got there the parking lot for the trailhead was so full that there was nowhere to park and we decided to just keep driving and save ourselves 3 hours of the day to recoup. This was another awesome day with tons of super high altitude mountain driving that we both really enjoyed. We found another campground to throw the tent up in at the end of the day. When we pulled in, I didnt pay much attention to all the "Bear Country" signs they had hanging; i dont think either of us did. But when something hit our tent around 130 in the morning hard enough to wake both of us up and we were the only ones in a tent in the area (everyone else in RVs), those signs definitely started messing with our heads, and of course, in the mountain valley where we were, no cell service even if we ended up needing it. Eventually ended up getting some light sleep and surviving til sunup haha.









Day 4: Mapleton, UT to Reno via NV SR50 "The loneliest Road in America" (~560 mi):

The night prior on the way to mapleton, the Rio car threw a CEL but seemed to be running fine. Between the code and monitoring the car with a scan gauge the problem was thought to be the alternator. So we headed to breakfast after packing up the campsite and set out in search of an alternator. After calling around, O'reilly's came through like champions. They had one at a warehouse in Salt Lake city which was hours away and said they could have it in store locally to us by noon. So we went and dropped the car of at their store so it would be cool by the time the part came in and ran around Provo for a bit killing some time. Part came in as promised, and swapped it out there in the parking lot and we were on the way to Reno! SR50 through Nevada is pretty cool and its nickname definitely makes sense. I could see this road being SUPER dangerous driving at night. 2 lanes,a ton of suuuuuuuper long straights separated by mountain passes, everyone hauling ass, and like nothing around. We definitely planned our gas out for this and had no issues. We caught some pretty heavy rain in some of the mountain passes that was a little sketchy for me on the RE71s and we were forced to pull off I think only once but it was definitely a cool drive.



getting the alternator swapped at O'reillys


Old Pony express trail

Sunset as we start getting back to civilization closer to reno


Day 5: Reno, NV to Redwood City, Ca via lake Tahoe and the Golden Gate Bridge (~290 miles):

So our initial intent was to be through NV and already be in CA at the start of today, but due to the alternator issue we had to improvise. As an added bonus for the Rio car is that a nice upgrade awaited it in Reno. The owner had found a seller of some JDM seats in Reno that were very clean and the car needed some seats pretttttty badly. The owner was kind enough to hold them due to the roadtrip and wait for us to get there and swap them out in his garage and he would dispose of the old driver's seat (Pass seat was left at home in anticipation of this). Super cool dude, NSX owner, and was very accomodating. After the swap was done we got on the road and headed towards Lake Tahoe. We decided to come into the north tip of Lake tahoe and basically go along it the whole way down. The scenery was of course amazing but there were SO many people. I had always wanted to visit Lake Tahoe, but there were so many people that I dont know if I would ever return there during the summer. I mean roads and parking lots just liiiiinnnned with cars and people walking everywhere. Was definitely not what I expected. Maybe the winter is better? But anyways, was cool to see the lake regardless, and the drive into this part of California was awesome. Nice mountain roads, good weather etc. Our goal was to hit the golden gate bridge before dark because the next day there was some huge marathon going on and it would be a madhouse to get anywhere near it and it was to be closed to pedestrians. Unfortunately we pulled in and it was practically dark, but was still super amazing to see; I really wish we could have spent more time here. We definitely got the full San Francisco experience going through downtown with all those super steep roads and dealing with the gridlock on the weekend night. We luckily found a reasonable hotel just outside SF in Redwood city and turned in to crash there for the night.



Putting the new seats in



Old Seats

New Seats


Lake Tahoe

Golden Gate Bridge


Day 6: Redwood City, Ca to Indio, Ca via the Pacific Coast Hwy down through Big Sur (~575 miles):

This was another awesome day. Amazing California weather, great driving, and the first time we've ever seen the Pacific Ocean. We decided to take the longer route and take the PCH all the way down and just stay on the coast as much as possible. We ended up going through Monterey (caught a wave from some guy in a blue GT4 somewhere around this area was curious if he was an S owner on here hahaha). But the coast was awesome except for some of the more congested areas. The temperatures dropped quite a bit getting up to Big Sur; down into the mid 50s. It was the weekend so there was a ton of traffic but it did allow us to take in a bit more of the scenery rather than worry about hauling butt and just doing it for the drive. But was really amazing to see, would not mind doing this drive again when it is less congested. We took the PCH down to Hearst Castle and then began the trek Southeast to start making our way back home. We were able to make it to Indio before deciding we were both beat and ready to stop for the night.



Northern Santa Cruz County




The end of the Venture and the start of the ride home.



Day 7: Indio, Ca to San Antonio, TX (~1220 mi):

The most grueling day of the trip. The honeymoon phase of the trip was over, it was hot, and we were back on the interstate just trying to make it back as quickly as possible. No real pictures from this day. We left Indio about 1000AM and made it back to San Antonio at 0600. We debated stopping in El Paso when we got there around 1030pm but decided to make the push to just try and get home. Just found some podcasts to pass the time and was able to make it through and get home in the morning as the wife was waking up lol. All in all, the cars performed awesome, were a ton of fun and we got to see some of the most beautiful parts of this country that Ive ever seen. I would not hesitate to do another trip in the S2000. If I was going to do it again however, I would raise it up a bit. The coils the previous owner put on and set were quite low and there were some pretty frustrating scrapes. I have since raised it up a bit after getting the car home and cleaned up and fluids changed.



Trip odo shot after pulling into the garage (started it about 100 miles late)

 

Awesome trip and read. Thanks for posting!

 

Nice! Where was the best road located?

 

For me pretty much any of the indicated route through Utah and secondly the million dollar highway. The S2k runs out of legs on a lot of the straightshots but the super tight winding mountain passes it is awesome. I will say the S2000 is severely underpowered for mountain passing at altitude though- some of it is genuinely terrifying.

 

Owner of the RYP here. The million dollar highway( north of Durango on us550) was the most intense, s2000 focused driving, kind of tail of the dragon like. Utah (highway 95 and 12) were incredible in a different way, mainly because the scenery changes from red rock, to aspen forests, to sandstone in the blink of an eye... all while being incredibly fun roads. The traffic we encountered was also much less as the southern half of Utah is pretty desolate as it is almost entirely public land. The only people on those roads are vacationing, not much actual through traffic.

The PCH from SF to San Simeon is incredible as well, but traffic was ridiculous for us. Literally hours and hours of being behind minivans doing 30 mph.

 

Wow! What an incredible trip - I am envious, one of these days ...
Traffic PCH to San Simeone, welcome to CA.
Love the RIO.
Thanks for the awesome post!

 

Some guys are track rats, but for me, this is where fun sports cars really shine - in taking long, memorable road trips. And you guys picked a good one. I used to live in Norcal and have driven U.S. 50 across Nevada solo in a 1980 Chevrolet Chevette(!). Yes, the PCH is pretty but not a road to drive if you're on a tight schedule. For any of you contemplating a drive like this, one thing that I would strongly recommend is, if at all possible, try to work either Yosemite (go across the park, not just through the valley) and/or Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks into your itineraries. But you guys took a great trip, I'm very envious, and thanks a lot for posting. I wish that I'd tagged along with you!

 

Sounds like an awesome (but tiring, lol) trip. Great pics!

 

Glad you guys managed to make it down the PCH and then through Big Sur. Some of the best driving is down near that area and around Monterey. However yes, there are a lot of slow minivans (welcome to CA! lol). GHlad to see you guys had a lot of fun and is something i'm planning to do with my group of friends. (me and my buddies S2k, and two ND miatas.)

 

I agree with this for the most part but I would still love to get the car on a track. It really is fantastic in the mountains jussssst needs a little more torque in some spots. RE: yosemite and the like, there was SO much we wanted to do, especially in Utah but with our proposed route and a couple delays the days were so full that it didn't leave much free time. It basically had us pulling into the destination at night most nights and whooped from the drive lol. I feel like we could have killed 2 weeks alone just going through Utah. It was however, a nice way to give us a little taste and see what areas we would like to go back and revisit/ focus on/explore a bit more with our families etc at a later time.

Thanks! nailed it with that comment lol.

I would do it again but probably in a rental car of sorts. The drive from here to out there though, lets just say Im less than inspired to do it again to get out there hahaha. But yes if I was even remotely close to there it would definitely be a semi regular thing. It is long but there is just so much to see.