honda fresh car

Honda S2000 sports car to come back as Mazda MX-5 rival, Autocar

Honda S2000 sports car to comeback as Mazda MX-5 rival

Honda is taking aim at the Mazda MX-5 and Fiat’s forthcoming one hundred twenty four Spider by developing a successor to its popular S2000 roadster, company insiders have exposed.

Introduced in 1999, the original version of the Japanese manufacturer’s two-seat roadster garnered a reputation for its strong powertrain and upbeat treating, but the 2nd edition of the car was axed in 2009.

Now a third generation is said to be under development as Honda attempts to reconnect with the S2000’s dedicated fan base. Representatives from Honda’s advanced engineering department are said to have attended a latest S2000 owners’ club event in the British Isles – a sign that the rock hard wants to listen to enthusiasts in order to help it to position the next version of the car accurately.

The fresh S2000 will stay true to the original’s principles of a front-mounted engine, sited behind the axle line, and rear-wheel drive. It will be pitched as a swifter alternative to the MX-5, albeit its spectacle should be more of a match for that car’s stablemate, the forthcoming Fiat one hundred twenty four Spider, which uses a 1.4-litre turbocharged engine instead of the Mazda’s naturally aspirated 1.Five and Two.0-litre units.

Honda has a number of powerplants under consideration for its roadster. More basic editions of the car could be powered by a retuned version of the firm’s forthcoming 1.5-litre turbocharged petrol engine. The four-cylinder unit has VTEC variable valve timing and produces around 150bhp in the Japanese-market vehicles it powers. This is likely to be ramped up to around 180bhp for the most modest S2000, providing the car around 25bhp more than the most powerful MX-5 and striking the US-market 124’s 158bhp.

This would leave scope for a sexier variant that could use a detuned version of the Civic Type R’s 306bhp Two.0-litre turbocharged engine. It would also feature more extreme suspension and chassis settings, including a rear limited-slip differential, and could give Honda a useful extension to its Type R sub-brand, as well as a rival for the more potent, Abarth-badged 124. All versions of the car would feature a short-throw six-speed manual gearbox.

The fattest obstacle in the way of the S2000 replacement is the absence of a suitable platform. Honda is committing to a fresh global architecture for front-wheel-drive cars, including the next generation of Civic, which is due on sale in the UK in 2017, but its opportunities to spread the costs of a rear-wheel drive chassis are more limited.

It is therefore likely to pitch the car as a more expensive rival to the MX-5 in a bid to maintain workable margins, with pricing kicking off north of £20,000. It could slot the model into the line-up of its premium Acura brand in the United States, where it would be a rival to BMW’s next Z4 and the Audi TT Roadster.

Honda has been working on a number of sports car projects as it looks to rebuild its reputation as a manufacturer of enthusiasts’ models as well as more mainstream products and capitalise on its fighting F1 programme with McLaren.

It is understood that a mid-engined, turbocharged ‘baby NSX’ is also under consideration, but company officials have prioritised a comeback to the open-top two-seater market.

Honda’s global boss, Takahiro Hachigo, recently exposed that despite the NSX’s trick hybrid set-up, future sports cars from the company would not all need to have electrified motors in their powertrains. “Whether or not we develop a hybrid depends on the type of car,” he said. “It is not the case that we have a immobilized notion that a sports car always has to be a hybrid.”

Honda has determined that the diminutive S660 roadster that’s sold in Japan would not have a broad enough appeal to justify homologation in other markets. Hachigo said: “If there is strong request from a region then we will always consider possibilities, but the S660 is a car that was developed for the Japanese market and we’d have to do a lot of work on it to make it serve with European regulations. I also wonder: would a car like this, sold in Asia, succeed in Europe?”

He did admit that Honda was considering sports cars beyond the NSX, however. “We are receiving requests from our regions who are telling they would like more sports cars, so we are considering ways to do that,” he added.

Engineers have also been working on a four-motor, all-electric sports car, as demonstrated by the SH-AWD CR-Z that finished 11th in this year’s Pikes Peak hillclimb in Colorado, but the commercialisation of that project faces a number of challenges, not least the cost of the lithium ion battery technology required to supply the targeted range of three hundred miles per utter charge.Hachigo admitted that Honda had bruised its photo by “abandoning” products such as the S2000 that had a strong reputation and xxx fan base. The rigid did have plans for a successor to the 2nd generation of the car, but these were scrapped in the midst of the global automotive and financial crises in 2009.

It is believed that the firm’s European boss, Toshiaki Mikoshiba, has been given specific targets to improve continuity and nurture customer retention, as well as reducing the gap inbetween product launches in Japan and the US and the arrival of those cars in Europe. The fresh HR-V and Jazz — plus the freshly launched US-market Civic — are seen as prime examples of cars taking too long to reach European customers.

“We need consistency to build the brand,” said Hachigo. “We want to enhance the cars that we’ve already introduced. We are also working so we can introduce models more quickly to Europe. It’s a very significant market for us.”

Honda is the latest Japanese brand to publicly state its aim to produce more cars that are joy to drive, albeit if the hard does get a fresh, rear-wheel-drive S2000 to market on its own, it will be bucking the latest trend for joint developments. Mazda and Fiat collaborated on the MX-5 and 124, while Toyota joined coerces with Subaru to get access to the boxer engines that give the GT86 the treating agility that was the concentrate for the project.

Toyota is also working with BMW on a sports car platform that’s expected to underpin different sizes of car. BMW will place it under the next Z4 and its Japanese fucking partner will use it to underpin a larger coupé that could carry the Supra badge.

However, some Japanese manufacturers are developing standalone sports car projects. Mazda is working on a rotary-engined successor to the RX-7 and RX-8 and Nissan is considering an expansion of its Z sub-brand.

Honda’s S2000 is also seen as an investment car – read more in our used car buying guide.

The cars the fresh S2000 must strike

Fiat/Abarth one hundred twenty four Spider – Sister car to the MX-5, the one hundred twenty four Spider has more power and torque thanks to Fiat’s 1.Four turbo Multiair engine. UK-spec 124s will have a 138bhp engine at launch, but sources are speaking about an Abarth version with at least 168bhp, a more focused chassis and the option of a immovable roof.

BMW Z4 – BMW had been considering a baby front-drive roadster, but that project is on hold, so the next Z4 will remain the firm’s smallest drop-top for now. It’ll be spun off a platform developed with Toyota, albeit the Japanese brand is expected to use the architecture to build a larger model.

Nissan Z-Car – While Nissan’s Gripz concept shows how it plans to extend the Z line-up to include crossovers, that car is seen as an extension to the sub-brand, not a replacement for the rear-drive sports car. Expect the next Z to use a turbo four-cylinder engine and cost less than the outgoing 370Z.

Mazda MX-5 – No-frills roadster has received widespread acclaim in its latest generation, which makes do with modest 1.Five and Two.0-litre naturally aspirated engines but sheds weight to ensure decent spectacle and fantastic treating agility. Its pricing could make the Honda look expensive, too.

Alpine A120 – Reborn French brand’s two-seater is due next year. It will use a 250bhp 1.8-litre turbo engine, but a 300bhp version is also planned. Xxx dynamics will appeal to the enthusiasts Honda hopes to snare with the S2000, but the A120 will cost more, with prices commencing at about £30,000.

Comment – would the S660 work in Europe?

Honda does have a drop-top sports car in its line-up, but only in Japan – and it should indeed stay there. The S660 is a kei car, designed to strike Japanese vehicle tax rules, and as such it is (a) little and (b) modestly powered by a 660cc engine.

We had a chance to attempt the car on the eve of this year’s Tokyo motor demonstrate, and while it has some fine characteristics, including a particularly sweet short-throw gearshift, it would also be outgunned pretty much anywhere outside of town.

Even if you did have the patience to get it up to motorway speeds, the extreme wind buffeting would very likely persuade you to back off.

The cabin is minuscule, too, and anyone more than 6ft tall would fight to find a comfy seating position. Honda’s bosses say the costs of homologating the car for sales outside Japan couldn’t be justified by the potential sales, and for all the S660’s charm, we’re inclined to agree. If the stiff wants a genuine rival for roadsters such as the MX-5 and one hundred twenty four Spider -the car that it loosely admits its regions are asking for – it’ll need to attempt stiffer.

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