Ben's S2000 Build – Part I

Uncategorized : August 5, 2008

I became employed by National Speed back in February. That was the first time I’d seen Ben’s 00 Honda S2000. The car was bone stock and made for the perfect daily driver…until Ben tore it apart piece by piece. Apparently Ben not only enjoys tuning cars, but also taking them apart. To be perfectly honest, I think he might be out of his mind when it comes to “modifying” cars. We’ll get into the nitty gritty later on, but for this post I’ll give you a rough overview of what Ben’s S2000 has gone through.

The S2000 under the knife

It all started with “removing the air conditioning.” The compressor was broken which meant it was time for Doctor Ben to put the car under the knife. This would be the first of many “procedures,” and before you know it the entire engine bay was completely gutted. Since then the car has turned into a huge project. Ben wants over 600 horsepower, which’ll help push the car around race courses like VIR.

Out on the track

As of this week Ben’s decided to completely remove the interior and re-wire everything in the harness. From the looks of it he’s managed to make the car run off four or five wires. I’m telling you, this guy has some serious A.D.D. The second it looks like the car is about to go back together, he finds something else to improve.

The engine bay in process

Some of the highlights of this build are:

  • Turbonetics GTK 650 with tangential divided T4 turbine housing turbocharger
  • National Speed sidewinder turbo manifold (t4 divided)
  • National Speed intake manifold
  • MoTec m800 standalone
  • Spoon sports hardtop
  • D2 suspension

The mods list is long and I could go on forever, but I think you get the picture. Ben is crazy.

This won’t be the last blog about Ben’s car, and honestly, I sometimes question if he’ll ever be officially “done” with it. I mean seriously, who does this kind of thing to a perfectly good car? Not to mention this is his only car, so if you ever see Ben on the side of the road please be nice and give him a lift. I swear the guy has voices in his head telling him not to stop until it’s an all out racecar. But then again if that gets him a good time at VIR maybe that’s not such a bad thing.