The Honda S2000 is many things—a modern classic, an all-time great shifter, an all-time great Honda—but it isn’t that great off-road. Unless, of course, you take matters into your own hands as Adri MP (@adrimp36 on Instagram) has done.
His happens to be a UK-spec 2009, which means it had the styling of the AP2 but retained the smaller, 8,800-rpm F20C motor that we only got pre-2004 here in North America. In other words, it’s the one you want. Adri has 911 Dakar-ized it with chunky Yokohama Geolandar all-terrain tires on Braid wheels, and replaced the bumpers with tubes and skidplates using custom-fabricated parts.
The wildest part, however, is that he’s currently about a month into driving it from Barcelona to Tokyo, a near-10,000-mile journey.
“I plan to transform it into a track car for Japan,” he told me via DM. “That was the main dream.”
A self-proclaimed Honda obsessive, Adri has always been into cars and says he picked the S2000 for this mission simply because “it’s my favorite car.” He’s apparently had seven of them.
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“The greatest part is to see something crazy grow in your mind, and now you are the main character of that ‘movie.’ Every day something interesting happens…”
Adri recounts particularly difficult bump- and pothole-ridden roads in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia, as well as one instance when the turbodiesel E34 BMW support wagon started “drinking a lot of oil.”
“We thought it was the turbo, so after an entire day converting the car to N/A to see if this was the problem, we went to the hotel, and some random guys were standing next to the BMW. We explained what happened to the car, and they said, ‘Oh, we are E34 specialists, and we have a turbo from that exact engine [in the building next to the hotel].'”
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“Everywhere we go, people want to take photos. Of the car but also with us. And to live the desert experience in Kazakhstan was something really special—we were literally alone.”
Adri is documenting his trip on Instagram with some professional-looking videography, and plans on releasing a whole feature on YouTube on the endeavor called “Road to Race.”
When I asked Adri if his off-road S2000 had a name, he said it didn’t, but suggested something to do with speedboats since it kind of looks like one. S2000 Sterrato would be a funny thing to call it, but an even better one might be the Honda Safari2000.
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Must be interesting with no low end torque and big tires. Changed the diff ratio to 4.10s or more?
That’s what I was wondering. The S2000 is not exactly known for low-end power.
Yuri from Belgium already started road-tripping a tiny Peugeot 108 from Belgium to Japan about 3 months ago…pretty cool trip so far!
https://www.youtube.com/@dedeyouri
I was in Spain in early July and saw the S2000 and the BMW wagon on the toll road heading to the Pyrenees. I was thinking those bigger, heavier wheels must really hurt the performance/acceleration of that S2000. Crazy to read about them today after seeing them last month. Small world.
The 2.2L S2000’s dyno’d about 15hp more than the 2.0L’s stock and midrange torque was better. I owned a 2.2L and have driven the 2.0L cars. The 2.2’s feel faster.
This is a pretty fascinating read. Would love to know how that F20C is comping with those big heavy tires though lol.
Loved this! I’ve always had a place in my heart for anything safari’d and the s2000 wears it well! I also think the e34 is the height of bmw design and the touring fits the safari design well too!
That stretch across the Sea of Japan is going to be a tough drive!
I imagine that Honda has got to be a chore with those big tires. My GR86 loses about 7% to 2-sizes taller profile snow tires and it is felt. With more torque than the S2000, it’s borderline on torque for me as it is*.
*This is a weird one. On paper, the engine makes more torque and has the same or less weight or more weight, but with multiples more power through shorter gearing than cars I’ve had with significantly less torque, but it feels slower than just about all of them in normal driving.
It’s probably not to bad. My folks drove my Camaro up here from the Bahamas.
It’s nice to see some content get posted during the weekend, when folks have a bit more time to read over morning coffee. 🙂 Thanks for this Chris!
I like the looks of this safari’d S2000… but then again, most everything looks better to me if it has small steelies and chonky tires. 😉 It pulls off the look (and function too, it seems) quite well, and reminds me of course of all the safariesqe/post-apocolypse Miatas I’ve seen, including more than a few in person (a red one with the wheel arches cut to accomodate massive rubber used to park at the Burbank Costco pretty regularly).
I test drove an S2000 when they were for sale new, and it was nice but not epic to me. The salesguy invited me to get the revs up so I did (a bit) but most of the time it felt more or less like a two-seat Civic. This was before I owned any Miatas, and in retrospect I will say that the S2000 felt more firmly screwed together than either of the NA or NB Miatas I’ve had, especially the interior.
I gather (?) that the brief period when the S2000 got a bigger (2.4 liter was it?) engine is considered a bit antithetical to the car’s ethos, but 2.3-2.5 liter naturally aspirated fours are regularly among my fave motors, and I presume they’d be torquey around town without having to rev it into the stratosphere to feel anything. Sadly, S2000 prices are so high that it’s unlikely I’ll ever own one myself, even one of the less desirable models… plus, I still have a NA Miata in the garage.
Thanks again Chris! 🙂