The Honda S2000 is iconic. A roadster that’s meant to be driven—and often modified—to squeeze every bit of performance from its 2.2-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder. Except for a certain ultra-low-mileage Club Racer example. Last seen trading hands for $200,000 in 2022, the Rio Yellow sports car is back on the auction block—and its current odometer shows just seven miles were added since it was last purchased.
With no reserve, the little Honda is again up for grabs on Bring a Trailer. As of this writing, the current highest bid is a smidge north of $100,000, but with nearly six days left until the auction timer reads zero, there’s plenty of time to reach, or maybe even exceed, its previous purchase price of 200 grand. Even if the proverbial gavel dropped right now, six figures is still quite a markup from the vehicle’s when-new listed MSRP of $38,465.
Other than a few extra miles driven and new scenery (from Indiana to Pennsylvania), nothing has changed about this time capsule. And I don’t know whether to be sad or in awe about it. Probably a little bit of both but probably just mostly sad. This is a car that begs to be on the road and to create memories with.
In our S2000 CR review, Chris Rosales wrote, “Sports cars need emotion.” How much emotion can one get from a vehicle standing still? Shigeru Uehara, the Honda legend of suspension and handling engineering responsible for the car even said, “Please take good care of your S2000, keep it by your side for long, and enjoy it from the bottom of your heart.” Is this S2000 owner’s idea of enjoying it from the bottom of their heart really just driving it seven miles in two years? If this vehicle is intended to be kept as a museum piece, then do that. Put it in a museum so that everyone can see what once was and could’ve been.
Private collections, however, seem to sap out the joy of driving, the enthusiasm of engineering, the fun of of drop-top freedom. But, nah, I get the feeling this was an investment meant to be flipped, a money grab.
The current owner, Nico2015, is an active member of the BaT community. In a 2021 interview, he said he wasn’t much of a collector. “I tried ‘Collecting’ in the traditional sense,” he told BaT. “But if I didn’t drive a car very much I felt sorry for it and sold it on for somebody else to enjoy.”
In the same breath, he also said, “I guess I have been collecting all my life because I’ve always had a bunch of cars but never really kept any – churn and burn. Loved driving different cars but never anything for more than a few years. Just kept rotating a dozen cars driving a thousand miles or so a year each. Then it became two dozen, then three, and so on! I wasn’t a good collector—more a driver.”
Unless it’s an impeccable S2000, which he wants to neither collect nor drive. Here’s hoping the next owner puts as much heart into this S2000 as Honda did.
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