[Secondhandloser]

Originally Posted by eriktherod

Well, stock for stock is one entirely different debate. Once you start talking about modding and such, you enter a different realm.

Not to dog the S2000, while I never owned one I wish I would have had the chance to. I did have a K20 Si that I did a bunch of bolt-on work to, and many S2000 owners were jealous that I was able to crank as much power as I could for the reasonable about of money I spent. $250 aem intake, $700 2.5" race header, $600 3" catback exhaust, $200 mounts, $200 pulleys, $700 ecu reflash kit. So for roughly $2650 I was able to crank another 50whp out of that thing. A good exhaust for the S2000 might cost you half of all that.

While it remains to be seen what the FA20 in the FRS/BRZ can do, I'd be willing to wager there's a ridiculous amount of bottled up power there (like all Subby's) compared to the F20C in the S2000.

You also have to take into consideration the engine design. The S2000 was an oversquare (larger bore than stroke length) motor, while the FA20 is a square (86x86) architecture.. so the FRS/BRS has an advantage with low-end power. The F20C will rev easier, but the FA20 only needs to get to 7000 so it's not as big a deal.

It's fairly well known that the F-series motors were far more optimized from Honda than the B/H/K series were. Not 'maxed out' from the factory, but it took a lot of effort to get gains from them, comparatively. While it remains to be seen how the FA20 will fare, I have a hunch that there will be a lot to gain for relatively cheap.

Stock for stock, the S2000 may be a better option, but if you plan to mod, the FRS/BRZ seems like a better choice to me. On top of all that, you're dealing with a newer tech motor on the FRS/BRZ. Direct injection will be an interesting addition to the ECU tuning process, I can't wait to see what we'll be getting with a little tune here and there.

Both the fa and the f will require boost to do anything meaningful, and the f20c is very much proven to love boost.