FR-S vs RX-8 vs S2000 Review - Everyday Driver

[suaveflooder]

GREAT REVIEW!!! I agree! I love the S2000. It was my top pick! I chose the FRS because I didn't want a convertible and the gas mileage sucked for a 4 banger

[Sonolin]

Yea this was a great review! I love these guys

I am a little dumfounded they picked the s2000 & rx-8 over the fr-s. In my opinion, the fr-s is the better everyday driver... isn't that their channel name, lol?

Anyway, I agree the s2000 is a better sports car than the fr-s. Never driven an rx-8 but heard great things about them. I just couldn't deal with the rotary & fuel mileage myself. And I'm much more of an rx7 fan - lighter & turbo.

[tennisfreak]

Add 35-40 more hp to the FR-S and most of these splitting hairs go out the window.

I would have instantly bought a new S2000 if it was still sold and offered in a hard top.

Since its not (and I hate convertibles) the FR-S is an easy pick. I certainly dont mind spending several grand on her to get that missing hp .

[Razz]

Originally Posted by tennisfreak

Add 35-40 more hp to the FR-S and most of these splitting hairs go out the window.

I would have instantly bought a new S2000 if it was still sold and offered in a hard top.

Since its not (and I hate convertibles) the FR-S is an easy pick. I certainly dont mind spending several grand on her to get that missing hp .

But then add 30-40 HP to the S2000 or RX-8 and they are spinning circles around you.

It never ends....

[Sonolin]

Originally Posted by Razz

But then add 30-40 HP to the S2000 or RX-8 and they are spinning circles around you.

It never ends....

Yea I've seen s2000's with 240 whp on dyno with just e85 and some bolt ons. We're at ~205 with the same mods...

Add forced induction into the ring and the difference just becomes more substantial.

f20c > fa20

[Superhatch]

Originally Posted by redcelica

so get a daily

I don't have the space for a daily and a fun car and a project car. The BRZ being able to be a DD fun car for me allowed me space/money for a project car as well.

As noted above, if the S2K was a hardtop I -might- have made some compromise for it. It's still one of the most amazing cars on the market, and one of the best cars Honda ever made. I do wonder why they never made a Type R version though.

[TouchMyHonda]

Originally Posted by Sonolin

Yea I've seen s2000's with 240 whp on dyno with just e85 and some bolt ons. We're at ~205 with the same mods...

Add forced induction into the ring and the difference just becomes more substantial.

f20c > fa20

Give it time. The f20C is honestly not that great of an engine in terms of great Honda engines. For the longest time people were able to make much more whp off of them and are just starting to in the last few recent years.

[Sonolin]

Originally Posted by TouchMyHonda

Give it time. The f20C is honestly not that great of an engine in terms of great Honda engines. For the longest time people were able to make much more whp off of them and are just starting to in the last few recent years.

Yea, I'm hoping we can squeeze some more out of the fa20 with just bolt ons.

I was very surprised people are getting 240whp on those engines! From what I remember a few years ago they didn't respond that great to mods.

I think to get close to that output though, we're going to need internal engine work. But we can hope.

[forzajuve]

Not much bias and they seemed more than fair. Power is the typical criticism for the twins, however, with a top shelf exhaust, cai and tune upgrade you can easily get +30-40 whp out of these cars.

[tennisfreak]

Originally Posted by Razz

But then add 30-40 HP to the S2000 or RX-8 and they are spinning circles around you.

It never ends....

That was not my point.

My point was the FR-S needs more horsepower not the S2000 or RX-8. If the FR-S had 230-240hp like the S200/RX-8 it would be perfect.

I have no problem investing a little to get my FR-S there.

[Flufffyninja]

A couple of posts I put on s2ki in the last few months:

Well I got the S2000 past the 100,000 mile mark this evening on the way home. I bought it in 2002 as a new second hand. I can't say I've loved every minute of it but it has been a cracking motor and has played a significant part in my life. Some good, some not so good but all an experience.

I'll start with the bad:
Heavy right foot had me rotating up the M56 in the wet within the first 1000 miles of owning the car. I'd love to be able to blame it on diesel, or tyres but actually was a very heavy right foot and no idea how to drive the car properly. Lesson learnt early and before I joined here so not too much ridicule

The half dozen breakdowns due to the "improved" alarm system fitted by Honda UK. How that was ever signed off I'll never know. Total dogs dinner of a system.

Dishonest and slap dash mother humpers that are Honda UK. Refusing to honor there contracted warranty because they're lazy bar stewards and can't be bothered to follow their own systems. Some body work was fixed by Honda (see spin above) and then started to rust T&Cs state it's covered by warranty since repaired by them. Dealer that repaired it went seriously downhill. Trying to sell work that wasn't needed, refusing to contact me when I was trying to get quotes for work to be done; basically if it wasn't warranty or servicing (I.e. cash cows) they weren't interested. Voted with my feet and went to a different dealer. When I went to get the dodgy repair work Honda insisted I go to the original dealer who promptly put 236miles on the clock. Zero interest from Honda in resolving the issue.

Now for the good:
Getting involved with such a great group of people on here. I've met some truly great friends. Partied hard with some, shot others (in a good way ). Some have given me a bed for the night, helped with job hunting, had some cracking nights online gaming or even just popped over for a cheeky pint. Been to a couple of weddings and had people come to mine. People of S2KI I salute you :kiss:

Been to some brilliant meets. JAEs, I've been to several and had a great time drinking, dancing and eating dodgy pseudo Japanese food. Having a group tug in public with a group of like minded individuals and generally acting like reprobates. XMs, I've been to nearly all and broken more than a few people with smuggled in Absynthe. MM1 with a huge number of other cars and muppets. North Wales meet with about 15 cars all flooring it in the Conwy tunnels or getting airbourne on a remote road. A mini meet around the evo triangle with some friends and having a damned fine day. I think safe to say I've been more one for the drinking and social meets than the driving meets but its been a blast

Finding out the positions it is possible to get into in a 2 sweater convertible

Forking out for the photos of Soapy and the many Lessing it up sessions by the S2k girls for charity
Naked hot tub parties with beer and cigars (and no I'm not making this sh!t up)

Driving with the roof down at midnight on a crisp winter night and finding I love it or being stuck in gently moving traffic on a warm spring day and feeling very chilled

A friend who's a rally navigator giving me pace notes and having so much fun scaring myself silly.

Getting shed loads of thumbs up and nice car mates from people and no oi w@nkers for driving a 2 sweater convertible.

I've also learnt a lot whilst I've been on here:
The adage "empty cans make the most noise" is still true and be careful who you listen to on here. Some people think they know more than they do.

Read the "read this first" thread. There really is a reason it exists so save yourself the pish taking.

If the passenger window doesn't work check the switch before asking

Dry humping when a new woman is sighted on the threads is not attractive

Projectile vomiting vertically upwards is messy although by all accounts impressive. Make sure someone is videoing it next time

Probably a bunch more I'll think of once I've posted this.

To all of those enjoying there cars on here keep the faith

[Flufffyninja]

I've had the GT86 for just over a week now and I thought I'd give it a bit of a review.

It's difficult to give the engine a fair review at the moment since I'm still running it in but from the drive I had in one of the manager cars it lacked that dynamite kick you get when the Honda went into VTEC. That said it seems a very tractable engine and more eager to pull from low revs. It's also far more refined. No low speed kangarooing or any of the low speed handling issues the F20C had. I've been in the habit of blipping the throttle before pulling away at low speeds as a work around to ease the low speed handling but no need in this. There's also that lovely boxer burble from this engine. Lastly and least importantly I'm getting about 33mpg which I reckon I used to get about 25mpg in the Honda. Always a bonus

Gearbox. Slightly longer throw than the Honda but feel is good. Was a little notchy the first few miles but smoothing up nicely with a few miles on. I saw reviews for 500k cars that were compared less than favourably to the S it was that good. This isn't far behind; it is that good.

I'm beginning to push the chassis a little more. Not significantly but just enough to start getting a decent feel. It's a go-kart! Flat, very little roll at all. Stiff but supple. On crappy roads you're going to feel the bumps but not knocking my teeth out and certainly no scuttle shake. Not felt the need to start turning traction control off but it's early days yet. My favourite definition of the difference between under steer and oversteer is "under steer is when you disappear through a hedge forwards and oversteer is when you disappear through the hedge backwards". The car is new and not run in and the roads aren't wide and empty enough so far for me to start really hooning it. Let me give it a week or two more before I start with the drifting god lines

Interior quality is good to most things you touch. There's a row of switches for the air con that feel a little flimsy but are ok and look nice and I'm sure will last ok. Design is good too. Most controls are where you need them to be without going for a search and there are nice touches like a cubby by the USB input that fits an iPod nicely or a slot in the centre console that fits my samsung s3 perfectly. The kensei of the interior is nice too. Not found anything that jars badly but tempted to get one of my old check sheets out to try it out on.

Practicality is good. Loads of space in the boot. Had a full shopping trolley in the boot without having to resort to dropping rear seats. Truely large once you do that.

Audio is ok. A bit bassey. £1000 for the audio upgrade is a bit steep. The satnav system works well and the interface to my mobile and Internet system works brilliantly. Some of the apps take the wee-wee a bit with price though and need to play around with downloading. Shame you can't network to download directly and instead have to download to pc and then copy to the satnav.

[Flufffyninja]

And to those that say the s2000 isn't practical...........I moved house in mine. Everything I owned. Amazing the headroom with a convertible

[jamesm]

This review doesn't apply to any of us. This assumes your going to buy the vehicle and drive it as is until you sell it. If they factored in possibilities in the aftermarket, the s2k and fr-s would be tight, but easily blow away the rx8. Those things make virtually no power with mods, and blow up if you look at them sideways. S2k and fr-s are very evenly matched with equal help from the aftermarket.

In any case the Honda is just a damn good car. My sister drives a supercharged one, and it's nasty. If it came with back seats I may have picked one up instead of the fr-s.