Screaming Meemie: 2009 Honda S2000 CR Retro Rewind Review

The S2000 was Honda’s 50th birthday present to itself in 1999. It was a modern reinterpretation of what had started as a motorcycle company’s very first automobile: the S500 roadster. That tiny two-seater’s 531cc four-banger revved to 8,000 rpm to produce 43 hp. It doesn’t sound like much, but it pencils out to 1.3 hp/cubic inch back in 1963. In those days, America’s most power-dense engines (all big-block V-8s) were crowing about 1 hp/cu in.

The new S2000 was an ideal successor to the S500 in that its high-strung engine also revved to the moon—the initial S2000’s 2.0-liter spun to 9,000 rpm. That $32,415 car’s 240 naturally aspirated horses set an engine-power-density record (1.97 hp/cu in) that stood for a decade until the quarter-million-dollar Ferrari 458 Italia’s 4.5-liter flat-plane V-8 snatched it away in 2010 (producing 2.05 hp/cubic inch).

The S2000’s all-steel construction includes a “high X-bone frame” that looks like two tuning forks sharing a common handle that serves as the top of the center console. Front/mid-mounting of the engine and transmission bestows a 50/50 weight balance, and a Torsen limited-slip differential helps put the power down judiciously.

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Drive it Like You Hate It

“Imagine if Formula One engineers built a sports car,” our own Chuck Shifsky mused in an early pre-launch review. “Well, they did, and it’s Honda’s new S2000.” Eventually we got our hands and instruments on the car, and indeed it outperformed its chief rivals, the BMW Z3 2.8 and Porsche Boxster, while undercutting them in price.

Period MotorTrend test results.

But the kudos came with caveats. Shifsky again: “The S2000 numbers came after launching at 8,000 rpm (producing little tire spin) and shifting at 8,300. On one run, we launched and shifted at 5,500; the 0-60 time rose to more than 11 seconds.” That review closed with this recommendation: “Our advice is to treat the S2000 like you hate it and you’ll get the most out of it. We did and we loved every minute of it.”

Personal memories of driving those early press cars when new corroborate the sense that the S2000 was most definitely not an in-town rig. The revs required to sense any semblance of sporting performance can only be comfortably explored well out of earshot of friends, neighbors, and the local constabulary. But out there, feeling the acceleration perk up as the VTEC cams shift over (at about the point most normal engines redline) is quite the rush. The transmission also stands out as having been the most utterly sublime in the car world back in the day, with few rivals having come along in the interim.

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A midcycle upgrade for 2004 sought to domesticate the engine, if only very slightly. Its bore increased from 84.0 to 90.7mm, transforming it from an oversquare to an undersquare design. The resulting 10 percent displacement boost (to 2.2 liters) helped increase peak torque by 9 lb-ft while lowering the peak by 1,000 revs, to 6,500 rpm. The redline dropped to 8,200 rpm, and although there were 3 fewer horses, they peaked 500 rpm earlier, all in the name of making the performance more accessible.

Other changes included softer rear springs, revised damping, a wider rear track, taller and wider tires, new brake pads, carbon-fiber transmission synchronizers, and a larger, stronger Torsen diff. Peak performance pretty closely mirrored that of our initial 2000 test car, but the aim had been to make the car more tractable around town.

Cruising in the Club Racer

As Honda prepared to wind down the S2000’s 10-year run, it peppered various markets with special editions. North America’s was the S2000 CR, for Club Racer. Upgrades included quicker-ratio steering, a more sporting exhaust, black lug nuts, darker wheels, clear side marker lamps, stiffer suspension, and new staggered-fitment Bridgestone Potenza RE070 tires that were 10mm wider at the rear (255/40R-17). The price premium? $2,000.

Bodywork spiffs included a redesigned front lip spoiler and a big rear wing that were claimed to reduce the coefficient of lift by 70–80 percent. The power-folding soft top was swapped for an aluminum hard top that saved weight and left room for additional chassis bracing. Inside, black Alcantara seats with yellow inserts, yellow shift lettering on the shortened titanium knob, and faux carbon fiber on the console and radio cover were added. A body-color tonneau cover finished things off.

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Deleting the spare tire, air conditioning, and radio brought the total weight reduction to 90 pounds (with the top off). Of course, most buyers opted to keep the A/C and radio, making the “delete” cars the rarest of the 699-car 2008–2009 model year run. Honda’s historical collection includes the gorgeous example seen here (with air and tunes) in Apex Blue Pearl. Honda offered it up to us over a glorious sunny autumn weekend in Michigan. So how does it hold up?

The cockpit is cozy and period quirky. Twist a conventional key for accessory and ignition on but then press the red “start” button on the left of the wheel. Just remember that’s not a start/stop button: Twist the key to turn the engine off, or you’ll zing the flywheel. The early digital dash includes a rainbow-shaped tachometer above a large digital speedo, all in orange backlit LCD. A green light illuminates to indicate the engine has reached peak power output. It’s not a shift indicator per se, though shifting shortly thereafter is generally a good idea.

Saturday was spent with the top on, a loose driver-side header latch rattling as the aluminum formed an echo chamber magnifying the sound of every road impact. The racket badly colored our impression of ride quality. For Sunday’s rural drive, we unplugged the defroster, undid four latches, and lifted the top off—an easy two-person job that transformed the car. Divorcing our ears from our backsides, we agreed the ride was actually quite good.

With temperatures nearing the glass-transition point of the summer tread compound on our Bridgestone Potenzas, we took it easy, marveling at the stiffness of this sweet 16-year-old “High-X” chassis. Thumbing the vehicle-stability assist button off, a bit of first-gear wheelspin apportioned evenly by the Torsen rear diff tightened U-turns nicely while repeating runs for photography.

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Wearing It Well

It's not at all hard to believe that a 2004 Honda S2000 run in the early days of our figure-eight test logged identical results to a 2024 Mazda Miata Club boasting nearly the same weight-to-power ratio: 26.0 seconds at 0.71 g average. This vintage S2000 feels equally nimble and playful despite its peakier engine, larger size, and weighing nearly a quarter-ton more.

Yet the S2000 never really earned much unqualified praise from MotorTrend. Perhaps longtime hot-shoe Chris Walton summed it up best in a three-way comparison in which the 2004 S2000 trailed a Nissan 300Z and a Mazda RX-8: “The S2000’s comfort-be-damned mission continues to shine through. You don’t so much drive the S2000 as wear it or ride it. If you currently own a motorcycle and are looking to come out of the cold, this is the perfect car.”

Nice S2000s now frequently sell for more than their original sticker, with CR models commanding about double the going rate for base cars. With only around 70 having been built with the delete option and 90 CRs in Grand Prix White, the eight white “delete” cars hit the auction-value jackpot. But no matter what you pay for an S2000, never let the purchase price keep you from “driving it like you hate it…”