“Never judge a book by its cover.”
“Walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.”
“Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”
Those are different ways of saying the same thing: don’t rush to judgement. Great advice, but we don’t always follow it. We’re human. Sometimes we get a preconceived notion about someone or something and it’s hard to shake. For almost a decade, I had the first-series (AP1) Honda S2000 pegged all wrong. A long road trip changed the way I looked at it and other cars.
The history of the S2000 starts in 1995. At the Tokyo Motor Show, Honda displayed a Pininfarina-designed concept car known as the SSM (Sport Study Model), a small two-seater with rear-wheel drive. Looking back on it, it’s clear that most of the spirit and styling of the SSM survived during the S2000’s development process and made its way into the production car, which came out as a 2000 model that was produced through 2009. There were some casualties, though, such as the grille with the central “H” badge, low-mounted headlights, exaggerated roll hoops, and thick-walled exhaust outlets. The most significant of those were the 2.0-liter five-cylinder engine and the F-Matic semi-automatic gearbox offered in the Honda NSX.
The S2000 may have had one fewer cylinder, but it made up for the loss with a 240-horsepower, 153-lb-ft 2.0-liter I4 with VTEC that revved to an eye-widening 9,000-rpm redline and channeled its impressive output to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual transmission. Honda coupled that thrust with a “hybrid monocoque/frame structure,” a new double-wishbone front and rear independent suspension, and four-wheel disc brakes with 11-inch rotors.
For 2002, Honda updated the S2000 with several cosmetic and functional changes. Those included new colors, a glass rear window with a defroster, restyled taillights, an upgraded stereo, and adjustments to the transmission that made it smoother and quieter. My buddy Jake got one of the refreshed models in Suzuka Blue Metallic (a new addition to the color palette) as a high school graduation present.
Flash forward to 2011, a few years before I took a shot at writing about cars professionally. I was working at the reception desk of a pharmaceutical research company. Between checking in study volunteers and glances at my watch one day, I received a text message from Jake, who was an automotive design student in Pasadena, California at the time. He was visiting his parents in Austin, Texas and decided that he wanted to have his S2000 with him in SoCal. Luckily for me, he chose to get it there the fun way and had room for one more. “I’m going to drive the S2K back to Cali. Want to come with me?” In the cartoon world, there would’ve been a smoking, me-shaped hole in the wall closest to the parking lot.
Since I was not on Jake’s insurance, he was going to do all of the driving. The first day would take us from Austin to his relatives’ house in El Paso. The next, we would go from El Paso to Arizona. On the third and final day, Jake would get us to his place in Pasadena. Before we started the journey, we packed the trunk and even the space between my feet on the passenger side with the various housewares and accessories that would make Jake’s life easier once he was back at school – including a molcajete for making guacamole.
I had no complaints about only being a passenger. I knew how special the S2000 was to Jake and I certainly didn’t want anything to happen to it caused by my driving. Frankly, I had never totally warmed to the car. For some reason, I always thought it was too small for me, as if it were a toy car that I would have to wear around my hulking frame instead of sit in. I already knew it from zooming around with Jake during high school and college, but the hours and hours I spent riding shotgun in it during the trip to California further proved that the S2000 was perfectly roomy for a guy my size, which is completely average. It was not a Lotus Elise and I was not Arnold Schwarzenegger.
All that time in my blue leather bucket also showed me I was wrong about something else. I was excited to go with Jake on this adventure, but when I accepted his invitation, I was slightly concerned about spending so much time sedentary in a sports car. I was convinced my spine would be shattered and my legs would be numb by the time we reached our destination. Wrong again. At the end of day 3, I was amazed that I didn’t feel any cramps or aches. I emerged from the S2000 as if we had just run a quick errand.
A few years later, I became a freelance writer. This was well past the S2000’s final model year, but it was right when Mazda introduced the ND generation of the MX-5 Miata. Like the S2000, it was a Japanese, two-seater sports car with a four-cylinder engine, a manual transmission, and a soft top. But this time, I got the chance to drive it as part of a review. Was it small? Yes, but it wasn’t too small. I fit in it just fine, which was even better because after driving it to lunch and back to my apartment, I started thinking of excuses to take it out again. It was also comfortable – as I learned after taking it on a six-hour round trip from Austin to the Dallas area to get Penn Station sandwiches with my pal Dan.
These days, we see so many pictures and videos of new cars before they even go into production and way before we can possibly drive them. It’s a reflex to form opinions of them, but you never know what they’re truly like until you spend some time in them – even if you’re not the one driving.
What about you? Is there a car that you were completely wrong about it? If so, let us know what it was in the comments below.
