Some sports cars are great platforms for modification. Imagine a car already in its prime, gets modified to even amplify its performance capabilities. It’s great, isn’t it?
In the case of the Honda S2000, upgrading it by installing some juicy aftermarket modification magnifies its already impressive characteristic, transforming it into something more stellar: a more stylish, sleek, and powerful automobile the automotive scene has ever seen.
There’s a lot of modification opportunities for those who own a Honda S2000. Do you want to make the car faster? Have you been seeing one of those lowered cars and you want to do the same thing with the Honda S2000?
Or maybe you want to get rid of that annoying drone that has been bugging you for so long? If you have the same questions in mind (or maybe similar!), then you need to know the mods that can solve most of your car problems.
Check out the list below to see the best mods that you can get to make your Honda S2000 look, perform, and feel better.
#1 Suspension System Upgrades
Upgrading your suspension system is one of the key elements in making a Honda S2000 better in terms of looks and handling. By choosing to upgrade your suspension system, you get a chance to pick two popular choices to lower your car’s ride height: a set of lowering springs, or a coilover kit.
Both of them serve their purposes but both of them have distinct differences.
Lowering springs as the name suggests, lower your car’s ride height by using springs. These are among the most basic components of a suspension system, and they offer more height reduction than your currently installed stock springs.
These springs are great for lowering your car’s height and center of gravity. However, that’s pretty much it; no gimmicks whatsoever. You just get to lower your Honda S2000’s height with these springs.
Coilovers on the other hand, are a combination of springs and shocks. That’s where the name “coilover” came from, meaning coils over shocks.
Just like the lowering springs, they lower a car’s ride height, but it offers you some cool benefits like adjustable ride height, damping adjustments, compression/rebound setting adjustments.
This mod allows you to fine-tune your car’s suspension system to whatever preference you please.
If you’re planning to upgrade your Honda S2000’s suspension system, start with the Tein S.Tech lowering springs or some Yonaka coilovers for some maximum benefits.
#2 Exhaust System
The drone is among the worst things a car can have. Its annoying monotone sound can drive anyone insane, and it can potentially ruin a blissful ride down the highway.
It’s one of the dilemmas a Honda S2000 suffers from and luckily, it can be solved by getting a high-quality aftermarket exhaust system. This mod doesn’t just remove the drone, but it also offers a bunch of benefits.
Extra power. Deep and aggressive sound. Better fuel economy. These are the benefits that a Honda S2000 can get from replacing its old stock exhaust in place of a new one.
Aftermarket exhaust systems are considered among the best mods for Honda S2000, mainly because it affects the car in a more obvious way than the other mods. Who would fail to notice a roadster that roars like a beast, right?
A word of advice: check out Yonaka’s exhaust system for the Honda S2000. They specialize in making Honda and Acura aftermarket parts, so they pretty much know what they’re doing.
#3 Intake System
At its time, the Honda S2000 claimed the spot of the most powerful naturally aspirated engine in the world. Honda S2000’s engine, the F20C is capable of producing 247hp as a result of its 11.7:1 compression ratio.
This horsepower can be achieved way up in the range of 8,300RPM. A powerful naturally aspirated engine like the F20C deserves something that can feed it with oxygen-rich cold-air: something like an intake system.
The intake system allows cold ambient air to enter the engine. By doing so, the combustion process gets more efficient due to the sudden increase in excess air, and we all know that when you blow into a fire, it gets larger.
The same thing happens when an intake system supplies excess air into the engine. At the end of the day, the Honda S2000 gets a significant increase in horsepower and torque, better mpg, and a sweet under-the-hood sound.
A great aftermarket intake to start at is the aFe Power Takeda Performance intake system. Just like most of the available intake systems today, the aFe Power Takeda offers unique benefits, in their case, it’s the roto-molded housing and the air scoop.
Overall, intake systems are arguably one of Honda S2000’s best performance mods.
#4 All-New Brake Kits
Okay okay, we get it: the Honda S2000 is fast and it’s really fun to drive. However, going fast can be dangerous sometimes, especially if your car is still using its worn-out brakes.
A lot of accidents can be accounted to brake failures, and your Honda S2000 can be a part of that statistic. A car as fast as the Honda S2000 deserves a brake kit that can handle how fast it stops as much as how fast it accelerates.
Aftermarket brakes come in the form of brake kits, which contain rotors and brake pads. This is a great scheme, especially for those who prefer buying a whole set of components instead of shopping for them individually.
And also, there are different types of brake pads, but the best one for the Honda S2000 are ceramic pads. They have extremely impressive stopping power and they can dissipate heat effectively.
If you’ve got the budget, then check out this premium front brake kit from Southwest Speed Store. Their brakes are of superior quality, and the brakes utilize SL6R forged 6-piston calipers as the base of the brakes.
#5 Smaller Wheels
Okay, once you have your Honda S2000 lowered, you will be needing replacement wheels and tires; preferably something smaller. Smaller wheels aren’t just a sight for sore eyes, but they can also help the Honda S2000 create a lower moment of inertia, which is responsible for making the car speed up faster.
This is ideal if you use your Honda S2000 to race.
The Honda S2000’s recommended wheel size range is 17” to 20” for the diameter, 7” to 9” for the width, and offsets from +45 up to +50. With this data, you can use wheels with a slightly lower variation, say 16”.
A Honda S2000 with a lowered ride height and small wheels are impossible not to look at. A modified car like this will always be a magnet for attention, whether they’re normal people or they’re car enthusiasts.
If you want 17” wheels check out Touren’s 17×7” Matte Black wheel. However, if you want 16” wheels, give the Motegi Racing 16×7” Gloss Black wheels a check.
#6 Sway Bars
For those of you who take your Honda S2000 to do some autocross on the weekends, sway bars are must-have modifications. Sway bars, aka stabilizer bars, are used to make your car more stable, especially when cornering or whenever the car experiences road irregularities.
Sway bars are connected to the Honda S2000’s front wheels, and they keep the car from rolling over when driving through sharp turns.
Sway bars are pretty awesome because they generally don’t affect the ride quality of your car unless you’re cornering. In that case, you’ll feel that your car is much easier to handle.
Just try to get a sway bar for the front side of your Honda S2000 and you’ll enjoy your car’s ride quality much more than before.
Sway bars on the Honda S2000 are so underrated, and they can be safely considered as one of Honda S2000 best mods. Check out these sway bars from Whiteline.
They’re track tested, and they’ll surely keep your car as stable as possible.
#7 Interior and Exterior Upgrades
There is no doubt that what makes a car awesome at a first glance is how it looks. When you first lay your eyes on an iconic roadster like the Honda S2000, you’ll be first greeted by its exterior layout.
Then, once you drive one, you’ll get to see amenities inside the car. Whether you like to admit it or not, the Honda S2000 is an old car, and it needs a makeover: both inside and outside.
The Honda S2000’s interiors are pretty nice, however, if you’re looking to personalize the area as much as you can, start with changing the head unit and replace it with a new one.
Most Honda S2000 owners like the Alpine Advanced Bluetooth Digital head unit because it’s cheap, it looks good, and it works fine.
As for the exterior, you can start by checking out some rad-looking spoilers to increase the Honda S2000’s aerodynamic capabilities, a carbon fiber hood to make the car look more aggressive, or some canards to make the car look more assertive.
The choice on how the Honda S2000 would look on the outside ultimately falls unto you.
The Honda S2000 is a great open-top sports car and it’s undeniably one of the best JDM cars to modify. From top to bottom, and from inside and out, the Honda S2000 stands out. And also, being a powerful naturally aspirated car and all, the Honda S2000 is a fun car to drive.
Combine that with the openness for modifications, this car belongs to the list of the best cars to modify.