Rumour Mill: Honda S3000 in the works?

[Gman333-X-ferrari]

Originally Posted by Road and Track Magazine

A typhoon of rumors has been swirling around Honda's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, about the company's next generation of sports cars. While we have already seen spy photos of the future NSX, we have not seen anything about the next-generation S2000. A source close to the company revealed that Honda is indeed in the process of building such a car, but wouldn't disclose specific details.

The OSM (Open Study Model) concept car definitely raised some eyebrows recently at the London show, but that car was just a convertible version of the CR-Z hybrid sports car shown at the Tokyo Motor Show last year. The OSM was penned by Honda's European design team, and our people tell us that the real S2000 successor will have much more influence and input from Japan. Also, the CR-Z and OSM have been engineered as front-engine/front-wheel-drive models, and the S2000 successor will no doubt be a rear-wheel-drive car. So apparently the OSM has nothing to do with the S2000 successor. Or does it...?

There's the possibility that the OSM may very well be a design study of the next S2000, wearing the veil of an open-top CR-Z to throw us off. There was also a sighting of a mysterious prototype sports car near Honda's R&D headquarters in Japan that seemed to share the OSM's proportions, yet looked completely different. Could this be another design study of the S2000? We think so, so we took pieces of that car, melded it with the OSM and came up with this image, a handsome car with an Audi R8-esque face, a long hood and a profile reminiscent of the current S2000.

As for what will go under the hood is still unclear. There have been rumors that Honda may equip the car with a V-6, perhaps a new 3.0-liter or the 3.5-liter in the Acura TL, thus the name S3000. In the U.S., this makes sense because it would give the car much more low-end torque (something we Americans love), not to mention improved smoothness and quietness for freeway driving.

With such an engine, you can expect power to be in the 280- to 300-bhp vicinity, enabling a 0–60 run in the sub-5-second range. The more probable choice is a 2.2- to 2.5-liter inline-4. Honda, which has traditionally shied away from big-displacement powerplants, may feel that a 4-cylinder engine makes more marketing sense in this age of high gasoline prices. There's also talk of a simple hybrid system.

Only those directly involved with the next-generation S2000 project know for sure what the car will be like. We'll know for sure in 2011, after Honda releases the NSX and CR-Z.

Source

After nearly ten years, and countless awards and acclaim, Honda's finally thinking about a successor to the S2000. They had better not stuff it up, lol.

The concept looks very good, and I'm interested to see which engine Honda does choose to implement in the car.

[Rokovak]

I remember back before the S2000 came out it was originally going to be named the SSX and come with an inline-5. I couldn't have cared less about the name, but I still think a 5 cylinder is worth looking into.

[Wizegui]

Hmmmm S3000 = 3.0L V6? It could be an interesting concept, though it is hard to imagine the sucessor of this roadster to have such a big engine...

[fbc]

As a huge fan of the S2000, I just hope they don't get it wrong. I can understand them wanting it to have more torque - and a 3.0L V6 should be capable of matching the sheer banshee-wailing, rev-the-nuts-off-it insanity of the current S2000 motor - the catch will be how much extra weight the V6 would bring to the front end.

[WellsieTRD]

[Wizegui]

Originally Posted by fbc

As a huge fan of the S2000, I just hope they don't get it wrong. I can understand them wanting it to have more torque - and a 3.0L V6 should be capable of matching the sheer banshee-wailing, rev-the-nuts-off-it insanity of the current S2000 motor - the catch will be how much extra weight the V6 would bring to the front end.

Perhaps a bigger four cylinder motor would be in order? A V6 would give it a lot more torque and low end grunt, but it might add more weight and possibly ruin the weight distribution.

[Ottobon]

Considering the boring old Honda Accords make nice engine noises i can only hope that this is even better. Could be really good, just hope they don't make it too heavy, or more importantly, too front heavy.

[Disciple]

Well Honda have the 3.5L V6 with DOD technology they could probably use. Providing that engine isn't too heavy that'd cure the enviromentalist side of things.

[torqueless]

tiny tiny v8 that revs to 12.

[SL65]

In a market where many cars have 3.2 and 3.5's under their hoods - a 3.0L might be a good compromise between torque and weight. Just depends how Honda make it.

I'm a big fan of the S2000. Its aged so well! And its interior is so driver focussed. Its a very distinct car!

[colddayin-hell]

Makes me think too much of a BMW aesthetically.

A new BMW that is.

It'll probably go nice though being a Hon-dar.

[chaos386]

Man, what's with the S cars getting bigger and bigger as time goes by? First the S360 became the S500, then the S600, S800, S2000, and now S3000? Why not just cut to the chase and put SBCs in them at the factory?


All joking aside, if they put a 3.0L inline six into it with ~325 hp, I'll be very happy. Even something like a 2.5L I-4 would be nice, as long as it revs high. If they just shoved their 3.5L V6 in there, it'd be kind of a shame, since there are already plenty of grunty V6 sports cars out there (350/370z, Genesis, TT, SLK350, soon to be Camaro, etc).

[AshDav]

i've been admiring the pictures for a while
very sexy car
and good to see it'll have more torque
hopefully they can hold onto those endless revs the s2000 is renowned for

just had a thought though
the back of the car has a hint of the bmw 6 series
the boot is a different shape to the curved back, and if you look at it with the 6 series in mind, its sort of similar

[Homer_Bart]

^The boot is humped in such a weird way to provide extra boot space, as I've heard from one of a car deisgn video featuring Mr Bangle of BMW explaining his car designs.

[NooDle]

DO VERY WANT

[prizrak]

Give it some torque and force feed it and we'll talk

[matt2000]

Anyone see Mazda MX-5 in that?

Looks great, and of course, buyers will be nothing but satisfied.

[Redliner]

The idea of a high-revving 3.0L line-6 engine sounds good. I bet Honda has the technology to make it fit without adding much weight.

[DTMracer]

A higher capacity 4-cylinder engine that revs to 9K would be awesome for the S3000. I'm not sure a V6 really works with the philosophy of the S2000 sports car.

[thedguy]

I seriously doubt Honda would spend the money to develop an I-6 just for this car. The current F20/F22c engines are heavily based off of other engines in their lineup.

I hope they take their V6 and tweak it above what's in other cars, rather than pull a GM/Ford/Chrysler and take what they have and shove it in a rwd car and call it sporty. Honda's S cars have ALWAYS reved very high, I expect nothing less of the S2000's successor.

I'd wager on, and much rather see, them stick with a worked over K24 (perhaps from the RDX turbo) and shave some weight out of the car.