Edward Loh: We are at the Street of Willow with the 2008 Honda S2000 CR. Now CR stands for Club Racer because what Honda has done is given this S2000 a wholesome improvements and make it perform at its best at the race track.
As you can see it looks a lot different. It has got revised front and rear fascias and that huge wing you see on the back. What's more important, is what they have done on the handling side. They have given this car a quicker steering ratio. They have also revised the suspension, thicker stabilizer bars, stiffer springs and shocks as well as given it stickier tires. These are Bridgestone re70 it has got, versus the re50 on the stock version. The S2000 CR also has gone through significant weight reduction. It has lost its radio, air conditioning, as well as the soft top. In its place there is rear stabilizing bar.
The top you see on there is removable and Honda says we taken everything away to loose about a 100 pounds. How well all this translate to the race track, lets go find out.
Okay, we are here in the 2008, Honda S2000 CR, at the Streets of Willow race track, looks how she goes. As we head out on this track. Okay, I have already explained all the improvements in the S2000 CR. The bigger stickier wheels, the aero improvements, the stabilizer bars at the back, but the big thing you notice in this car is how well she turns in. That is due to the vastly improved steering ratio and the suspension. This thing has great firmer springs and dampers as well as much thicker stabilizer bars, more genius at every corner. Here we go to another corner, another opportunity to try it and again sticks like glue.
This car is great on this kind of race tracks, very tight, very twisting. Let us get the tail in down if you want to. Another great feature about this car, that's found only on the CR, is this power level indicator. It is green light that comes on about 2000 RPM, before the road limit, let's you know when you are in that sweet spot. It doesn't tell you when the de-track engages, but it does sort of match up and you could see it as we come out of this, bolt on to the back straight, green light is blinking, to hit the limiter, headed towards end, again lots of confidence in here, because of that great brakes. Onto the brake, downshift, take a quick flick and we are out of it. There we go another turn, same thing downshift, come around, fly down a little bit, nice little drift, coming through here, back on right turn, on the skidpad, over that and that is a hard lap of the S2000 CR.
So after the day of lapping the S2000 CR, I got to say I am very, very impressed. It is my first time driving it out here and out there on the Streets of Willow it performs phenomenally. It has got a lot of stick, a lot of grip, give a little brake away and give you some quick, some small drifts if you need it, if you want it, it is all there. The biggest improvement for me that I notice is how much better the turning is and that's due to the stickier tiers, the stiffer suspension and that quicker steering ratio.
There are a couple of things I am not too bigger fan of; they are mainly to do with the styling. I don't really like the big front end and that huge wing on the back. Even though Honda says, it is functional. Out here on streets it is a real tight quick course; there is not a really long street, like there isn't big track. Can't really tell, if you go to big track racing might be for you. If you are a race car driver or you want to be, this is a really good place to start. It's about $38,000 for what you get. If you don't have the radio, no air conditioning through occasion it, you go run in SCCA or NASA. So over all, S2000 CR great for the track enthusiasts.
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