You can take your hat off

ALASTAIR SLOANE watches the covers come off a Japanese car that promises to dent a few top-marque reputations.

Honda took the top off its S2000 sports car yesterday, its 50th birthday present to itself and soft-top enthusiasts.

The car, unveiled at Honda Broadway in Auckland, will cost around $70,000 and Honda has already pre-sold about 30 models.

The front-engined, rear-drive S2000 is powered by a 2-litre, four-cylinder engine which produces 180kW at 8300 rpm and is mated to a slick six-speed gearbox.

This LEV (low emissions) engine is an indirect product of Honda's Formula One workshop and, per litre, is the most powerful in Honda's history.

The DOHC unit uses Honda's acclaimed VTEC variable timing system and revs like a motorcycle, spinning freely to 9000 rpm and producing peak pulling power at 7500 rpm. The S2000 is especially lively when driven hard high in the rev range, but through the gears around town it needs constant monitoring.

Some people have said the "Fear of Europe" advertising campaign some years ago for the Honda Civic should have been kept for the S2000. It is indeed a special car and will punch holes in a few reputations. For a start, it sprints quicker than German soft-tops with bigger engines, like the 2.5-litre Porsche Boxster, 2.3-litre Mercedes-Benz SLK and the 2.8-litre BMW Z3.

Its high-speed handling and poise gave the BMW a hard time on Honda's testing ground in Japan last year.

The sweet BMW straight-six engine had a better spread of pulling power and the Z3 needed less input from the driver. But its dated rear suspension bucked and kicked at speed through on- and off-camber corners, and the car itself was so much more difficult to settle than the S2000.

The Boxster provided sterner opposition, its 53:47 weight split over the front and rear axles closer to the 50:50 balance enjoyed by the S2000.

However, the five-speed manual Boxster in New Zealand is nearly $50,000 more expensive than the S2000.

In a nutshell, the two-seater S2000 has few rivals. The soft-top body is taut and the controls - including the red push-button starter and the milled aluminium gearshift knob - are works of precision. Same with the seats, which are suitably snug and supportive; so snug that there is little storage room in the cockpit for anything larger than a wine bottle.

The soft-top roof mechanism works well but the rubber tonneau which covers the folded-down roof can be clumsy to handle and store.

The instrument cluster includes a digital tachometer, only because the small steering wheel would prevent a clear view of traditional analogue dials. This is one of the very few disappointments.