If the predictions of the marketing guys over at GReddy are right, the Honda S2000 is about to become a whole lot more popular in the tuner scene.
With the price of an early S2000 starting to squeak its way under the magical $15,000 mark in the used car market, the slick roadster is now firmly in the price range of people more accustomed to building up Civics and Accords. Thanks to the double-edged sword of depreciation, a new crowd of tuners now have the financial ability to get themselves behind the wheel of an S2K.
And when diehard Civic and Accord owners start hawking their modded EKs and EGs on Craigslist to come up with the cash for one, GReddy will be ready to help the recovering Civic addicts transform their "new" S2000s from mild-mannered roadsters into fire-snorting street machines.
We're not saying that there's anything wrong with the S2k in its stock form. With around 240hp from the factory, a stiff chassis and well-developed suspension, there's little more that we could reasonably expect from a bone-stock car (other than a little more low-end torque). But like many Civic owners before, GReddy expects S2000 owners to eventually come knocking on their doors in search of turbo kits, beefy suspensions, more flexible engine management and all the other things a hardcore tuner "needs."
Always ready to step up to the plate and provide its consumers with a large assortment of aftermarket tuning products, GReddy has been hard at work developing a complete line of high-performance parts for the S2000 to peddle to new S2000 converts and old fans alike.
To show tuners what can be done to the S2K using their products, GReddy built this white '06 S2000 for the 2006 SEMA show. While this particular car is a newer AP2 model with the 2.2-liter engine, pre-2004 AP1 S2000s with the 2-liter engine can still use all the same parts that this car does.
The paint and graphics scheme on this car may be tame compared to some of the cars at the SEMA show, but it still attracted plenty of attention. What set it apart was the fact that it was built using only bolt on parts-no custom parts were used. The folks at GReddy wanted to show what could be built using only their bolt-on products. A showcase for their Total Tune-Up product line, this is a car that any S2K owner could duplicate with ease.
The turbo kit is probably the most exciting part of this car. When it comes to horsepower, we all know that enough is never enough for a real gearhead, and the engineers at GReddy are well aware of this "problem." To appease the power mongers, GReddy designed an intercooled turbo kit for the S2K. What you see bolted to the side of this 2.2-liter engine is the culmination of all the research and development GReddy put into turbocharging the roadster.
Based around a GReddy T518Z turbocharger, the kit features an SUS stainless steel, equal-length exhaust manifold, and a GReddy downpipe that mates to the factory catalytic converter. On the intake side, the compressed air is chilled in a GReddy Type 31 V-Spec intercooler with their special CCP finish, and excess charge pressure is purged from the system via a GReddy Type-RS blow-off valve mounted on the aluminum charges pipes. Engine management for the turbo kit is handled by a GReddy eManage Ultimate and RC Engineering injectors and comes as part of the kit with a tune and is ready to go.
While the turbo kit is still technically under development, what you see here is supposed to be the same as the one that will be for sale. We were told the kit should be on the shelves of your local speed shop by the time you read this.
The engine itself on this car is an internally stock F22 engine in all its glory. An impressive mill in naturally aspirated form, it can be downright mean when it's got compressed air shoved into its intake manifold. The turbocharger helps the 2.2-liter mill make a healthy 302 wheel hp with only bolt-ons. Impressive, but we know that big 18G turbo has a lot more in it. The folks at GReddy left the engine stock to stick to the "bolt-on only" theme of this car, but we can't wait to see what this kit can lay down with some more boost.