Dear Honda

139 reasons not to kill the S2000

On April 16^th, 2011, I had the privilege of eating dinner with 229 other Honda S2000 enthusiasts. In total, 139 of your most fun, amazing, drivable roadsters ever created, met at a remote resort in the North Carolina mountains for the very same reason: to drive on one of the most exciting roads in the Eastern United States, if not the entire country - the Tail of the Dragon.

The parking lot at Fontana Village Resort.

My husband, Taylor, and I started our journey in the early morning hours of April 14^th in Tampa, FL. We met up with our local S2000 group of about 15 other cars and made our way on what would become the best trip we had ever taken in our entire lives.

Our friends, Caleb and Stephanie.

After two days of traveling and driving some incredibly curvy and picturesque roads, we arrived at Fontana Village Resort to celebrate with fellow “S” owners in the annual “Wake the Dragon” event. It’s an event that has happened every year for the past 9 years with no plans of it ever stopping. We will not quit, even if you have.

The afternoon of April 15^th would prove to be an combination of adrenaline rushes, nervous giggling, heavy concentration, and some very strong G forces as my husband and I made our first attempt at taming the Dragon. It was an exhilarating top-down ride through unbelievably tight turns, and rolling hills with incredible acceleration and quick braking at almost all the same time. If you haven’t driven a road like this, it’s hard to explain the rush of emotions you feel. Fear, excitement, nervousness, and joy all rolled into each other.

I leaned back in my seat and looked at the beautiful mountains and trees that stood before us while our “S” laid claim to the pavement, hugged the turns, and tore up the straights. It was a thing of beauty. The perfect synergy of nature and machine. Nature in its chaos and disorder and machine in its preciseness and perfection, created a symphony of sites and sounds as we wound our way through the Dragon.

That following evening, 139 S2000’s; 230 people, convened at a banquet hall and shared pictures and stories of our travels and adventures all with the same underlying theme: the love of a car that you chose to stop making.

I don’t care if it’s for economic or global climate reasons that you chose to stop production. The point is that your assumptions are wrong. There is still a market for this car. There is still a desire for this car. There is still a need for this car! Yes, you need this car just as much as we do.

If you want to claim you’re stopping production on it because you want to focus on more gas-economical cars, again, your supposition is incorrect. The owners that converged on the Fontana resort in North Carolina that weekend were from all over North America. There were at least 30 people from Florida, several from Ohio, Illinois, South Carolina, Georgia and even a group that came all the way down from Ontario, Canada. We are all well-aware of the price of gas these days and we still made the trip and we did it happily because at the end of the day, these cars make us smile.

They are amazing pieces of machinery and I’m sure I’m not the only person that views them as works of art. From an aesthetic perspective, there is NO better looking roadster out there. You cannot convince me otherwise; nothing out there stacks up. Some people might contend the Porsche Boxster is a thing of beauty or that the BMW Z3 or Z4 far surpass the looks of the S2000. I would be quick to tell them they are wrong. I can tell that Honda didn’t take the design of the S lightly at all.

Which is why we are all left pondering: How can you, Honda, walk away from a car that means so much to so many people? How can you so easily theorize that all the world wants are econobox Civics and gas-sipping SUVs? The bottom line is that you can’t throw all of the world’s consumers into a box and expect them to be okay with it. I’ve seen far too many S2000s lovingly doted on by their owners to ever believe that the market for fun, exciting, dare I say it, fast 2-seaters is disappearing. The only things that are quickly disappearing are cars that exhilarate us.

The S is dying and you’re allowing it to happen. It’s only a matter of time before the world is down to a handful of properly working S2000s and eventually, those too will fade away. Without you, this car’s glory days are all but behind it.

I wish I could competently convey to you what it felt like to be sitting in a banquet hall with 229 other people that all love and respect these cars as much as I do. To feel that kinship and celebrate these machines together in such a grand yet intimate setting is something that is forever branded into my heart. It is a memory, an emotion, a feeling that will never leave me for as long as I live.

The morning of April 17th arrived and my husband and I packed up our car and made the grueling 12 hour journey back home. For a long time, I was silent. I quietly reflected back on the days that recently passed and I wanted to continue reliving them. Just for one moment more. I’d give anything to be back there on that mountain, slaying the Dragon and feeling the cold wind nip at my cheeks as we tucked into each turn and roared down the straights. I fought back the tears of a stupidly emotional woman who gets too sentimentally attached to inanimate objects like our beloved S. But I can’t help it. To me, that car has soul. You, dear Honda, breathed the breath of life into it the moment it rolled off the factory floor. And to think that soul may one day pass from this earth hits me right in the pit of my stomach.

Our friends, Jack and Cris, navigating the winding mountain roads.

Your discontinuation of the Honda S2000 leaves all of us enthusiasts with more questions than answers. The only thing we really know is that you have made the decision to stop making a car that has more value and is more highly revered than you may even realize. Please understand that 230 is only a small percentage of the population that owns or has owned an S2000. Do some research, collect data, and get some measurable metrics on the collective population. You would be amazed at the interest this car holds. Visit www.s2ki.com, or check out www.killboy.com which has its own separate section devoted specifically to the S! To turn a blind eye to the incredible amount of people that have a passion for this car would be irresponsible. My only wish is that you will look back on this and understand what a huge mistake you made.

To you, it’s just a car.   To us….it’s something inexplicably greater.

Sincerly,
J. Royal

Owner of "Elvis" a 2007 Laguna Blue Honda S2000

Our treasured S2000.

(The author of this blog is "LittleBlueS2" and her husband is "Evil S2K" on the S2KI forums.)



Introductions

When I first met my husband, Taylor, 8+ years ago, I never thought that the shy boy that sat on my couch and watched countless movies with me would become my best friend and take me on some of the most memorable trips of my life.

And it all started with a car......

September of 2003, my then-boyfriend (now-husband) was in the market for another car.  His Eclipse finally crapped out on him and he was tired of the unpredictable Mitsubishi and was on the hunt for something fun, reliable, somewhat fast, handled well and blue.  Yes.... blue.  He has a thing for blue.

He flipped back and forth between a Dodge SRT4, and the Mazdaspeed Protege.  I very seriously told him that if he bought an SRT4, I would break up with him.  Even though I knew very little about cars, I thought the SRT4 was, quite possibly, the nerdiest car I've ever seen.

The final decision was made when he spotted a Laser Blue Mica Mazdaspeed Protege on the lot of our local Mazda dealership.  It had just been shipped in and was as sparkly as anything I've ever seen.  It was instant love for my husband.

It's been 7 1/2 years since he bought that car.  And we still have it.  It sits proudly in our driveway and greets us each morning.  It's not as quick as it once was, but *knock on wood*, we've never had some of the problems some people have had with their Mazdaspeeds or MSP's as we like to call them.  It squeaks, has the notorious "clunk", rattles, and sometimes bogs out but it still chugs along and gets us where we're going.  All of those things are easily resolved with some much-needed TLC and repairs.  For a car that has over 80,000 miles on it, I have no complaints.

The car has become a part of our family.  After so many years of service and so many miles, I don't know how it couldn't be.  We've travelled to Atlanta countless times in it.  It's been to Petit Lemans at Road Atlanta a few times.  It's been to Sebring, Daytona, Miami, Orlando, and countless other places and has delivered us there safely and comfortably.

I have a bad habit of becoming emotionally attached to inanimate objects.  But it's like Jeremy Clarkson said in Eric Bana's documentary "Love the Beast" (and I'm paraphrasing): when you consider all of the people that have touched a car in its production stages, there's no way a car cannot roll out of a factory without having a little bit of each person's soul injected into it.  And I firmly believe that.

Our car's name is "Blue".  Simple and straight to the point.  I've always named all of my cars.  My first car was a 1988 white Jeep Cherokee.  I named it "Chuck".  I like the alliteration - "Chuck the Cherokee". 

"Blue" is also a male.  Don't ask why; I'm just weird and assume that most cars are male.  So I refer to "Blue" as "he".  And "he" has attitude, spunk and personality.  He beeps at you when he's angry - okay, okay, it's because of the shock sensor in the alarm, but I like to pretend it's because he's got spunk - and sometimes if you press the doorlock just so, the alarm will go off while you're driving down the street.  I've suspected a time or two that he could, in fact, be the reincarnation of Herbie the Love Bug.... only cooler.... and not a VW Beetle, but you get my point.

As I confessed before, I know very little about a car and how it works.  I know what wheels are, how to check the oil, where the exhaust pipe is, what a belt looks like and can even point out where the turbo is on Blue.  Other than that, I'm a little out of my element.  But aesthetically, I know what I like.  I believe that some cars are true works of art.  But that is for another post at another time.

The purpose of this blog is to document the places we've been and the people we've met along the way.  We've travelled to some pretty interesting places and met some very wonderful people who I'm glad to now call my friends.  And it's all thanks for a little blue Mazda that caught my husband's eye all those years ago.

In the words of Will Ferrell in the movie "Old School":  "You're my boy, Blue!"